Classified Staff Goal Setting & Performance Planning

A well-crafted performance plan informs employees of the evaluation criteria for the future and provides clarity on job priorities. Every employee's performance plan should align with unit goals and the campus strategic plan.
  • Strategic Alignment: The plan must align with unit goals and the objectives of the campus's strategic plan.
  • Job Priorities (Work Plan): It must contain a clear work plan that outlines the priorities and criteria used to evaluate the employee's performance for the upcoming year.
  • Position Description: It must include a reviewed and updated (if needed) position description.
  • Goal Setting and Core Competencies: It must outline specific goals and expectations tied to the Statewide Uniform Core Competencies. These competencies include:
    • Communication
    • Interpersonal Skills
    • Customer Services
    • Accountability
    • Job Knowledge
  • Supervision Goal:Required only for employees who supervise others.
  • Training Plan: It must include an established plan for both required and optional training.
  • Coaching Framework: It must be designed to provide a solid basis for the supervisor to direct coaching and development activities throughout the evaluation period.

Important Note: These elements are established during the mandatory performance planning meeting between the employee and the supervisor at the very beginning of the performance cycle.

Performance planning requires a formal meeting between the employee and their supervisor at the beginning of the performance cycle. While the performance plan is the final documented output, this meeting serves as the discussion to build it. The meeting should focus on:

  • Contextual Review: Discuss the campus’s mission, goals, and institutional priorities to ensure the employee understands how to align their upcoming goals with the broader strategy.
  • Collaborative Brainstorming: Jointly define the upcoming year’s priorities (to build the Work Plan) and review the current position description to identify any needed revisions.
  • Expectation Setting: Discuss behavioral expectations related to CU’s competency areas and explore potential required or optional training opportunities.
  • Evaluation Communication (Peer Feedback): If you intend to utilize a Peer 360 Review, you must explicitly communicate this to the employee during this time.
  • Supervisory Expectations: If the employee is a supervisor, discuss their leadership duties so they can be properly formalized into at least one specific supervisory goal.

To foster high engagement, employees and supervisors should approach goal setting as a collaborative partnership rather than a top-down directive.

  • Promote Employee Ownership: Empower employees to draft their own initial goals to build personal accountability and investment.
  • Differentiate Expectations: Ensure a clear distinction between routine Job Duties, Goals, and behavioral Competencies.
  • Apply the SMART Framework: Construct goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
  • Tailor Development Paths: Scale the complexity of goals based on the employee's current tenure, experience, and mastery:
    • Develop in Current Role: Focus on expanding core knowledge or providing coaching to ensure baseline success (for new employees or those not yet fully successful).
    • Develop for High Performance: Create “stretch assignments” to encourage exceeding base expectations (for employees already succeeding in their current role).
    • Develop High Potential: Assign stretch goals that directly align with a career path toward a higher-level position (for successful employees ready for progression).

Important Note: Performance plans are living documents. You can and should adjust goals throughout the year as departmental priorities shift, provided you document those changes (such as during the required mid-year coaching conversation).

Goal setting is August 1 through September 30

Classified Staff Performance Management Graphic

Classified Staff Goal Setting Resources

Accountability and Training

Supervisor Accountability and Compliance

Supervisors are responsible for providing employees with timely performance plans. Failure to do so may result in corrective or disciplinary action, up to and including suspension.

Mandatory Procedures

  • Chain of Responsibility: If a supervisor fails to provide a plan, the reviewer is responsible for completing it. If the reviewer fails to act, the responsibility escalates up the line of supervision until the plan is completed.
  • Consequences: Absent extraordinary circumstances, a supervisor who does not provide a performance plan within the required timeframe will be subject to corrective action and will be ineligible for merit pay. If the employee's performance plan or evaluation remains incomplete more than thirty (30) days after corrective action is issued, the designated rater may be suspended in one (1) workday increments following the completion of the pre-disciplinary process, until the required documentation is completed.

Classified Staff Training

To ensure supervisors are equipped to lead these conversations effectively, the following resources are available: