Performance Evaluation

The UCLA Library conducts annual performance evaluations for all full- and part-time career staff as part of its commitment to providing both informal and formal feedback on a regular basis to all employees regarding their job performance and ongoing organizational contributions.

Within the University of California, performance evaluations are required for full- and part-time career staff, according to the university personnel policies and collective bargaining agreements. The specific policies and contract articles related to performance evaluation are:

• Personnel Policies for Staff Members #23
• AFSCME Contract / Article 26
• CUE Contract / Article 26
• UPTE Contract / Article 29

There are two types of performance evaluations:

Probationary evaluations are conducted within the first six months of employment usually in the 4th or 5th month of employment. LHR staff will notify supervisors of timelines for probationary evaluations. Supervisors may consult with LHR on probationary evaluations as needed.

Annual performance evaluations are conducted at the conclusion of the fiscal year and are a mechanism to acknowledge organizational contributions, recognize superior performance, identify performance or skills or knowledge gaps, and outline learning and development needs and goals for the future. Identifying learning and development opportunities to improve and expand an individual’s capabilities and capacity is also a part of the process. Performance evaluations are also a tool to address performance issues and deficiencies and allow the supervisor and employee to outline a concrete performance improvement plan for eliminating such issues and deficiencies. The annual written performance evaluation provides formal feedback and supplements the feedback given to employees daily or in weekly, biweekly, or monthly meetings.

Within the UCLA Library, annual performance evaluations are conducted under the following guidelines.

• An annual calendar guides the staff performance evaluation cycle. The calendar is distributed to all library staff in February. All evaluations are due in August.
• All full- and part-time career staff employees must be evaluated. This applies to both represented employees (those coved by collective bargaining agreements such as AFSCME, CUE, and UPTE employees) and non-represented employees (policy covered employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement). Probationary employees are evaluated on the probationary evaluation cycle.
• The evaluation period is the fiscal year (July to June). For the 2008 performance evaluation cycle, employees will be evaluated for the time period July 2007 to June 2008.
• The evaluation is conducted by the employee’s current supervisor. If the employee had another supervisor for part of the review period, it is the responsibility of the current supervisor to seek input from the previous supervisor. The input of the previous supervisor should be provided as a written narrative and included as an addendum to the current supervisor’s evaluation AND made available to the employee. The verbal or written comments of a previous supervisor can be integrated into the evaluation by the current supervisor; if this is done, it should be clearly indicated in the evaluation.
• The individual will be evaluated in relation to their job performance vis-à-vis the job description and completion of their individual work plan for the fiscal year (this was the work plan turned in with last year’s evaluation).
• All evaluations - completed and signed - are due to Library Human Resources on August 22, 2008. The performance evaluation must be signed by the employee, supervisor, and the supervisor’s supervisor. The employee’s signature does not indicate agreement. The supervisor and employee should make copies of the completed, signed, final evaluation for their records prior to submitting to Library Human Resources.
• Department heads and supervisory Associate University Librarians may elect to review all performance evaluations within their respective departments or divisions at any step in the process. If they elect to do this, they may set internal deadlines within the library-wide calendar.
• All employee evaluations are reviewed by the University Librarian. In addition to ratings, specific, detailed, objective information on the employee’s activities and accomplishments is expected. The University Librarian expects the evaluation to provide information on the: • Context in which the contributions were made;
  • Significance of the contribution to the unit, department, and overall organization;
  • How the contribution furthered the library’s strategic plan and the unit plan. In addition, the individual’s personal accomplishments and contributions to the library and profession should be included.

Questions about performance evaluation should be directed to Pat Hawthorne, Director of Library Human Resources, at 310.825.4562 or via e-mail (path@library.ucla.edu) or to Araceli Bermudez, LHR Consultant, (bermudez@library.ucla.edu) or Terry Leonard, LHR Consultant, (tleonard@library.ucla.edu) at 310.825.7947.

FY 2007-2008 Performance Evaluation Cycle

Information for Staff Members