Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach
Performance evaluations begin
As the April 30 deadline approaches for annual job performance evaluations, several upgrades have been made to the Vanderbilt Performance Evaluation System, or VPES, the on-line tool that supervisors use to report employee job performance evaluations to Human Resources.
VUMC job performance evaluations are part of an annual cycle called performance development, in which supervisors and staff members identify and tackle specific job goals, with close attention given to the VUMC mission, credo and job descriptions. Since 2000, annual salary increases have been based primarily on performance evaluation ratings.
In addition to annual performance-based pay raises, VUMC gives market-based raises: in consultation with Human Resources, these increases are applied strategically by job category to keep VUMC salaries competitive in the labor market.
HRS Representative Kimberly A. Akers said there are some new policy changes and clarifications. Term employees (those hired for jobs lasting more than six months and less than a year) and temporary workers are now required to undergo performance development job evaluations.
Akers said term employees are eligible for both performance-based and market-based pay increases, depending on length of assignment and consistent with practice for regular staff.
Individuals in temporary jobs are not eligible for performance-based pay increases. Akers said evaluation of temps is necessary to help ensure general staff competence and meet health care accreditation requirements. Evaluations of temps from outside placement agencies are the responsibility of the supervisor, while evaluations of temps placed by Vanderbilt Temporary Services and the Vanderbilt Clinical Staffing Resource Center are the responsibility of those areas.
Akers said the upgrades to VPES were made in response to user requests.
• Supervisors can have their assistants enter job performance evaluations.
• Administrators can view evaluations documented by supervisors with whom they work, and administrators with payroll responsibility can view various VPES summaries for their area, such as performance rating distributions.
• Supervisors can now ask staff to complete self-evaluations on VPES (some supervisors like to see self-evaluations as part of their evaluation process).
• For a given staff member with a given job code, area- or unit-specific key job functions typed into VPES in the previous year won’t have to be retyped in the subsequent year.
• For term employee evaluations, instead of typing key job functions, users can pull in this text from relevant job descriptions.
• Users can view reports of which staff member evaluations have been completed in VPES and received by Human Resources.
• For ease of tracking evaluation status, users have easier ways to update the system regarding circumstances that preclude a performance evaluation, such as leaves of absence and ongoing orientation periods.
More information is available from the supervisors guide to VPES, available on the HR Web site.