Performance Evaluations

Administrative/Professional Faculty and Classified Staff: The annual cycle is April 1 – March 31. Evaluation due dates will be communicated by email.

Wage Employees: There is no formal evaluation form or process. Supervisors are encouraged to set goals and provide continuous performance feedback and coaching throughout the year to assist with professional development.

Employees play an active role in their own performance and development throughout the year. Key responsibilities include: 

• Demonstrate Professionalism and Engagement: Perform duties with integrity, stay fully engaged during work hours, participate in job-related training, and collaborate to support unit and university goals. 

• Track Performance and Growth: Maintain a record of achievements, challenges, kudos, and lessons learned to support reflection and development. 

• Complete the Required Self-Evaluation: Submit a self-evaluation in the performance management evaluation  system during the annual review process. Use this opportunity to reflect on accomplishments, identify areas for growth, and—if rating yourself “outstanding”—demonstrate how work made a significant and positive impact to support team or unit’s objectives or advance the mission of the organization in line with strategic priorities exceeded expectations in support of team or departmental goals. 

• Engage in Ongoing Communication: Seek regular feedback and clarification from supervisors to stay aligned on with responsibilities, expectations, and goals. Notify supervisor of any tools or assistance required to complete assigned responsibilities. 

• Review Role and Goals: Revisit job descriptions and performance goals throughout the year to stay on track and ensure alignment with departmental priorities. Resources (campus connection or VPN required) are available to assist with tracking performance throughout the year.  

• Participate in Performance Conversations: Use discussions with supervisors to set goals, explore professional development opportunities, and prepare for future roles. 

Supervisors play a critical role in supporting employee success and ensuring alignment with George Mason’s performance management process. Key responsibilities include: 

• Establish Clear Expectations: Ensure position descriptions accurately reflect essential job duties, responsibilities, and special assignments. Develop and share annual performance objectives that define expected outcomes, timelines, and resources. This can be done within the performance evaluation system during the midcycle check-in or annual performance evaluation process.  

• Align Roles with Strategic Goals: Review role classifications and ensure work distribution supports departmental and university priorities. 

• Provide Ongoing Feedback and Coaching: Supervisors are expected to be available to meet with employees regularly—both formally and informally—to offer feedback, coaching, and development opportunities. Document performance feedback in the performance evaluation management system and share it with the employee. 

• Support Performance Growth: Conduct interim evaluations as needed and implement performance improvement plans (PIPs) for employees not meeting expectations. Use the Midcycle Check-In to review goals and performance. Use the annual evaluation to reflect on past performance and set goals for the upcoming year. 

• Foster Communication and Trust: Maintain open lines of communication throughout the year to answer questions, provide guidance, and support career progression. A continuous feedback process helps build trust and reduces surprises during the annual review. 

• Meet Process Requirements: Comply with all deadlines and requirements related to the performance management and evaluation process. 

The reviewer is typically the supervisor’s supervisor and plays a critical role in ensuring fairness, consistency, and compliance in the performance evaluation process. The reviewer, or designee, must review the performance evaluation before it is presented to the employee. Key responsibilities include: 

• Support Performance Evaluation Timelines: Ensure that Supervisors and employees submit performance evaluations by the published deadlines. 

• Validate Evaluation Accuracy: Confirm that performance ratings are supported by comments and that any required documentation is submitted. 

• Ensure Fairness and Consistency: Review evaluations for consistency across supervisors, ensure fair appraisal of performance, and check for inappropriate or biased comments. 

• Oversee Appeals: Respond to employee appeals regarding their annual performance evaluation and ensure appeal decisions are made within the published timeframes. 

• • Classified Employees: May appeal to the reviewer in writing within 10 workdays of receiving the evaluation from their supervisor or when it becomes visible in the performance evaluation system, which is typically the next business day after the annual evaluation process concludes. The reviewer will provide a response within 5 workdays. The reviewer’s response should indicate whether they agree with the evaluation, or whether the supervisor or reviewer will revise or complete a new evaluation. An employee may also file a grievance if they feel the evaluation is arbitrary or capricious.  

• • Administrative/Professional Faculty: May appeal to the reviewer in writing within 10 workdays of receiving the evaluation from their supervisor or when it becomes visible in the performance evaluation system, which is typically the next business day after the annual evaluation process concludes. The reviewer has 10 workdays to review the appeal, meet with the employee, and provide a written response to let it stand or be revised as the reviewer, in their sole discretion, determines to be appropriate. The Performance Evaluation cannot be the subject of a grievance. 

•  Direct Revisions as Needed: Discuss concerns with the supervisor if the reviewer disagrees with the evaluation or identifies additional considerations. The reviewer may direct changes to ratings, comments, position descriptions, or performance objectives. 

• Support Supervisor Development: Ensure subordinate supervisors are trained on the Performance Planning and Evaluation process and best practices for managing performance. 

The performance evaluation team (leaps@gmu.edu) communicates the annual performance timeline, manages the system to document performance, provides training and resources, and works to ensure a fair performance system and process.

The Employee Relations team (emprel@gmu.edu) assists in the support and development of supervisor/staff relationships to ensure a positive employee experience, partners with employees and supervisors to resolve performance issues, and serves as the primary contact for evaluation concerns, appeals and grievances.

To be fair and objective, a performance evaluation must be based on actual performance and workplace behavior during the rated evaluation period, and not personal factors unrelated to the job. In addition to your observations as the immediate supervisor, performance evaluation information can come from other sources, including the employee, peers, customers, subordinates, supervisors, and work products.  

The evaluation should accurately reflect job objectives, measurement of outcomes, and achievement of any development goals established or adjusted during the evaluation year. It is important to be mindful that a recent concern or an incident that occurred early in the evaluation year does not influence the overall assessment and rating of the employee’s performance.   

In-person and virtual training is available to learn more about performance management and evaluation processes, best practices for observing and monitoring performance, rating practices, and the supervisor’s role in performance management.   

Performance Feedback Tips Throughout the Year

• Timely: Don't wait. Discuss performance or behavioral concerns early. Give feedback immediately following the performance or conduct concern (positive and constructive). If your emotions are high, wait until you are emotionally prepared to have a dialogue that is calm and wherein you can provide your observations and constructive feedback.  
• Specific: Tell the employee exactly what needs improvement based on your observation or assessment. Don't leave them wondering if they did a good job or guessing which part of their behavior or work product needs improvement.  
• Behavior: If the concern is related to workplace conduct or inappropriate communication, focus on the behavior, not the individual. If an employee attempts to justify their behavior, remind them of workplace norms and expectations of civility when faced with a difficult colleague, customer, or situation. 
• Impact: Describe the impact on the student/team/stakeholder. 
• Sincere: Be honest and open. Utilize coaching questions to help the employee understand and work through any challenges.  

Examples:  

• How do you feel about the situation?  
• What is getting in your way? 
• What is the cost of not making a change and not changing how you interact or get your work done in the future?  
• What have you done to begin moving toward these goals? 

Importance of Documentation

• Memo or follow-up email: Follow up a performance discussion with a written memo or email to clarify the performance issues discussed. List examples and consequences for the department on fellow employees. Offer your support with follow-up steps and reiterate the need for change and potential consequences if it does not improve.
• Supervisor Documentation: Keep a paper file or password protected online file as a source of documentation.
• Do's and Dont's: Always maintain a professional tone (even in your own notes - don't let your own frustration be apparent); avoid personal opinions, accusations, or judgments; don't use generalities or overstatements ("You're always late", "You don't seem to care about your job."); and remember to include the employee's explanation.

Completing the Performance Evaluation Form

• Reflect and acknowledge personal biases prior to writing employee evaluation comments to avoid stating subjective opinions, drawing conclusions, generalizing, or making discriminatory comments.
• Review your notes from the year, the employee's self-assessment, and the job duties and objectives/goals assigned to the employee.
• Avoid overstatements and exaggerations. Base your assessment on your own observations, not feelings or reports of unsubstantiated information. Avoid being influenced by your first or last impression of the employee, and/or rating favorably because you believe they have potential to meet expectations.
• To receive an “Unsatisfactory” rating, the employee must have received a “notice of improvement needed”  Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) or written notice for performance during the cycle. Always consult with Employee Relations (emprel@gmu.edu) before giving an unsatisfactory rating to Administrative/Professional Faculty or Classified Staff. 

The Meeting

• Choose a suitable location that will keep both you and the employee relaxed.
• Supervisors may hold preliminary conversations with employees, but the formal evaluation meeting should occur only after the reviewer has approved the evaluation and rating. Supervisors and reviewers must communicate about any delays to ensure the final evaluation and one-on-one meeting are completed within published deadlines. When delivering the evaluation, supervisors should confirm reviewer approval and reference the employee’s self-assessment to support a timely and meaningful discussion.
• Provide the employee a chance to review the evaluation before meeting by sharing a copy of the evaluation, which can be downloaded from the performance evaluation system, with them prior to completing the supervisor sign-off set in LEAPS.
• Remember the importance of your body language, tone, and positioning.
• Share your notes on their performance in comparison to their self-evaluation responses. If there are disparities between the self-evaluation and the supervisor assessment, clarify and address these disparities.
• Be specific and discuss regular, expected performance. Set new performance expectations for the next performance evaluation cycle according to current and planned priorities and objectives.
• Identify successes and accomplishments that went above and beyond expectations or fell short of what was expected, and be specific on how the overall rating was determined.
• Discuss any mismatch between goals and achievement.
• Remember...this is the starting point for discussion and should be a two-way communication between supervisor and supervisee.
• Address any interfering emotions or disagreements in a calm, supportive manner.

Finalizing the Evaluation

• The supervisor completes the sign-off step in LEAPS. 
• Employee completes their sign-off signs step and can add comments. 
• The employee signature does not indicate agreement - just that the evaluation was read and discussed. 
• Express appreciation for work well done. 
• Set a time to establish goals for the upcoming year if they weren’t already included in the performance evaluation.