Quarterly Performance Conversations

Performance Conversations are four-question conversations between an employee and their manager. We’re asking you to discuss these four questions at least quarterly. Three performance conversations are required by the College on an annual basis.  You will log notes in Workday to remember what’s discussed and track your progress over time! 

Importance

Performance management and ongoing conversations are essential for many reasons. Some of these reasons are:

• Goal-setting: It is easier for employees and managers to develop realistic goals for employee progress. A good performance management strategy also allows employees to set practical goals that align with their current roles and career objectives.
• Engagement: Increased individual and team engagement can foster open and constructive dialogue between managers, employees and teams.
• Productivity: Encouraging employees to perform their best work allows you to improve productivity. Improved productivity can reduce stress in the workplace and allow employees to retain their focus more easily and achieve more in less time.
• Transparency: Regular conversations ensure alignment, expectation setting and understanding of how success is defined.

These conversations should not replace ongoing meetings to discuss priorities, areas of improvement, etc., but can improve and enhance those conversations.

Support Resources

The professional development classes offered by Talent Development are designed to help employees with different facets of performance. Topics include:

• Vulnerability and psychological safety
  
• Emotional intelligence
  
• Effective communication
  
• Managing conflict
  
• Coaching and feedback
  
• Performance management
  
• Quarterly Conversations: A Roadmap to Success - Sign up!
  
• [Coming Spring 2025] Annual Performance Summaries: Reflect, Review, Renew

We encourage you to bookmark the Employee and Manager Toolkits and look for the monthly HR Builds emails for upcoming opportunities.

Process

Both staff and managers have a role in the performance conversation. Employees will receive a Workday task and email notification when it is time to complete their portion.  RECOMMENDED: Put a calendar invitation or reminder on your Emerson Google Calendar to help you remember to complete these.  That way if you miss the email, or the Workday task moves farther down your inbox, you have the calendar to remind you! See the schedule below to help you create your calendar reminder dates.

Employee Portion

Staff employees will receive a task in their inbox to complete their self-evaluation at the beginning of every quarter.

Click Get Started.

You will see the questions you need to answer.   Click on the Answer or Pencil icon to type your responses.  All questions need to be answered in order for you to submit.  Please note: managers cannot enter notes into Workday until their employee has done their part.

Questions to Answer

• What progress has been made toward objectives, goals and expectations?
• What is the focus for the coming quarter?
• What works well in how we engage and what could be improved?
• What professional development was completed this quarter and what were some key takeaways?
• What other topics or ideas should we discuss that are not captured in the prior questions?

Click submit once you have answered all of the questions.  

Manager Portion 

Managers will receive the Complete Manager evaluation step once their employee submits their Performance Check-In. Please note: Managers cannot enter their comments until the employee has completed their step.

Managers will make comments on each of the questions their employee has answered.  Managers will see their employees’ answers side by side with their responses for ease of use. Managers cannot click into the Employee Evaluation section and change any responses.

Once the manager is ready, they can review and submit their responses.  All questions must be answered in order to submit.

View Completed 

Employees can view completed Performance Conversations. The most recent will be at top of the list. From the Workday home page, click on your profile. Select Performance from the left menu.

Managers can see past conversations for their employees as well. From the Workday home page, enter the employee's name into the search bar.  Click on their profile and select Performance from the left menu.

Edit or Update 

An open Performance Conversation can be updated.  "Open" means the manager has not yet submitted their comments. The manager has the ability to send the performance conversation back to the employee to make edits. An employee does not have the ability to make edits until the manager sends it back.

A closed Performance Conversation cannot be updated by either the manager or the employee.  Closed means all of the steps have been completed.

Manager Instructions

• Log into Workday Search for and open your employee’s profile
• Click on the “Performance” section on the left side of the profile
• Select the desired Performance Conversation link 
• In that conversation, click the Performance Conversation step under “My Actions” → Awaiting Me”

• Select the “Send Back” button
• Enter brief text in the “Reason” box, and then click “Submit” 

It will then appear in the employee’s inbox to edit and resubmit. Once the quarter deadline has passed, no edits can be made to that quarter's submission.

Time Frame

Reporting Completion

The HR team will run reports after each quarter and share completion and non-completion reports with division leadership.