Creating Meaningful Evalutions for Non-Insturctional Staff

from HR Connection - August 2022

Greetings From AASPA

Creating Meaningful Evaluations for NonInstructional Staff

Brandon Chandler, Chief HR Officer Gregory-Portland ISD

One thing every supervisor must do is evaluate staff! As an HR department the question we have to ask ourselves is, “how can we support our supervisors in providing feedback to their staff and make the appraisal process more meaningful?” That is the question my team and I asked when looking at the goals of our district and how we could improve the former appraisal tools used in the District. Our Board of Trustees recently adopted a District Balanced Scorecard (BSC) that included goals. The HR Team and I looked at the goals outlined in the BSC and thought about the impact that could occur if we reshaped how we appraise and recognize staff for great work.

Within the District BSC, there are 4 Priorities of which the Human Resource team is responsible for Priority 2: High Performing and Engaged Workforce. Within Priority 2 of the BSC, there are 2 goals: annually increase the percentage of staff satisfaction; and annually increase the retention rate of highly effective faculty and staff. This created a dilemma for the HR team, because we had no true way to consistently measure what “highly effective” staff meant or looked like for anyone not appraised by T-TESS or T-PESS.

My team and I considered the T-TESS rubric to be a strong model that does define what a “rock solid” or “highly effective” teacher looks like, so we used that as a general guide to create a tool that could be used with all other staff. What we also realized is that using a rubric similar to T-TESS for nonteaching staff within the District would help align language across departments – in essence, our supervisors would be speaking the same language when measuring and discussing performance of employees, regardless of the employee’s role within the District. Consideration was also given for the recently adopted District Beliefs and District Culture that guides our daily practices within the District. When reviewing appraisals from previous years, we found that some employees are very effective at completing the tasks outlined in their job description, however struggle with soft-skills or other skills necessary to be highly effective in their roles. To truly measure “highly effective,” we needed a way to measure not only job description tasks, but also other skills necessary for an employee to be effective. We wanted to provide supervisors opportunities to coach and grow across departments – in essence, our supervisors would be speaking the same language when measuring and discussing performance of employees, regardless of the employee’s role within the District. Consideration was also given for the recently adopted District Beliefs and District Culture that guides our daily practices within the District.

When reviewing appraisals from previous years, we found that some employees are very effective at completing the tasks outlined

Creating Meaningful Evaluations for Non-

in their job description, however struggle with softskills or other skills necessary to be highly effective in their roles. To truly measure “highly effective,” we needed a way to measure not only job description tasks, but also other skills necessary for an employee to be effective. We wanted to provide supervisors opportunities to coach and grow employees with these soft skills not generally present within jobdescription based appraisals. Once we understood the components/areas we wanted to measure in the appraisal tool, the design process began. as current job descriptions are updated. Most importantly to the HR team, this has created a true way for us to measure what a “highly effective” employee looks like across all departments within our District.

I challenge you to consider ways you can improve your evaluation practices within your respective Districts that lead to growth and development of ALL employees. (Also, feel free to use the evaluation tool we created to help transform your appraisal process).

After a few trials runs, a new appraisal template was created that eliminated the multiple appraisal forms we had. We then solicited feedback from our supervisors at all levels of the organization and asked for honest feedback. We asked them to “shoot holes” in the template and offer suggestions to improve it for their areas. Once feedback was gathered, language within the appraisal tool was refined, while keeping it broad enough to apply to all positions within the District. When the evaluation tool was finalized, supervisors were given training in a “round table” setting and provided the “why” behind the creation of a new evaluation tool.

Use of the new tool began with supervisors appraising professional staff across the District and identifying areas of reinforcement (employee strengths) and areas of refinement (opportunities for development) with these employees. The second phase of use of the new evaluation tool was with our hourly employees which also identified areas of reinforcement and refinement. Once all appraisals were completed using the new tool, informal feedback was gathered from employees and supervisors. The overwhelming feedback was very positive as we have found it has opened dialogue between employees and supervisors, and also given employees opportunities to grow within their positions.

The impact the new evaluation tool has had on the Human Resources department has been tremendous, as we no longer have multiple appraisal forms to maintain. This new tool eliminated the need to create new appraisal forms as new positions are added to the organization; and eliminated the need to annually update multiple appraisal forms