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Review of Employee Performance Appraisals Process
2005-2006
Introduction
One of the responsibilities of an effective manager is to ensure that
all employees have an opportunity to receive performance feedback at
least annually. This concern was partially raised through the last
Public Service Employee Survey and again identified as part of the
Modern Management project at the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC).
The status of completed employee performance appraisals is maintained
as part of the PeopleSoft database.
Staff at the CGC includes the following groupings:
- Indeterminate
- Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners
- Terms and Seasonal
- Casuals
- Students
This review is being undertaken in response to concerns raised by
both CGC management and employees.
Review Objectives and Evaluation Methods
The objectives of this review are to:
- Determine whether employee performance appraisal are being
completed;
- Assess the control mechanisms to ensure that the process is in
place and working as intended;
- Recommend any opportunities to promote the completion of
employee performance appraisals and control mechanisms.
This review was based on the information gathered from the two basic
activities:
- Review the statistical data maintained in PeopleSoft;
- Interview various Regional Directors and Head Office supervisors
and managers who have responsibility for the completion of employee
performance appraisals.
Employee performance appraisals for Governor in Council appointees is
outside the scope of the CGC review.
Employee Performance Appraisal procedures
In general, the process is as follows:
- The employee and his supervisor or manager jointly develops a
goals and objectives statement.
- A performance review would be completed at the end of the year
regarding the agreed upon goals and objectives between the employee
and his supervisor or manager.
- PeopleSoft is updated to reflect the completed employee
performance appraisal.
- A copy of the employee performance appraisal is placed in the
employee’s personnel file.
PeopleSoft procedures for updating an employee performance appraisal
The procedure is as follows:
- Open PeopleSoft system
- Select the Employee Review screen
- Enter the employees name or PRI number to locate the employee’s
data file
- Select add a record and update the period reviewed (‘to’ and
‘from’ dates)
- Date stamp the employee performance appraisal (currently
Employee Services process only)
- Forward the employee performance appraisal to Human Resources to
be added to the employee’s personnel file.
The average time to update an employee performance appraisal in
PeopleSoft is three minutes.
Statistical Data maintained in PeopleSoft
The data captured was based on the PeopleSoft database as at August
9, 2005. There were 696 CGC employees eligible to receive a performance
appraisal.
Data indicated the following:
39% or 270 employees did not receive a performance appraisal as per
PeopleSoft.
- 62% or 168 indeterminate employees did not receive an appraisal.
A backlog in updating PeopleSoft was identified as one of the
reasons. Many employees had effective service dates in the early
1980’s and 1990’s. The oldest effective service date identified was
1971.
- 24% or 65 of those employees were either a term or seasonal
employee who may have received a performance appraisal but were
not reflected in PeopleSoft.
- 7% or 19 of those employees deemed to be casual status, and
a performance appraisal would have been completed only if there
was an issue to be addressed.
- 7% or 18 of those employees were either Governor in Council
appointees or new employees who are yet to receive a performance
appraisal.
- 54% or 376 employees had received an appraisal as per PeopleSoft
for FY 2003-2004 and prior years:
- 6% or 43 employees received a performance appraisal dated
prior to FY 1999-2000.
- 4% or 31 employees received a performance appraisal dated FY
2000-2001
- 13% or 91 employees received a performance appraisal dated
FY 2001-2002
- 19% or 132 employees received a performance appraisal dated
FY 2002-2003
- 11% or 79 employees received a performance appraisal dated
FY 2003-2004
- 7% or 50 employees had received an appraisal as per PeopleSoft
for FY 2004-2005
Interview comments with Regional and Head Office Supervisors and
Managers
General Comments
- Employee performance appraisals are completed for all CGC staff.
- Employee performance appraisals are completed for Casual staff
as warranted.
- Completed employee performance appraisal review timeframes
varied from division to division as they were based on one of the
following:
- Operational requirements
- The employee’s anniversary date
- The fiscal year
- The calendar year
Regional Comments
- The Thunder Bay regional operation completes employee
performance appraisals for all staff. PeopleSoft is updated for
indeterminate employees. For term employees, the narrative component
of the employee performance appraisals is completed, with a copy
being retained by both the employee and supervisor. PeopleSoft
database is not updated.
- The Bayport regional operation completes employee performance
appraisal for all staff, which was subsequently updated into
PeopleSoft.
- The Quebec regional operation completes employee performance
appraisals for all staff and updates PeopleSoft.
- The Prairies regional operation completes employee performance
appraisals for all staff, which is subsequently updated into
PeopleSoft.
- PeopleSoft is updated either by regional staff, Human Resources
consultant, or by Employee Services.
Head Office Comments
- Employee performance appraisals are completed for all
indeterminate staff
- In most cases all term employees receive an employee performance
appraisal
- In some cases, the length of the employee’s term was a deciding
factor used to determine if an employee received a performance
appraisal.
- In some cases, casual and students receive an employee
performance appraisal.
Control Mechanisms
The following mechanisms in place at Head Office are:
- For Head Office, each division is assigned to one of Employee
Services team members, who is responsible for updating PeopleSoft
- If Human Resources receives an employee performance appraisal,
with no date stamp to indicate that Employee Services had updated
PeopleSoft, the appraisal is returned to Employee Services to update
PeopleSoft
- The supervisor or manager’s team leader reviews most employee
performance appraisals, before the documents are forwarded to the
individual(s) responsible for updating PeopleSoft.
Comments
- All employees should receive a performance appraisal at least
annually. This would be a key indicator to both the employee and
manager / supervisor of whether the employee is meeting their goals
and objectives. It could also form a starting point from which they
could create future personal learning plans.
- The responsibility to ensure that all employees receive an
annual performance appraisal should be included in the manager /
supervisor’s goals and objectives. Most employees want to receive
regular feedback on how they are doing and how they could continue
to improve. This would not only act as a means to keep employees
motivated but it would keep the communication lines open and help to
ensure the role for employees, and managers / supervisors is known
and understood.
- No consistent reporting structure / mechanism appears to exist,
for both regional and head office manager / supervisors, to ensure
that PeopleSoft is updated for all completed employee performance
appraisals in a timely manner.
- No annual reports exists to provide managers / supervisors on
the status of their employee performance appraisals entered in
PeopleSoft.
Recommendations
- Employee performance appraisals should be completed at least
annually for each employee, which includes indeterminate, term /
seasonal, casual and students.
- Each employee who is responsible for managing staff should have,
as part of their goals and objectives, the requirement to ensure
that employee performance appraisals are completed annually.
- A mechanism needs to be developed to ensure that all completed
employee performance appraisals are entered in PeopleSoft.
- A system of reporting the completion of employee appraisals must
be developed which ensures that the CGC has the ability to track
completed appraisals and report results to the Executive Management
Committee.
- A roles and responsibility document needs to be developed to
ensure all employees who manage other employees clearly understand
the employee performance appraisal process.
Management Action Plan
The Management Action Plan is only
available in the PDF format. Refer to our PDF help page for
information on how to view, print and download PDF
documents.
If the document is not accessible to you, please contact
the library,
library@grainscanada.gc.ca, (204) 984-6336, 800-303
Main Street, Winnipeg MB R3C 3G8, for alternate formats
such as regular print or text file.