New Deadline: Friday, July 14
We have received a fair amount of feedback regarding issues with Bridge as managers try to complete the Performance Evaluation process. There are some errors (like data not saving in the platform after entry) that we have not been successful in finding solutions with the Bridge platform and their customer service. Therefore, we are extending the deadline to complete performance conversations in Bridge and offering a fillable PDF template (attached here) to assist you in recording your answers before copying them into Bridge in case these system issues persist.
Overview
The 2023 Performance Evaluation process will open on Thursday, May 18, 2023. You will receive an email from Bridge with a one-click link to begin your reflection and planning. Managers will receive the same email alerting them that they have reviews for their team members.
It is recommended to complete your self-review prior Friday, June 16, 2023.
Performance conversation agendas (the full conversation and performance review with your supervisor) should be completed in Bridge no later than Friday, June 30, 2023.
- This process is for full-time administrative staff only (non-union), and does not include employees within their 90-day probation period or casual/temporary employees. The 90-day performance reviews will continue to take place in Employee Records system (TalentEd - please click the light blue link on the login page).
Steps in Bridge:
- Self-review & manager review: These can be completed simultaneously - both can continue to be edited until.the performance conversation is completed in Bridge. The employee's comments are NOT viewable to the manager until the agenda is shared, however any added goals or achievements do become immediately viewable, since managers already have access to this for their team members.
- Manager's comments will not be viewable to the employee until the full performance conversation agenda is built, and are only viewable via the full, shared agenda.
- If you need to update your agenda after completing it, you can do so up until you complete the performance conversation. Any changes made at this time will become immediately viewable to your manager.
- Once both the manager and team member complete their performance conversation agenda, Bridge will send you an email notifying you that both parties have prepared the agenda, and you can review your manager's feedback prior to your performance conversation, adding any notes, feedback, or other items you'd like to include.
- Performance conversation: Bridge will use your comments, goals, and achievements, to build an agenda for the performance conversation, at which point you are ready to meet regarding the evaluation.
- Bridge will auto-build an agenda for your performance conversation, and you can continue to add notes, goals, and achievements.
- Manager clicks "Complete Agenda": Once the conversation is held, the manager will click "Complete Agenda" and the performance review will be saved. It can no longer be edited at this time, however you will be able to save and export this to PDF.
Recommendations
- Open your performance conversation agenda now to make notes, add achievements and goals, and become familiar with Bridge
- Everything in your performance conversation agenda is editable until you complete the final conversation with your manager, and Bridge auto-saves all changes. Feel free to go in, go back, edit/change goals, achievements, and anything else from now until the official performance meeting
- Set aside time now on your calendar to finalize these agendas, ask questions, get clarity, and register for training if needed
- See "Related Articles" on this page and the Bridge Live Training Calendar for more resources
Completing Your Performance Review - Steps for Employees
- You will receive an email indicating that your performance review has opened with a link to begin
- On this page, you will be able to see:
- A link to start or edit your self-review
- Information about whether your manager has started or completed their review (this will become visible on the performance conversation agenda)
- The Performance Conversation Agenda with full comments once both reviews have been completed
- Click Start:
- There are three main sections to your agenda - "Performance Dimensions & Traits", "Wins", and "Planning".
- Performance Dimensions & Traits will ask you to consider a number of different domains and whether each section is a "Strength", if you're "On Target", or "Development Needed". Each domain is defined in the performance conversation in Bridge. Make sure to provide specific, job-related examples for each domain:
- Mission & Values
- Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
- Communication & Collaboration
- Critical Thinking
- For those with budget-related responsibilities: Budget Management
- For people managers: Vision & Leadership
- For people managers: Talent Management & Development
- Wins:
- Open-ended response: For "wins", You are encouraged to reflect on what you are most proud of over the last year. This is an opportunity to write an open-ended response about your own growth and personal accomplishments. Specific goals and milestone achievements will be covered later on, so use this section as an opportunity to talk more informally about your career growth, what has changed, and what came up that you didn't expect. In the "Planning" section, you will be asked about what challenges you're facing and what your manager may be able to do to help you move forward.
- This section is not viewable to your manager until you share your agenda
- Goals: Bridge allows you to bring in whatever goals you would like to talk about that you made progress on or achieved in the past year or add in new goals now. If you already put your goals into Bridge, click on "All Goals" and you will be able to add in any that you would like to discuss. You can check off sub-tasks, add notes to goals, and more
- Added or edited goals will become visible to your manager right away in your "Goals" section, as your manager can already view this in your 1-on-1 supervisory agenda and Goals section of your profile.
- If you have not already added your current performance goals in your Bridge profile, you can find last year’s performance evaluations and goals in the “Professional Development” folder in the Employee Records system (TalentEd - please click the light blue link on the login page).
- For the planning phase, you do not need to set new goals right now - Bridge allows you to pull in goals you may not have quite finished yet, and you can set goals at any time during the year. You can take a self-paced learning module in Bridge on goal-setting and there will also be workshops in the summer and early Fall semester addressing goal-setting as we embark on a new chapter of the University's history.
- Achievements: (Only in the "Wins" section) This section allows you to note major milestone achievements - these may or may not be directly connected to your goals. Achievements that have been added throughout the year automatically appear with the ability to add more. Added or edited Achievements will become visible to your manager right away in your "History" timeline, as your manager can already view this in your 1-on-1 supervisory agenda and History section of your profile.
- Skills feedback: This section is OPTIONAL and is not required to complete the performance evaluation process. Skills feedback allows you to request feedback on specific things from colleagues to assist in these conversations, provide different perspectives from different parts of your work, and find areas for growth that may not be as obvious in your day-to-day responsibilities.
- Plan:
- Open-ended response: In this section, you are encouraged to reflect on what you would like to focus on and improve in the coming year. This is an opportunity to write an open-ended response about your reflections on development needed, professional development opportunities, or other challenges or obstacles you face and how you and your manager can address them this year.
- This section is not viewable to your manager until you share your agenda
- Performance Rating: The final step in completing your agenda will be to rate your own performance throughout the year. While this is on a scale of 1-4, take your time and reflect on the definitions provided for each rating. Consider the entire past year, both what your initial plans and responsibilities were as well as anything else you've done or taken on in light of the many changes that have taken place or just begun. You will be given the opportunity to justify and explain your self-rating, which can either be reasons for a higher rating or steps you plan to take to improve your performance and accomplish your goals moving forward.
Your completed self-review will generate the first part of the performance conversation agenda, which will look like this: (Note: you can still add/edit this review and agenda - adding notes to any category or other overall notes/thoughts you want to discuss before you have the performance review conversation!)
Other options: Once your feedback is completed, you will see the agenda in full with your notes, feedback, and ratings in order. At that time, you can:
- Move items to discuss in a different order - Hover over the right side of any section to find the icon and drag-and-drop sections into your preferred order.
- Add items/notes to the agenda - the full agenda is editable, but you can also add extra items at the bottom by clicking "Add Agenda Item"
- Take private notes - click on the notebook icon in the top-right corner of your conversation agenda to take private notes and help remind yourself about anything you may want to discuss, elaborate on, ask about, or review that doesn't seem to fit in the agenda itself
- View the history of your completed 1-on-1 meetings with your manager to help recall tasks, notes, and other things you've discussed throughout the year:
Finalizing the Performance Review & Conversation
Ultimately, the point of these written reviews is to have a reflective and forward-looking conversation with your supervisor. The review you completed allows you to begin that reflection and get the same feedback from your manager.
Once both reviews are completed, you will receive an email that the agenda has been created, and you will be able to view your manager's feedback prior to your scheduled conversation. When you log into Bridge, both you and your manager will be able to see that the performance conversation agenda is now available.
Click "Start" to review, but do not complete this agenda until both the manager and employee have met, discussed, and agreed on this review. Once the agenda is completed, it will not longer be editable.
If you have trouble with Bridge, please submit a ticket here. For questions regarding this process or available resources, please reach out to Rachel Callahan, HR Campus Partner, Learning & Development, at rcallaha@sju.edu.