ThisWeek CW 11/20/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/11/17/council-changes-flawed-evaluation-process.html

Groveport City Council voted unanimously Nov. 10 to update staff performance evaluation processes to correct current flaws.

City Administrator Marsha Hall asked council to consider the change to more accurately establish the performance rating of staff members, and then, if appropriate, provide for a merit increase.

The new process will take effect with the 2015 performance evaluations.

In her report to council, Hall said the current method of determining merit raises is “flawed.”

According to Hall, an employee who scores between 0 and 1.99 points on a performance evaluation receives no merit increase, while an employee scoring between 2 and 2.99 receives a 4-percent increase, and a score of 3 to 4 points receives a 4.5-percent increase.

“An employee who is awarded an average of 1/100th of a point higher receives a 4-percent increase while an employee who is rated consistently exceeding all criteria is only eligible for an additional 0.5-percent merit increase over the employee who is rated as meeting standards,” Hall said.

“In addition, in the current format of the performance appraisal, the general criteria apply at the same value as the job-specific criteria. In some cases, there are more general criteria than job-specific criteria,” she said.

To fix these flaws, Hall said the new method will calculate a merit increase in two parts.

“The first, most critical, would be determined by arriving at the average score between 0 and 4 points for those job-specific criteria included in the employee’s job description,” she said.

“The average score would then dictate the amount of the merit increase. For example, an employee who scores an average of 3.5 points would be eligible for a 3.5-percent merit increase.”

A cut off of 1.75 points will be established to prevent staff members who rate below standard from receiving an increase.

“The second part would be to add either a 0 or 0.5-percent increase based on if the employee meets the general criteria shown in all job descriptions,” Hall said.

“This part would come into play only if the employee is eligible to receive a merit increase under the first part of the evaluation.

“For example, if an employee scores an average of 4 points on the first part of the evaluation and a 0.5-percent increase on the second part of the evaluation, they would earn a total of a 4.5-percent merit increase.”