The Performance Agreement - Check-ins

Process: Step 3

Lesson duration

About 6 minutes

What you will learn:

When the Check-in functionality becomes active
Using the Check-in stats
How a manager would do a check-in on an objective, and provide feedback
How the employee can reply to a checked-in objective's feedback

Doing a Check-in on Objectives

After submitting their performance objectives, employees will work on achieving them for three to five months before doing the review with their managers.

During this period, using the Check-in functionality provides a simple but effective way of keeping the objectives in focus, getting guidance and direction from a manager, and ensuring there are no surprises during the actual review.

Just note, a manager does not have to check-in on all objectives every time a Check-in is done. Select a few - if guidance is needed - and give feedback only on those objectives. During the next Check-in, focus on another set of objectives.

Remember, a Check-in is not a replacement for a face-to-face discussion with your employee/manager, it is done in addition to regular discussions.

A Check-in can be done as many times during your performance cycle as is needed.

Activating the Check-in functionality

Using the Check-in functionality is optional and depends on a company's configuration.

If Check-ins are enabled in the system, the CHECK-IN button will become active when an employee's objectives have been submitted and approved - that is when the contracting phase has concluded. See the screenshot below.

Check-in statistics

When the employee or manager opens the employee's check-in screen, find a summary of Check-in statistics at the top of the screen. It serves to give some indication of where to focus, and this is helpful when there are lots of objectives on a performance agreement.

See below for the interpretation of the numbers.

Do a Check-in (as manager)

Since the bulk of the activity on the check-in screen is from the manager's side, the following screenshots are from the manager's perspective.

From the Manager's Performance Management Dashboard, locate the applicable person's contract, and click its CHECK-IN button.

The Check-in screen opens, revealing:

The Check-in stats at the top.

The standard section menu is on the left side of the screen.

The objectives are grouped per section in the middle of the screen.

Locate the objective due for a Check-in, and click on its record ...
...to open the check-in feedback screen.

Provide feedback as needed.

The feedback in the My Comments field is made available to your employee; feedback typed as Private Comments is not.

Use the Rating toggle button to indicate current progress sentiment.

Evaluating an item is not done in terms of the regular 1 to 5 (e.g.) rating scale but in the format of an On Track, or Not on Track indication.

Click SAVE when done.

After saving the feedback, notice how the feedback is added to the history of the objective's check-ins.

In the lower, right corner, click EDIT LAST COMMENT to edit the last feedback. The agreement screen is updated with objectives having had check-ins done on them.