EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE REVIEW POLICY
Purpose
The City’s employee performance review policy guides how the City coaches, assesses, evaluates, and rewards employees. The City bases performance management systems on regular constructive feedback and open communication between managers and team members.
Scope
This policy describes the performance review process along with guidelines for managers on how to lead their teams and assess employee performance.
Performance management practices have been established to:
Define specific goals.
Provide actionable and timely feedback.
Invest in professional growth and development opportunities.
Ensure understanding of job responsibilities
Recognize and reward work through financial or non-financial incentives (i.e., an “employee of the month” reward or designation).
Policy Elements
What is “good performance”?
The City of Manteca strives for all of its employees to exhibit good performance (i.e., above “satisfactory” or “meets expectations” evaluation). In contrast to a satisfactory or a meet expectations evaluation, a good performance evaluation is earned when employees:
Consistently meeting and accomplishing goals.
Job duties completed as described and expected.
Demonstrated willingness to learn and improve job performance.
Follow and/or abide by all City of Manteca policies and personnel rules.
Exhibit a good attitude and collaborate well with colleagues.
Each employee may excel in one aspect and need improvement in another. Continued employment requires meeting a minimum standard for all of these aspects and demonstrates a willingness to improve where appropriate.
Performance Reviews
Performance reviews are conducted on an annual basis (bi-annual for those on probation). During these reviews, the manager will fill out the performance evaluation report. Managers aim to:
Recognize employees who excel at their jobs.
Discuss career goals and employee motivations.
Identify areas of improvement.
Incentives
Managers are encouraged to recommend merit increases and/or published incentives for team members when earned. However, merit increases are not guaranteed.
Training
Training and development opportunities should be regularly available for all employees. The performance review process is an opportune time for managers to identify and discuss a team member’s training needs in a specific area and set up an improvement plan as appropriate.
Managers are encouraged to regularly discuss future career goals with their team members, so they can determine what type of training is appropriate. Training discussions typically involve:
On-the-job training, job shadowing, and other training methods are also appropriately discussed during initial onboard training; When managers intend to consider promoting an employee in the near future; and The manager and/or department head (with the consent of the employee) believes the employee is a good candidate for a lateral opportunity.
Frequent Communication
Managers should meet with their team members regularly (monthly is optimal) to provide feedback and talk about work performance and goals. Frequent communication is encouraged to ensure team members receive feedback in a timely manner and avoid surprises during the performance review process. During performance meetings, both parties should feel free to discuss any concerns they have, including feedback from the employee to the manager. Employees shall be free to provide feedback to managers without fear of retaliation or other negative consequences.
Managers’ Responsibilities
The manager is responsible for each team member’s performance. To conduct effective regular meetings and performance evaluations, managers are expected to:
Set clear objectives.
Team members should know what is expected of them on the job. Upon hiring, the manager must ensure the new employee understands the job duties. Set goals in writing for both the team-wide (as appropriate) and each team member. Review the goals during the annual/ bi-annual performance reviews.
Provide useful feedback.
During scheduled meetings with team members, provide clear guidance and positive feedback, as appropriate. Be fair and specific to help understanding and implementation of the feedback.
Keep your team members involved.
There should be two-way communication between the manager and the team. Make expectations clear, but always consider team members’ motivations and aspirations. Regularly discuss training and development opportunities that may interest team members.
Keep logs with important incidents about each one of your team members.
These logs help to evaluate the team, but may also prove useful backup to reward, promote or take disciplinary action of team members. Logs must be maintained securely in either a locked filing or storage cabinet (if maintained in paper format) or a password-protected file (if maintained electronically). Logs must be purged once an employee’s performance review is complete (i.e., has been fully reviewed and vetted). Logs will not carry over to subsequent years.
Effective Date: March 16, 2022
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