Entering Comments and Ratings on Evaluations

This chapter provides an overview of evaluation data entry and discusses how to:

Record preliminary ratings.
Record performance notes.
Update evaluations.

Understanding Evaluation Data Entry

ePerformance is designed to support the complete performance and development process from planning to evaluation. An enterprise can implement the complete process or just portions of it. This chapter focuses on the part of the process where participants evaluate the employee's performance or development needs against the evaluation criteria.

This diagram shows the flow of the evaluation data entry process, assuming that you implement all options:

Evaluation data entry process

Preliminary Ratings

The capability to enter preliminary ratings for employees is available to managers only. These ratings are entered before the official rating data is entered in the manager's evaluation, and they are not entered on the evaluation—they are entered on the Preliminary Ratings page. This enables the manager to enter preliminary ratings at any time after the document is created, including during the Establish Criteria and Nomination steps.

Only documents that are In Progress appear on the Preliminary Ratings page.

Preliminary ratings are used to generate the Ratings Distribution Summary report, which enables managers and HR administrators to compare preliminary ratings with desired and actual rating distributions. Employees cannot see preliminary ratings.

To enable the entry of preliminary ratings, select the Preliminary Rating check box for the Overall Summary section on the document template.

See Recording Preliminary Ratings.

Performance Notes

Managers and employees can record notes about an employee's performance and accomplishments in two ways:

During the Establish Criteria step.

The Add Note link appears on a section or item during the Establish Criteria process if enabled on the document template. Notes that are added during this step are directly linked to the section and item to which they apply.
At any time, by navigating to the Performance Notes page.

Employees can create records of events, activities, and accomplishments that they can later use to complete their performance evaluations. Similarly, managers can record details of an employee's performance for use when they complete the employee's evaluation. These notes are dated, and are available only to the author of a note. In other words, the manager cannot see notes that the employee enters and vice versa.

Note. There is not a separate page for development notes. The Performance Notes page is used to record any comment, and these notes are available for inclusion in either performance or development documents. The Performance Notes page is located under the Performance Management menu item and do not fall under the Performance Documents or Development Documents submenus.

See Entering Performance Notes.

Ratings and Comments

The performance document template setup enables you to configure evaluations for each role (employee, manager, and multi-participant) to include only sections, items, and features that are appropriate for the role to evaluate. For example, on a project review, you might include the Goals, Initiatives, Competencies, and Overall Summary sections on the manager and employee evaluations and enable them to enter ratings and comments on all sections. However, you might include only the Competencies and Overall Summary sections on multi-participant evaluations.

To evaluate an employee's performance, participants can enter and update ratings and comments as permitted by the template at any time during the performance period. This evaluation information is visible to employees and managers only after the evaluations are completed.

Note. A manager can include comments that other evaluators entered on a section or item only if the manager also has comments enables for the same section and item.

See Updating Evaluations.

Advisor Tools

Depending on the capabilities granted to the participant's role on the document template, any evaluation participant might have access to the Development Tips or Results Writer tools. These tools provide suggestions for incorporating into comments. Actual usage of these tools most often occurs when the manager role consolidates feedback and finalizes evaluations.

See Working with Writing Tools.

Finalization Activities

After evaluations are complete, the manager consolidates feedback and ratings into the manager evaluation. The manager conducts a review with the employee (if a review process is required) and submits the evaluation for approval (if an approval process is required).

See Managing Reviews and Approvals.

See Also

Creating Document Templates

Modifying Evaluation Criteria

Recording Preliminary Ratings

This section provides and overview of preliminary ratings and discusses how to enter preliminary ratings.

Page Used to Record Preliminary Ratings

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Enter Preliminary Ratings	EP_APPR_SELECT	Manager Self Service, ePerformance, Performance Documents, Administrative Tasks, Enter Preliminary Ratings, Enter Preliminary Ratings	Select one or more employees for whom to enter preliminary ratings.
Preliminary Ratings	EP_APPR_PRELIM	Click the Continue button on the Enter Preliminary Ratings page.	Enter preliminary ratings for selected employees.

Entering Preliminary Ratings

Access the Preliminary Ratings page.

Preliminary Rating

Enter a preliminary rating. The list of ratings from which you select is defined by the rating model that is associated with the Overall Summary section of the document.

See Also

Defining Rating Models

Entering Performance Notes

This section lists pages used to enter performance notes.

See Also

Configuring the HR Notepad

Pages Used to Enter Performance Notes

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Performance Notes	HR_NP_NOTE_SRCH	Manager Self Service, Performance Management, Maintain Performance Notes, Performance Notes Self-Service, Performance Management, Performance Notes, Performance Notes	Search for and enter performance notes.
Performance Notes - New Note Performance Notes - Selected Note	HR_NP_NOTE	Click the Add a New Note button on the Performance Notes or the My Performance Notes page.	Enter a new performance note. You can also view and modify an existing performance note on this page.
Performance Notes - Confirm Delete	HR_NP_MESSAGE	Click the Delete button on the Performance Notes or the My Performance Notes page.	Confirm a delete of a performance note.
Person Search - Simple	HR_PSS_SEARCH	Click the Transfer button on the Performance Notes or the My Performance Notes page.	Search for and select a recipient manager for a performance note transfer.

Accessing Notes

Access the My Performance Notes page or the Performance Notes page.

Note. These two pages work similarly, except that the My Performance Notes page enables employees to search for and enter notes on their own performance and the Performance Notes page enables managers to search for and enter notes on other employees.

Selection Criteria

To add or view performance notes for a specific employee, enter an ID and, optionally, an Earliest Note Date and End date. If you do not specify dates, all notes for the employee regardless of date entered appear in the Existing Performance Notes for this Employee grid

Note. The ID field appears only on the manager version of this page, since employees can only view their own notes.

Search	Click to view a list of performance notes that meet the search criteria.
Add New Note	Click to access the Performance Notes Detail page, where you can create a new note.

Existing Performance Notes for this Employee

This section lists all the performance notes that meet the search criteria. Click the note link to view and modify the details of the note, or select one or more notes to delete or transfer.

Selected Note(s)

Select one or more listed notes and click the Delete button to remove them from the system or the Transfer button to transfer them to another manager.

Entering Performance Notes

Access the Performance Notes - New Note page.

Note. If you are viewing an existing note, the page title changes to Performance Notes - Selected Note, as shown below

Subject

Enter the note subject in the Comments text box, or enter a new note.

The note date for new notes is the current date and you cannot change the date.

Updating Evaluations

This section lists prerequisites and discusses how to enter and maintain evaluation data.

Note. In this section, a page or field title with a word in brackets indicates that the page takes its name from the context in which it appears.

Prerequisites

Before entering evaluation data as a manager or employee, you must complete the Establish Criteria step, if it is specified on the document template. To enter evaluation data as another participant, you must have received and accepted a nomination to participate in the evaluation.

See Also

Modifying Evaluation Criteria

Nominating and Tracking Multi-Source Participants

Pages Used to Update Evaluations

Note. The availability and order of these pages depends on the template being used and the role of the participant.

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
<role> Evaluation	EP_APPR_MAIN1	Manager Self Service, Performance Management, Performance Documents, Current Documents Self Service, Performance Management, My Performance Documents, Current Documents Self Service, Performance Management, Other's Performance Documents, Current Documents On the Current Documents page, click the link in the Document Type column for a listed document. On the Document Details page, click the Start link or the Edit link, whichever appears, for the appropriate role Evaluation step.	Enter and maintain evaluation data, pursuant to the participant role.
Edit Details Icon	EP_APPR_M_EDIT5	Click the Edit Detail icon on any Details box on an evaluation.	Update item details such as title, description, due date, owner, supports, status, reminder date, percent complete, and flags indicating critical items.
View Other Authors Selection	EP_APPR_SEC_ROLES1	Click the View Other Authors link on the <role> Evaluation page.	Select other evaluation authors to view the comments that they entered.
Add <item>	EP_APPR_EDIT3	Click the Add <item> link on the <role> Evaluation page.	Add an item to the section. You can add either a coded or a free-form item.
Add a <section name>	EP_APPR_EDIT4	Click the Add link on the <role> Evaluation page.	Add an item to the section.
Add a <section name> Behavior	EP_APPR_EDIT7	Click the Add Behavior link that appears for a competency item.	Select a behavior to add to the competency or enter a free-form behavior.
Edit <section name> Behavior	EP_APPR_EDIT8	Click a listed behavior link for a competency.	Modify the behavior description for a competency.

Entering and Maintaining Evaluation Data

Access the Manager Evaluation, Employee Evaluation, or Peer Evaluation page.

Note. The example shown is from a manager's evaluation.

Evaluations are divided into sections, with each section containing a different type of content. Sections contain the items and subitems against which an employee's performance is evaluated and can include mission statement, goals and objectives, responsibilities, competencies, learning, employee comments, manager comments, an overall summary, signature lines, or organization-specific sections that you define.

Each role evaluation contains header information that identifies the role and the person who is evaluated. The header information also contains instructional text that changes depending on the role. The instructional text is system data that is supplied with ePerformance, but you can modify this text by using the Text Catalog.

See Working with Common Components.

Save	This button displays on an evaluation when the evaluation status is In Progress. Click to save the evaluation and return to it later. The system calculates, according to template rules, all ratings were entered prior to saving the review to the database.
Submit for Approval	This button displays if the review process that is selected in the Manager Evaluation region of document template's Process page specifies that an approval is required. Click to submit the evaluation to the designated approver according to the approval rules.
Available for Review	This button is available when the review process selected in the Manager Evaluation group box of the document template's Process page specifies that an employee review is required and you have entered all required information Click to submit the document for review by the employee, according to the review and approval rules.
Cancel	Click to cancel the changes you have made to the evaluation.
View Printable Evaluation	Click this icon to view a printable version of the performance document. Use the browser's Print command to print a hard copy of the document.
Notify	Click this icon to enter and address an ad-hoc notification message.
View Graphical Ratings Report	Click to display the Graphical Ratings Report page.

Section # – <section name>

The information that displays in a section depends on the type of section, special processing associated with the section, and the parameters selected on the Template Definition - Structure page.

The Manager Comments, Employee Comments, and the Overall Summary sections are delivered predefined.

See Creating Document Templates.

Description	The Description label displays if the Description check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Description label displays if data is entered in the JPM_TEXT1325_1 field on the Content Items - Items Detail page.
(edit details)	The Edit Details icon displays on the evaluation if the Update check box is selected for the role in the Section Roles grid, Item tab for the section. Click to edit the detail information for the item. See Updating Section Item Details.
(delete)	Delete is available if the Mandatory check box is not selected on the Template Definition - Content page. Click to delete the content item. Note. This overrides the value in the Mandatory field on the job profile. If you specify that an item on the job profile is mandatory and do not select this check box, the item is not mandatory on the document.
Measurement	The Measurement label displays if the Measures check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Measurement label displays if data is entered in the JPM_TEXT1325_2 field on the Content Items - Items Detail page. Measurement describes the criteria for measuring an employee's success at meeting this content item. For example, if the goal is to reduce customer complaints by 5 percent, the measurement might be: “Based on the number of complaints received by Customer Support through December 31, as compared to complaints made in the previous year.” You can change the information for free-form items, as needed.
Supports <item>	The Supports <item> label displays if the Supports check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Supports <item> label displays if a section is selected in the Link field on the Template Definition - Structure page and a content item is selected for the Supports field on the Template Definition - Content page. This field is used to link goals to initiatives, or competencies to responsibilities, initiatives or goals
Ownership	The Ownership label displays if the Ownership check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Ownership label displays if Employee or Manager is selected in the Owned By field on the Template Definition - Content page.
Reminder Date	The Reminder Date label displays if the Reminder Date check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Reminder Date label displays if a date is entered in the Reminder Date field on the Template Definition - Content page.
Due Date	The Due Date label displays if the Due Date check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Due Date label displays if a date is entered in the Reminder Date field on the Template Definition - Content page.
Target Rating	The Target Rating label displays if the Target Rating check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Content for the Target Rating label displays if a target rating is selected in the Target Rating field on the Template Definition - Content page.
Status	The Status label displays if the Status check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page.
Percent Complete	The Percent Complete label displays if the Percentage Completed check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page.
Critical	The Critical label displays if the Critical check box is selected on the Template Definition - Structure page. Yes or No displays as the content for the Critical label if it is defined on the Template Definition - Content page.
Average Rating	The Average Rating label displays if the View Average Rating check box is selected on the Template Definition - Process page.
<view graphical rating)	The View Graphical Rating icon displays if the View Average Rating check box is selected on the Template Definition - Process page. Click to display the Average Ratings page.
(rating explanation)	Click to display a page that provides an explanation of the rating. From this page you can select the rating that best describes the employee's proficiency. The system displays either the description entered on the Rating Explanation page or the proficiency description entered on the Content Item page. If the system finds there is a rating explanation and a proficiency description, the proficiency description has precedence over the rating explanation.
Rating	This field displays if the Rate check box is selected for the section and the applicable Rate Section, Rate Item, or Rate subitem check box is selected in the Section Roles grid, Rate/Weight tab. View or enter ratings. The action that is permitted depends on the level (subitem, item, section) where the field occurs if calculation is enabled in the document template, and the user actions that the template definition permits. For example, at the overall summary and section summary levels, the rating field is read-only unless the role has permission to override system-calculated ratings or calculate field was not enabled on the document template.
(calculate ratings)	This icon is available in the <content item> Summary group box and Overall Summary section. Click to calculate ratings.
Override	Click to override a system-calculated rating or remove an existing override. The button appears at the following levels on the performance review page, depending on the template definition: At the item level within a section, to override the system-calculated average of individual subitem ratings. At the section summary level to override the system-calculated average of individual item ratings. At the overall performance review summary level, to override the system-calculated average of individual section ratings. Note. An override that you enter remains in place until you remove it. To have the system recalculate the rating, remove the override.
Weight	The Weight field displays if the Weight check box is selected for the section and the applicable Weight Section or Weight Item check box is selected in the Section Roles grid, Rate/Weight tab. Enter the weight of an item relative to the other items in the same section or relative to other sections in the evaluation. Note. The sum of the weights for all items in a section or all sections in a document, must equal 100 percent in the manager's document.
Comments	The Comments field displays if the Comments check box is selected in the Section Roles grid, Section tab or Item tab. Enter free-form text to describe an employee performance relative to the corresponding item or section. The comments section always has access to a spell checker and optionally has access to writing tools. This field can appear at the item level or the section summary level.
View Other Authors	This link appears if the View Other check box is selected Section Roles grid, Section tab. Click this link to view the evaluation data that other roles entered on this section for the employee.
(spell check comments)	Click to check the spelling of the text entered in the Comments field..
Writing Tools	This link displays if the Comments check box and at least one writing tool are selected for the role in the Section Roles grid, Section or Item tab. Click this link to access the Suggested Results page. The Suggested Results page displays a list of text entries that can include Performance Notes, Other Evaluator Comments, Results Writer, and Development Tips statements, and enables you to choose one or more entries for inclusion in the Comments section. The Writing Tools link appears for a role if the role is enabled on the document template to view Results Writer and Development Tips suggestions for the section or item. Any performance notes that the employee or manager recorded from within the Establish Criteria about the employee also appear in this list, but are restricted to the document role. Employees do not see notes that the manager has recorded about them and managers do not see employee notes. The manager can also view comments from other evaluators for the item or section they are evaluating if it was enabled on the document template.
Learning Name	This link appears only in Learning sections. Click this link to display the <learning name> Description page in the Learning Management database.
Add Behavior	Add Behavior displays if Subitems are enabled on the Template Definition - Structure page.
Add <content item>	Add <content item> displays if the Add check box is selected on the Section Roles grid, Item tab.
Search for Learning	This link appears only in Learning sections. Click this link to display the Search Catalog page in the Learning Management database.
Check Language	This button is available if the Language Checker button is selected on the Template Definition - General page. Select to run the Language Checker tool. The Language Checker tool enables you to check a performance review for inappropriate language that is used in the manager's document. When inappropriate words are identified, the Language Checker tool suggests alternative words or phases that are more acceptable from an organization's perspective.
Calculate All Ratings	This button display if the section has the Rate check box selected on the Template Definition - Structure page and ratings have been entered for sections, items, or subitems. Click to calculate all of the item and section ratings, as well as the overall rating that appears on the performance document. Ratings are not calculated for items, sections, or summaries that are overridden.
Cancel Evaluation	Click to move the current evaluation from a status of In Progress to a status of Cancelled. If the template was setup to update Profile Management and a manager cancels the evaluation, then all evaluations, employees and peers, that might have already been sent to the Manage Profiles business process will be deleted. If the employee cancels the his or her evaluation, then only his or her evaluation is deleted the Manage Profiles business process.
Review Held	This button displays if the review process specifies that an employee review is required and the employee has reviewed the manager's finalized evaluation. Click to record the fact that a review of the evaluation was held.
Reopen	This button appears for managers and administrators when the evaluation is in the Complete status. Click to change the status to In Progress.

Updating Section Item Details

Access the <Section> Detail page.

Use this page to change the evaluation details for the item. You can configure the document template to enable an evaluator to change the value of any field except the Title, Description, or Measurement. The evaluator can modify these fields only if the item is not coded (stored in a system table).

The value that initially appears for a detail field is set on the Content page of the document template.

Minimum Weight	If you're permitted to change the weight of the item or section, you cannot enter a value that's below the minimum weight that appears here.
Due Date	Enter the date when a particular goal should be completed.
Reminder Date	Enter a date for informational purposes.
Status	Identify the status of the item. Possible values are Complete, In Progress, N/A (not applicable).
Percent Complete	Enter the completion percentage for an item that appears on the performance document.
Add - Target Rating	Enter or view the target ratings. This field defines the level of proficiency or rating that the employee should achieve by the end of the performance period.