Performance appraisal reminders

As a reminder, Performance appraisals are due tomorrow, Friday, February 25. The evaluations will cover the 2021 calendar year. Supervisors will only be using overall rankings and not the individual competency ratings. If you have specific questions about the time frame or your goals from last year, talk with your supervisor.

The timeline for the performance appraisal is available below:

• Friday, February 25 - Employees submit their form in Jadu.
• Friday, March 11 - Supervisors submit completed forms in Jadu.
• Monday, March 28 - Directors complete review on all appraisals for their unit.
• Friday, April 1 - Directors complete review for consistency across ASR.
• April 4-29 - Supervisors and employees meet to review the appraisal.

Upcoming ASR All-Staff Assemblies

Upcoming ASR All-Staff Assemblies will feature the following guests:

• Scott Lanyon, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education will attend the April meeting to talk about Graduate Education priorities.
• Bob McMaster, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education will attend the July meeting to talk about priorities related to continuing students, and overall updates in the Office of Undergraduate Education.

Mental Wellness in the Workplace

The Mental Wellness in the Workplace working group has been reviewing feedback from our most recent survey and want to provide the following timeline and expectations for how information will be shared. To start, a survey participant asked, “what is meant by meaningful conversations; this seems like a broad topic?” Great question and yes, it is a broad topic! To narrow the scope of what the working group is hoping to accomplish, we will be framing the concept of meaningful conversations in the context of our upcoming performance review cycle.

Over the coming weeks, you can expect the following information in N&N:

• March 10 - A feature related to building trust in relationships. We have heard from you that difficult conversations can be tricky to navigate without a certain level of trust between participants.
• March 24 - A feature about active listening. We recognize that while we can provide resources on how to start a conversation, it is a two way street and active listening is a key component to creating meaningful and productive conversations.
• April 7 - A recap of resources as well as a cheat sheet of conversation prompts for teams/colleagues, supervisors to staff, and vice versa.

Starting mid-April, the working group will be pausing our meetings and active work to take a break and reflect. We will be looking to regroup in summer/fall 2022 and will also be seeking additional membership. If you are interested in being more involved with this work, please reach out to Amber Cellotti at knap0071@umn.edu. A huge thank you to those who have been involved and have given their time and energy towards this important work.

ASR Staff Engagement February 24th Survey

This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey February 24, 2022 examines the technology we use. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences!

According to the last survey, an equal amount of respondents (44% respectively) felt they could effectively navigate Google Drive or that they can find what they need but struggle with it at times. 12% of respondents reported having trouble finding things in Google Drive. When asked whether your team utilizes a folder in Google Drive, most report that their team does actively use a Google Drive folder (68%). This was followed by 12% who do not use folders and 12% who weren’t sure.

Similarly, 68% of responses indicated that they were very confident that they could move a file to a Google Drive folder without issue. Finally, we had a wide array of responses when asked what skill you would pick up in an instant. Playing an instrument was frequently mentioned (piano, guitar, violin) as well as learning a new language. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. Make sure to check out the N&N blog for the results from the last survey.

February 10, 2022 survey results

Do you feel that you can effectively navigate Google Drive?

• Yes - (44%)
• Sort of - (44%)
• No - (12%)

Does your unit/team utilize a folder or folders in Google Drive?

• Yes, actively - (68%)
• Yes, but it’s not used often - (8%)
• No - (12%)
• I’m not sure - (12%)

You are asked to move a file to a Google Drive folder. On a 1-5 scale (5=Very confident), how confident are you that you can do this without issue?

• 5 - (68%)
• 4 - (12%)
• 3 - (12%)
• 2 - (4%)
• 1 - (4%)

If you could pick up a new skill in an instant, what would it be?

• Languages – all of em
• Play piano
• The ability to cook without recipes
• Master level SQL
• Understanding Google Drive better
• I wish I could sing…in tune
• Play the violin

Performance appraisals

OIT has migrated the Performance Appraisal form, and it is now available (earlier than Carin’s email indicated earlier this week). The evaluations will cover the 2021 calendar year. Supervisors will only be using overall rankings and not the individual competency ratings. If you have specific questions about the time frame or your goals from last year, talk with your supervisor.

The timeline for the performance appraisal is available below:

• Thursday, February 10 - Jadu form available for ASR staff.
• Friday, February 25 - Employees submit their form in Jadu.
• Friday, March 11 - Supervisors submit completed forms in Jadu.
• Monday, March 28 - Directors complete review on all appraisals for their unit.
• Friday, April 1 - Directors complete review for consistency across ASR.
• April 4-29 - Supervisors and employees meet to review the appraisal.

Update from Stacey

During Black History Month, there are a variety of ways to dive in and learn new things. As a baseball fan, it was a pleasure to see yesterday’s Google Doodle honoring Toni Stone, a Black woman who grew up in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul and was the first woman to play for a men’s professional baseball team. She was a trailblazer, subjected to substantial racial and sexual discrimination as she pursued her passion.

I plan to learn about a variety of topics via community and University events for Black History Month. Alongside these opportunities, it’s also important to learn, reflect, and respond following the recent fatal shooting of Amir Locke in Minneapolis. I encourage you to read more in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee’s article below.

ASR Staff Engagement February 10th Survey

This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey February 10th, 2022 assesses Google Drive and how we use it. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences!

According to the last survey, 46.9% of respondents feel that their workload is a little too much followed closely by those who feel that their workload is about right (43.8%). When asked about prioritizing your workload, most feel that they are very effective at prioritizing (59.4%) while 31.3% feel that they are somewhat effective at prioritizing.

When asked about when you are typically most busy, most indicated that they were always busy regardless of the time of the year (61.3% of the vote total), followed by ‘right before the beginning of a semester’ (32.3%), and ‘towards the end of a semester’ (25.8%). Finally, the majority of respondents indicated that they are ‘morning’ people (51.6%) while about half indicated that they are ‘night’ people (25.8%). Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.

January 27th, 2022 survey results

How do you feel about your workload?

• It feels about right - (43.8%)
• It feels like a little too much - (46.9%)
• I feel I could take on more if needed - (6.3%)
• I’m not sure, it depends (3.1%)

How effective are you at prioritizing your workload?

• Very effective - (59.4%)
• Somewhat effective - (31.3%)
• Not very effective - (6.3%)
• I’m not sure, it depends - (3.1%)

When are you typically most busy (check all that apply)

• Right before the beginning of a semester - (32.3%)
• At the start of a semester - (22.6%)
• Towards the end of a semester - (25.8%)
• Right after the end of a semester - (19.4%)
• I’m always busy! - (61.3%)

Do you consider yourself a morning or night person?

• Morning - (51.6%)
• Night - (25.8%)
• Both! - (9.7%)
• Neither! - (12.9%)