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

1. Employee performance appraisals should be completed at least annually for each employee, which includes indeterminate, term / seasonal, casual and students.
2. 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.
3. A mechanism needs to be developed to ensure that all completed employee performance appraisals are entered in PeopleSoft.
4. 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.
5. 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.

• Management Action Plan (PDF)

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.