How do I use the Appraisals module?

The entirety of the Appraisal cycle can be created and managed in Pentana Risk Browser. This guide shows how both managers and users can access the Appraisals module and complete and sign-off their forms.

For more information on administering the Appraisal module please see our guide How can I Administer the Appraisals module?

1. Permissions 
2. Viewing and Managing Appraisal Items
   1. Viewing your own Appraisal Items
   2. Managing your own Appraisal Items
   3. Viewing other Employees Appraisal items
   4. ​Managing other Employees' Appraisal items
3. Appraisal Form actions
   1. Managers - Manager Sign-off
   2. Managers and Employees - Form Completion
   3. Managers and Employees - Form Sign-off

Permissions 

Appraisals has three permissions unique to this module:

• Appraisal_Administrator - Allows the User to edit the Scoring Systems, Competencies, Responsibilities and Questions available on the system.
• Appraisal_Scheduler - Users with this permission will be able to schedule new appraisals. This permission is also a subset of Appraisal Administrator. Users do not need Appraisal Scheduler assigning to them if they already have Appraisal Administrator.
• Organisation_Administrator - Allows the User to edit the command and organisation hierarchies; creating and removing departments, assigning staff to them, changing the manager-employee relationships of all employees on the system.

This guide will indicate where specific permissions are required. 

Viewing and Managing Appraisal Items

Goals, Development Plans and Journal Entries can be created and edited within Browser. Lists of these items for the logged-in User are accessed through the Go To menu.

Viewing your own Appraisal Items

The logged in Users appraisal items can be viewed in two ways:

1. Click on the 'Go To..' menu, select 'Appraisals', and then click on 'Goals' or 'Development Plans' to access these items.
2. Click on the user name at the top right of the page, and click on 'View Profile'. From here, click on the 'Appraisals' tab, to view all of your appraisals objects. 

Managing your own Appraisal Items

After accessing the list of objects using one of the above methods, right clicking on each object should open a sub menu with an 'Edit' option. 

Only the creator of each Appraisal item can make changes to it.

Viewing other Employees Appraisal items

Only the Employee's Manager or an Appraisals Administrator, are able to view Competencies for other Employees.

There are two ways to view the Appraisal items for another User:

1. Via the User notebook (this requires 'User_Create' or Site Admin permissions) Click on the 'Go To..' menu, select 'More' and then 'Users'. Search for the target User, and click on their name to access their User notebook. Click on the 'Appraisals' tab. 
2. Click on the 'Go To..' menu, select 'Appraisals' and then 'Employee Search'. Here, select the name of the Employee whose items you want to manage to open their User Notebook in the Appraisals tab.

​Managing other Employees' Appraisal items

Once you have accessed the Users appraisal objects using one of the above methods, select the title of one of the Appraisal items panels, then select 'Manage'.

Only the creator of each Appraisal item can make changes to it.

The Appraisals module has a standardised flow model for every cycle:

At each stage, different actions are available for different Users. 

Managers - Manager Sign-off

For the Employees listed after the message "You are a manager named in this Appraisal. You need to set up forms for the following people before", you need to set-up their Appraisal forms with the required items before the deadline date given.

All the different item types that the Appraisals Administrator has chosen to include in the form are listed on this page. Add as few or as many items for each section as needed, and select Sign-off Form at the bottom when ready.

The form is then passed onto the next stage for completion.

Managers and Employees - Form Completion

For all items in the Appraisal form, a score, comment, or both requires submission, however, it is not necessary to provide either for all the items in order to Complete the form.

Submit your score against an item by either selecting the relevant coloured square, typing a number into the text field, or selecting the arrows in the text field to scroll through the numbers.

Submit your comment against an item by either typing into the text box, or using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste your comment from outside the application.

Some Appraisal items will provide guidance in order to help completion of the form. Where an item has a drop-down arrow next to its title, select the title to choose from the guidance available. The Default Guidance will show automatically

Fill in the form as best you can, then select the Complete button in the top-right corner to advance the form to the Sign-off stage. Alternatively, select the Save for later button to store your changes for later completion.

For Managers and Employees
This is the first of the two stages which require data to be entered against the form, so the Final Comment won't yet appear.

For Multiraters
As this is the only stage that Multiraters are involved in, they're required to enter a final comment in addition to completing the form.

Managers and Employees - Form Sign-off

At this stage, all contributors are required to provide an overall rating and final comment against the Appraisal form, before selecting the Sign Off button to sign-off on the Appraisal. A Scoring Summary is given for all items that have been rated, which comprises an average of all scores from all contributors.

For each item in the Appraisal, you have the option to make final modifications, through the item's title menu, before signing-off. This does not overwrite any scores or comments, which can be viewed through the View Modifications option in the Title menu.

For Managers and Employees
For Employees' forms that require signing off, you should provide a final comment, choose a response, or both, depending on what the Appraisals Administrator has chosen, and take the opportunity to review the scores and comments you initially submitted.

For Appraisals Administrators
Once all the contributors have signed-off on the Appraisal form, you may then perform the HR sign-off, where you must decide whether to accept or reject the form. If the form is accepted, it is then Completed, and can be reviewed at any time in the Appraisals tab of each contributors' User Notebook. Rejecting the form reverts it to Step 2 - Form Completion, with all contributions intact.