Performance Excellence—Charting a Course for Staff Success

We’ve all heard the saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how you get there.” Certainly having a roadmap helps us get to our destinations faster than guessing which way to go. For Feinberg School staff members charting their job course, Performance Excellence can provide that guide. Ten departments and centers within the school are using this University–wide system of goal setting and evaluation with the Office of Deans Administration coming on board now.

“It helps employees monitor their own job progress and set goals for themselves,” says Anna Wright, business manager for the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, which has been using the system since 2006. “It helps to keep managers on track as well.”

The system is based on recognition that success in a workplace with high standards and accountability depends on two factors: how well employees and managers understand what is expected of them; and the way these individuals communicate with one another about their progress and need for help. Thus training for both employees and their managers is an important and time-consuming part of the process. 

Performance Excellence encourages leaders and their teams to set priorities for what needs to be accomplished and identify how things need to be done. It also provides a means to continually assess progress toward these objectives. The goal is to improve workplace effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement. Employees and managers work together to review existing job descriptions, write clearly defined performance objectives, and outline plans for the employee’s development. Then, on a quarterly basis, the manager and employee meet to discuss progress and adjust objectives as needed. At the end of the evaluation year, the manager will complete a year-end rating, and the employee will complete a self-review. The process then begins again with goal setting for the next year.

Performance Excellence also provides a number of tools for employees and managers to use. These include an electronic diary, which assists the employee in keeping track of specific goals and timelines. Objectives are not just workplace performance-oriented; they include employee development goals, too. For Tiffany Barnes, program assistant 2 in the Department of Family Medicine, that’s one of the best parts of the process. Having set her sights on a future position in human resources, Barnes has included learning the procedure and process for faculty appointments and reappointments as one of her development goals. When opportunity knocks, she’ll be ready.

“Much more than an employee evaluation system, Performance Excellence is a way of looking at all aspects of work life,” says Rebecca Cooke, senior associate dean for administration and chair of the Staff Relations Committee. “It is a living, breathing approach that helps all of us contribute to the success of the Feinberg School. And it is a fluid process, one that allows for goals and objectives to be re-visited at any time during the year. The Feinberg School is a dynamic institution and Performance Excellence accommodates that spirit.”