Performance Period

RF Annual Performance Review

The Research Foundation鈥檚 formal was designed to foster communication between employees and their supervisors, recognize individual accomplishments, and enhance employee development. As such, it is highly recommended that supervisors engage in an annual performance review with their employees. This discussion should be a conversation-based meeting on how the employee is performing in the main aspects of their position. Your meeting should focus on things such as job knowledge, customer service, teamwork, dependability, productivity, integrity/ethics, etc.

The research shows a direct correlation between employee success and ongoing supervisor engagement. The Research Foundation Office of Human Resources supports this process by providing an easy-to-use Annual Performance Review Form. This document will allow you and your employee to create actionable benchmarks to support growth and development while addressing any potential performance concerns. This form can be used as often as one would like throughout the year, however, it should be used at least annually to document your employee's progress towards an established set of job-related expectations. These open and honest conversations will pave the way for your employee鈥檚 success!

Additionally, The Research Foundation for SUNY (RF) develops a one-year, corporate-wide salary program designed to help Principal Investigators and managers remain competitive in the marketplace. Part of this plan outlines the RF鈥檚 commitment to pay for performance, thus, salary increases should reward employees for increased productivity and meritorious performance. In order to equitably evaluate your employees, it is required that annual written performance reviews are completed for administrative employees and it is highly recommended for all sponsored programs employees. In both cases, the final annual written performance review shall be shared with RFHR for the employees' personnel records. 

In order to be eligible for the merit portion of the corporate salary plan, employees must have at least 6 months of active employment at the time of the implementation of the increase. All active employees are eligible for the Across-the-Board increase as long as they were on payroll before 6/30. Salary increases covered under this plan may be made effective either on July 1, on the employee's anniversary date, or on the project anniversary date. Use of a different date, when required for budgetary reasons, must be documented and kept on file at the operating location.  Those employees on an approved leave of absence will be eligible for the across-the-board (ATB), and there is the possibility of a discretionary increase upon their return to work.

Note: Should you need any support in preparing for a Performance Review please do not hesitate to reach out to the RF Office of Human Resources. We are prepared to share best practices around the conversation itself and how to best document your meeting. Furthermore, please share your final Annual Performance Review Form with our office to be placed in the employee personnel files.

Process Overview:

- Supervisor sends their employee the Annual Performance Review Form

- Employee completes the following sections:

    • Performance Overview (What is going well)
      • This section allows the employee to communicate the areas of their job they feel they are excelling at.
    • Development Goals (What are you planning to focus on in the coming year)
      • This section allows the employee to communicate the areas of their job they want to improve on. These should be specific so that your supervisor can work to support these areas of development.
    • Professional Development Goals
      • This section allows the employee to communicate what types of Professional Development goals they would like to take part in. This could be attending a national conference, taking an online class, or joining a campus committee.

-Employee shares the completed document with their Supervisor.

-Supervisor then completes the following sections:

    • Performance Overview (What is going well)
      • This section allows the supervisor to communicate how they feel their employee鈥檚 performance has been during the past review period.
    • Development Goals (What should your employee focus on in the coming year)
      • This section allows the supervisor to outline what areas they feel their employee should develop in the coming year. These could mirror what the employee has outlined or be different areas depending on the need of the role.
    • Support for Employees' Professional Development Goals
      • This section allows the supervisor to specifically address how they can support the employee's Professional Development goals.

-Once the supervisor completes their section they should schedule a time to meet with the employee to review the final document. This should be an in-person meeting (if manageable) in order to get the most out of your time.

-Once the meeting is completed, the employee and/or supervisor may want to update the form's contents.

-The last step is to ensure the employee's job description is up to date and have the employee and supervisor sign the form. This would close out the process and the finalized form should be sent to rfhr@binghamton.edu to be added to the employee personnel file.

Note: The timing of the RF Annual Performance Review should coincide with how your area plans to implement an approved Corporate Salary Plan. Traditionally, the Annual Corporate Salary plan is implemented at campuses on July 1st of each year. If your area follows this traditional timeline, you will want to ensure that you complete your Annual Performance Review in advance of July 1st in order to have a basis for that year's salary plan implementation. If your area follows a different timeline when implementing the Corporate Salary Plan (ie: anniversary dates of employees), you will want to ensure your Annual Performance Review is completed in advance of that timeline.