Your Performance Management Task List includes an entry for each Performance Management Plan (PMP) to which you belong. Under each PMP entry appears a list of tasks that the application generates when the HR Professional publishes the PMP. The application enables these tasks at appropriate times during the performance-management period.

The tasks that you see and the order in which you perform them depend on configuration choices made in the PMP. For example, if the PMP includes appraisal creation, the application generates the Manage Appraisals task and allocates it to you. Otherwise, the task does not appear. Similarly, if the PMP uses the parallel objective-setting process, your first task is likely to be Review Worker Changes (as the worker starts the objective-setting process). If the PMP uses the cascading objective-setting process, your first task is likely to be Cascade or Set Objectives (as you start the objective-setting process).

This topic describes the manager performance-management tasks, the associated notification messages, and the Switch Manager function. The first five tasks described (Cascade or Set Objectives, Align Objectives, Transfer Scorecards to Workers for Action, Review Worker Changes, and Finish Objective Setting) are the objective-setting tasks and are enabled during objective-setting periods. (They are enabled outside objective-setting periods only if the HR Professional has explicitly allowed you, in the PMP, to make changes outside the objective-setting period.)

Cascade or Set Objectives

The Cascade or Set Objectives task enables you to set objectives for workers who report to you directly. You can:

• Cascade one or more objectives to a single worker or multiple workers using the Cascade Objectives page. You can cascade one or more objectives to single or multiple workers. Using this feature, managers can cascade their objectives to their workers, either by duplicating their objectives or creating new objectives that are linked to their own objectives.

• Add one or more objectives to each worker's personal scorecard by creating new objectives, copying objectives (from the Objectives Library, from the worker's previous scorecards, or from objectives shared with the worker), or duplicating and aligning objectives already in the personal scorecard.

• Cascade one or more of your own objectives to some or all of your team members. If you use this approach, you must first use Employee Self-Service to set your own objectives.

  See: Cascading Objectives

  Note: Your manager must have approved objectives that you set for yourself before you can cascade those objectives to your team members. If you are the topmost manager of the plan population to which a cascading plan is published, then your scorecard is approved automatically.

You can use either or both of these approaches to update a single personal scorecard. Note also that you do not have to set objectives for workers, even though this task appears in your task list. A worker's personal scorecard may already include objectives that the application allocated automatically or copied from the previous personal scorecard or appraisal. You can simply transfer the scorecard to the worker without making further changes, if appropriate. You can also update or delete objectives already in a worker's personal scorecard.

You can perform this task only when the scorecard status is Not Yet Started: With Manager or With Worker. Changes that you make to personal scorecards are not visible to their owners until you perform the Transfer Scorecards to Workers for Action task.

Align Objectives

The Align Objectives task enables you to define relationships between your workers' objectives and your own objectives. You may want to perform this task if you have already shared some of your objectives (using Employee Self-Service) with one or more of your team members and added supporting objectives to those workers' personal scorecards.

See: Sharing and Aligning Objectives

This task appears in your task list only if the plan administrator enables sharing and alignment in the PMP. You do not have to perform this task, even though it appears in your task list. Not all objectives must be aligned with other objectives. Also, this task is not relevant for objectives that you have allocated using the cascading process, as these objectives are automatically aligned with the objectives that you cascade.

Transfer Scorecards to Workers for Action

When you have finished updating a worker's personal scorecard, you perform this task to transfer the scorecard to its owner. In the notification message, you can specify changes that the worker can make to the scorecard. When you perform this task, the scorecard status changes to With Worker.

You must perform this task if you have updated the worker's personal scorecard. You cannot perform the Finish Objective Setting task (which publishes the scorecard) if you have not first transferred the updated scorecard to its owner.

Review Worker Changes

You perform the Review Worker Changes task as workers return their reviewed or updated personal scorecards to you for approval. This task lists all personal scorecards with changes that you have not yet reviewed and with a status of Approval Requested. You can:

• Approve all changes to the scorecard. The scorecard status changes to With Manager, and you can make further changes to the scorecard, if necessary.

• Request further action. In this case, the application returns the personal scorecard to the worker. In the notification message, you can specify any changes that you want the worker to make. The application changes the scorecard status to With Worker. When the scorecard status changes back to Approval Requested, you can review the scorecard again.

• Reject all changes to the scorecard. In this case, the application removes all changes that the worker has made to the scorecard. If that is not the desired effect, select the Request Further Action option. When you reject the worker's changes, the scorecard status changes to With Manager, and you can make further changes to the scorecard, if necessary.

Finish Objective Setting

You perform this task once for each worker when you have finished the objective-setting and review processes. You can perform this task only if the scorecard status is With Manager. You cannot perform this task (the task is disabled) if the scorecard contains changes that you have not transferred to the worker using the Transfer Scorecards to Workers for Action task. When you perform the Finish Objective Setting task, the scorecard status changes to Published.

View and Track Objective Progress

This task is enabled throughout the performance-management period. All personal scorecards, regardless of their statuses, are accessible from this task. You can:

• View a worker's personal scorecard by clicking the Details icon. If the worker is recording progress against objectives, you can view that information here.

• Update a worker's progress by clicking the Action icon. You can update any of the tracking fields (Complete %, Achievement Date, Actual, and Verified) for an objective. The Complete % value can be greater than or less than 100.

  Note: You select Verified when you have confirmed that the worker has achieved an objective whose measurement style is qualitative.

You can update objectives during a specific stage of the performance process, even though the View and Track Objective Progress task is enabled throughout the performance-management period.

• If the PMP includes only the Objective Setting task, then record progress for objectives within the objective setting period after the completion of the Finish objective setting task.

• If the PMP includes both the Objective Setting and Appraisals tasks, then record progress for objectives within the objective setting period after the completion of the Finish objective setting task, and before the appraisal task start date.

The ability to update the objectives and objectives' details added by workers depends on the setting of the HR: Allow Updates To Objective Details Added By Appraisee profile option.

See: Measuring Objectives and Tracking Objectives

Manage Appraisals

The Manage Appraisals task appears in your task list only if the PMP includes appraisals. It occurs once for each appraisal task (each combination of appraisal template and appraisal period) identified in the PMP. For example, if the PMP identifies a midyear appraisal and a full-year appraisal, two Manage Appraisals tasks appear in the task list for that PMP.

The application enables this task on the appraisal-task start date specified in the PMP and disables it on the appraisal task end date. You can complete PMP appraisals after the appraisal task end date and before the plan period end date, if your enterprise sets the HR: Update PMP Appraisals After the Appraisal Period profile option to Yes.

While this task is enabled, the application disables the objective-setting tasks. To manage objectives during an appraisal-task period, you use the Objectives section of the appraisal.

When you select this task, your Appraisals home page lists appraisals for PMP members for whom you are main appraiser. If the PMP identifies you as the appraisal initiator, you have ownership of the appraisal. If the appraisee is the initiator, you cannot update the appraisal until the appraisee first shares it with you.

See: The Appraisal Process

Notification Messages

You receive notification messages when:

• The application generates your task list, if the plan administrator selects Notify Plan Population.

• Workers transfer their personal scorecards to you for approval.

You issue notification messages when:

• You transfer personal scorecards to workers.

• You publish workers' personal scorecards.

• Plan administrator reopens scorecards, refreshes scorecards, rolls back PMPs, reopens appraisals, and sends mass notifications.

Using the Switch Manager Function

You can access only PMPs to which you belong. If a worker who reports to you belongs to a PMP of which you are not a member, you can use the Switch Manager function to access that worker's personal scorecard.

Note that the Switch Manager function is enabled by default, but may be disabled in your enterprise.

Changes Due to Performance Management Plan Administrative Tasks

Enroll Workers in a Plan

When performance management plan administrators enroll workers in a plan, managers can complete the following tasks in the performance management plan (PMP) cycle:

• Cascade or set objectives

• Align objectives

• Transfer scorecards to workers for action

• Review worker changes

• Finish objective setting

• View and track objective progress

• Manage appraisals

Reopen Scorecards

When performance management plan administrators reopen a scorecard, the scorecard status changes to 'With Manager' for both cascading and parallel plans.

The scorecard is available to the manager in the Set Worker page to add new objectives and cascade own objectives.

Access Enwisen from Info Online

If your enterprise enables the Info Online content container, then you access the web site of Enwisen, a third-party information provider. Click the Handbook link to access information, for example, your company's information on performance appraisals.