Thank you to the Office of Leadership & Organizational Development Team and the HeadsUP Executive Director, Robert Miller for providing information on the guidelines and FAQs for the annual performance review of administrators.
Please see below for frequently asked questions and basic guidelines for distribution and use of the survey tool.
The University Handbook on Appointed Personnel (policy 5.1.01) defines Administrative Personnel appointments as vice presidents, deans, and academic department heads (including school directors). These appointments are made in accordance with Arizona Board of Regents Policy Manual 6-101.
All administrators will be evaluated in writing once every 12 months by their immediate supervisor with respect to their leadership in building trust, fostering collaborations, maximizing resources, achieving results and instilling inclusive excellence, according to UHAP 5.2 (see below for more background on policy). Input from faculty and staff will be included in the annual review and a self-assessment.
Obtaining and reviewing annual feedback from staff and faculty reports can help administrators regularly address any changes necessary and will help them stay on track for their five-year review.
Faculty Affairs and Human Resources have created a survey for the purpose of soliciting annual feedback from immediate faculty and staff reports for the administrator. The survey should take approximately 5-8 minutes to complete. The items are similar to those that are used in the five-year administrative review, but the annual review survey is designed to be shorter as to facilitate higher rates of completion. Additionally, the annual review survey is not required to be sent out to the range of stakeholders considered during five-year review. The survey content is based on the UHAP annual review criteria (listed below) and the five-year review criteria https://policy.arizona.edu/employment-human-resources/five-year-reviews-administrative-personnel.
The survey is in the University of Arizona – University Wide organization library in Qualtrics. Instructions on how to start a new project using the survey as a template are here.
It is recommended that only direct reports be included in the annual review. Direct reports of staff and faculty should be invited to complete the survey. The five-year review survey is when the survey is sent out to a much broader audience that includes students, affiliated faculty and advisory boards; however, this is not necessary at the annual review. The survey has been constructed to ensure all responses remain anonymous.
The supervisor will manage the distribution of the survey as part of the annual review process for the administrator. The survey is openly accessible in Qualtrics. In Qualtrics, the survey content will need to be copied into a unique project for each administrator so that a unique link can be generated and results managed separately. The Distribution tab provides access to create a link for anonymous responses, which can be embedded into an email sent to direct reports of the administrator (staff and faculty). The supervisor will email the link with the invitation message (see below) and provide at least 14 days for responses.
It is recommended that the survey be initiated at least one month before career conversations take place. This will provide sufficient time to allow 14 days to collect responses, organize the data report, and share with the administrator prior to the career conversation meeting.
Recommended email message with the survey link: I would like to invite you to complete this brief survey *add link here* to provide input for the annual review of *add name of administrator* The University of Arizona is committed to growth and development of administrators. As part of this process, we provide them with the opportunity to obtain informal, honest, and constructive feedback from staff and faculty within their units. This feedback provides them with rich and actionable items to help them develop themselves and their units. We would appreciate you taking a few moments to share your perspective on their leadership skill. The survey should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. The survey has been constructed to ensure your responses remain anonymous. Thank you for your participation in this important process. If you have any questions, please contact *add name of contact person*.
The supervisor will utilize the survey summary report to consider in their career conversation with the administrator along with their annual report self-study narrative. The summary report of the survey findings will not be made public, it will only be used as an additional source of information to conduct the career conversation.
The summary report will only be reviewed and used by the administrator and their supervisor. The summary report will need to be shared with the administrator prior to the career conversation meeting. This is a tool to assist the supervisor in coaching the administrator to enhance performance. We give annual feedback to our administrators, and this survey is part of that process.
There are no open-ended items on the survey given the previous research indicating that anonymous open-ended items are not a productive manner in which to solicit feedback. As such, we recommend that if a supervisor identifies concerns based on responses from the survey that they will seek additional input from faculty and staff through small group settings or individual in person meetings. This can be done through a “skip meeting” organized and led by Human Resources Leadership Consultants. If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Leadership & Organizational Development at leadershipcoaching@email.arizona.edu or 520-621-9561.