Configuring the Attribute Sections

The attribute section is one of the main working sections of a performance management form. It lists all attributes (competencies and skills) to be evaluated during a review.

A form can have one or more attributes sections, but each attribute ID can only appear once in a form. If there is an overlap, the attribute only appears in the first (topmost) section of the performance form.

Attribute sections can begin in one of the following ways:

• Blank, in which case the user manually adds the attributes to be reviewed.
• With relevant attributes already identified and listed in the form.

Attributes can automatically be populated into a performance form or added manually by the user. Depending on the way an attribute is populated in a section of the performance form, there are four different attribute types:

Job Specific Attributes

Attributes that are mapped to the role or job code of the employee can be automatically populated in an attribute section. When the form is launched, the relevant attributes will default based on the employee’s role. 

If a user’s job code changes and new attributes should appear in the form, a new form must be created. These attributes can be further filtered by the group in which they reside, giving the option to pull only the job specific competencies within specific groups.

Caution

Unlike changes in Goal Plan that are dynamic and will reflect on the goal sections, the attribute content becomes native to the form on launch. That means, if an employee has a new skill or competency mapped to the Job Role after the form was created, the attribute section will NOT display this change. The form would need to be relaunched.

Core Attributes

Skills and/or Competencies with the Core tag, can be automatically populated in an attribute section. When the form is launched, the core attributes will default on all employees’ forms. 

Custom Attributes

Skills and/or Competencies can be hard-coded into a performance form template as Custom Attributes, so they always appear for all employees. 

Ad Hoc Attributes

You can allow the addition of Skills and/or Competencies on an ad hoc basis in any of these section types (Job Specific / Core / Custom). In Manage Templates, an administrator can enable the option Allow users to add skills or Allow users to add competencies, depending on the Attribute Type. With this option, users will display an Add Skills or Add Competencies button in that section and can add attributes from the Talent Intelligence Hub.  

Before the attributes (competencies and skills) can be populated by job code, you must ensure the following three prerequisites are met: 

• The Employee Data (UDF) file must have job codes for each employee. 
• Job Roles must be mapped with these exact Job Codes as appear in the data file. 
• Skills and Competencies can then be mapped to these Job Roles.  

With these prerequisites met, either on an EC or non-EC environment, attribute sections of type Job Specific can be configured and will pull into the form the Skills/Competencies assigned to the subject's Job Role.

Configure a Job Specific Attribute Section using Manage Templates

Watch this video to learn how to configure a job specific attribute section in Manage Templates. 

In the Attribute section, the Job Specific checkbox needs to be selected in the Section Type as illustrated in the figure shown below. In the Attribute Type dropdown, select Competency or Skill depending on whether the section should populate with competencies or skills.

Configure Attributes Based on Job Code using XML

In the <competency-sect> attribute list, add the following code: use-jobcode="true". This populates all the subject’s job-specific attributes.

Attributes can be further filtered by categories. To add only the job-specific attributes from certain categories, set the category-filter-opt into "specified-category" and add the <comp-category> sub-element under </fm-sect-scale>. Remember that the category name is case and space sensitive and can be retrieved from the competency library or the attribute libraries in Manage Talent Intelligence Hub. 

Before core competencies or skills can be populated on a performance form they must be tagged as Core in Manage Talent Intelligence Hub.  

Configuration of Core Competency Section using Manage Templates

Watch this video to learn how to configure the core competency section in Manage Templates.

In the Attribute section, the Core checkbox needs to be selected in the Section Type as illustrated in figure Populate Core Competencies. In the Attribute Type dropdown, select Competency or Skill depending on whether the section should populate with competencies or skills.

Custom competencies and/or skills can be hard coded in an attribute section of the form template. This can be configured from Manage Templates or from XML. 

Configure Custom Attribute Sections using XML

When hard coding attributes, add sub-element <fm-competency> to the <competency-sect> element, below </fm-sect-scale>, as shown in the figure shown below.

Elements and Attributes:

The table titled Hard Coding in XML: Elements and Attributes shows the XML elements and attributes of most relevance to hard coding.

Hard Coding in XML: Elements and Attributes

Element or Attribute	Description
Index	Index refers to the location of the section in the template; in this case, a competency or skill with index="0" appears first in the list of competencies or skills within that attribute section.
Removable	When the removable attribute is set to "true", any permissioned user is able to remove the competency or skill from the form using the Remove Competency or Remove Skill buttons on the form. When the attribute is set to "false", no user can remove that attribute.
<fm-comp-id>	This is the ID of the attribute to be hard coded. It can be found in Manage Talent Intelligence Hub.
<fm-comp-name>	The name of the attribute as it appears in the attribute library is populated to the form. This field can be used to add more details, but does not display in the instance.
<fm-comp-desc>	Similar to <fm-comp-name>, this element allows for additional details about the attribute that do not display in the instance.

Caution

Weights can also be added to each <fm-competency> sub-element, but this is not recommended practice as weighting individual attributes causes the overall calculated rating to be too granular. 

Attributes can be manually added on a form. The Add Competency or Add Skill button needs to be enabled for the end user. This can be configured in both Manage Templates and in XML. 

Watch this video to learn how to enable users to add competencies in a competency section using Manage Templates. 

To populate ad hoc attributes in Manage Templates, navigate to the form to be updated, select the Attribute section and under the Show advanced options link, select the Allow users to add competencies or Allow users to add skills checkbox as illustrated in the figure that appears below.

You can make advanced settings to an attribute section using the following options in Manage Templates:

• Allow users to add competencies or Allow users to add skills.

  Select this to allow users to add competencies or skills to the review being rated.

• Show behaviors

  Select this option to allow users to display the behaviors associated with a competency on the form, if available. These behaviors should also be mapped to the Job Roles' competencies in order to display in a job-specific attribute section type.

• Include the ability to rate

  Select this option to allow the rating options for the users working in the form, using the rating scale selected in General Settings or a specific one for the section. If this option is selected, the rating option needs to be determined (see the rating-opt table below which shows every possible combination).

• Include a comment for each item

  Select this to allow users to comment on each item in the section. If you do not select this option, there is no item level comment box for users to fill in.

• Include an Overall Comment

  Select this to allow users to make a comment at the bottom of the section.

• Show expected competency rating or Show expected skill rating.

  This option would display the expected ratings if defined in the Job Role - Attribute mapping in Manage Job Profile Content.

• Include in overall performance summary section rating To include the section for the overall summary rating calculation.
• Include the ability to enter in a weight. To allow to enter individual weights per each attribute.
• Display Section in Summary. To show this section in the summary.
• Show Calculated Section Rating. Display calculated section rating in the summary.
• Rating Scale. To select a specific rating scale in the section if different from the general one.
• Hide numeric rating values (only show text labels). To display the rating labels only.
• Default Rating. To determine the label when no rating has been selected yet.
• Choose an alternate label for the rating field. To determine the label for the official rating.

The attributes described in the table are available for general settings (XML).

You can use the elements described in the table to change labels or phrasing in an attribute section.

Expected ratings provide insight into how the employee should be performing based on a defined job role or job profile. It is used to help calculate the gap between expected and actual performance. Expected ratings were previously available only in the Summary section.

You configure expected ratings in the Performance Management form XML template, using the following tags:

<show-comp-expected-rating="true" show-behavior-expected-rating="true">

The format for the expected rating can be displayed as a percentage or number. The attribute that controls the format is comp-expected-rating-format and behavior-expected-rating-format. The possible values are 0 (as %) or 1 (converts % to a score normalized to the section scale)

As mentioned previously, it is not recommended to assign item weights within attribute sections because it makes the overall rating too granular. However, if a customer requests that items within the section are weighted, you can accommodate this request.

The following two <competency-sect> attributes control weight configuration in an attribute section: 

• no-weight
  • If no-weight="true", all items are weighted equally in the section. 
  • If no-weight="false", items are weighted according to the weights that you enter for each item. 
• lock-item-weights
  • If lock-item-weights="true", you cannot edit the weights. 
  • If lock-item-weights="false", you can edit the weights. 

You can set item weights to have a minimum ("floor") and maximum ("ceiling") acceptable value within a section or enforce or warn if the total sum of weights is exceeded or not met, just like in the Goal Sections. You can review the previous lesson that explains how to configure these options, if applicable.

• The attribute section is one of the main working sections and lists all attributes (competencies and skills) to be evaluated during a review.
• A form can have one or more attributes sections, but each attribute ID can only appear once in a form.
• Expected ratings provide insight into how the employee should be performing based on a defined job role or job profile.
• it It not recommended to assign item weights within attribute sections because it makes the overall rating too granular but the request can be fulfilled should the customer request it.