Configuring the Goal Sections

The Goal section is one of the main standard sections in a performance form. It includes all the goals to be evaluated during the review process. We can create as many sections as needed and goals can be included automatically in the performance form using the auto-populate or the auto-sync functionality. Goals can still be added, edited or removed from the Goal section of the performance form. 

When implementing the Goal Management and the Performance Management module, decisions need to be made around how the users involved will work on their goals directly in the Goal Plan or in the goal section of the Performance Form. Should goals always be updated in a Goal Plan, or are we going to allow employees and managers to update goals in the Performance Form?

In general, the goal process happens before the performance review process. Employees are evaluated on whether they met their goals and how they met those goals. In order to do this, goals from the goal plan are automatically populated to the performance form for evaluation.

There are two ways to populate the goals to a Performance Form: auto-populate and auto-sync.

When auto-populate is enabled, existing goals from the goal plan are transferred to the performance form automatically on creation. When specific goals are changed these changes are reflected on both the goal plan and the performance form.

Auto-sync completely synchronizes goals between the Goal Plan and the performance form. All goals added, changed, or deleted after the initial performance form is created are automatically updated each time you open the form. In this way both the Goal Plan and the performance form remain identical.

Auto-populate and auto-sync have very important, yet subtle, differences. Customers must be mindful of these differences, and think through how their business processes might be impacted, before they decide which method to use. For example, if you use auto-sync and delete a goal from either the goal plan or the performance form, it is deleted from both locations and there is no permanent record of that goal.

The following tables illustrate some of the differences between the two methods of goal population.

Auto-Sync Enablement

By default, any goals on a goal plan auto-populate to the goals section of the associated performance form. 

You must enable auto-sync if it is desired instead. You can enable auto-sync by entering the code shown in the figure below. <obj-sect-plan-id>. 

Auto-Sync Enabled in XMLAlternatively, you can enable auto-sync by navigating to Advanced Options in Manage Templates, and checking the Synchronize goals from a goal plan and a review form option.

Goal Management-Performance Management Sync Up can be enabled either in Provisioning → Company Settings or from Performance Management Feature Settings. When GM-PM Sync is enabled, Goal Management (GM) will "push" the changes to Performance Management (PM) so that the PM module will not miss it. Without this option, if the PM form was not opened/saved since the last modification on GM, the update would not be included in the form.

When GM-PM Sync up is not enabled, there are two issues:

1. Performance Management (PM) fetches the goals from Goal Management (GM) once a form is opened, and keeps a local copy in PM, which might later be used by Variable Pay. If the PM form was not opened since the last modification on GM, Variable Pay will not be able to get the up-to-date GM data.

2. Form reports are generated based on the "feedback table" in PM. But again, PM only updates this table once a form is opened. In case the PM form was not opened since the last modification on GM, the report might include expired GM data.

The Goal section can be configured in either Manage Templates or in the XML template. 

You can change the following items to configure a Goal section through Manage Templates:

• Section Name: The name of the section as it appears on the form.

• Description: The section introduction, which appears at the top of the section.

• Section Type: Here you can add the Goal section or Individual Development Plan section by selecting the radio button next to the desired section and selecting Goal Plan from the dropdown menu.

• Unable to Rate: This configuration is used if employees cannot be rated for some reason. Text entered here is not included in the overall rating. It is the equivalent of a "Not Applicable" entry.

• Show "Add Existing Objective" Button: This configuration is used only when goals are auto-populated. If a goal is added to the goal plan after the performance form is created, selecting this button allows users to pull the new goal(s) into the performance form.

Advanced Option Configurations

You can change the following advanced options to configure a Goal section through Manage Templates:

• Include the Ability to Rate: Select this configuration if employees are rated using the rating scale picked in General Settings. If this configuration is not selected, reviewers of the form are not able to select a rating for the employee for this section.

  • Everyone has their own rating box for each item: This configuration means that the form has a rating box unique to each employee. Each employee sees their own rating box next to their self-assessment.

  • Everyone shares one rating box for each item: This configuration means that the form only has one rating box for each item. Permissions are set to determine which role can make the rating. If this permission is assigned to more than one role, the most recent rating entered is the final score.

• Exclude Private Goals: When this feature is enabled, the private goals are excluded from the form when the form is created. Also, you will not be able to add a new private objective to the form.

• Include the Ability to Enter a Weight: You can select this checkbox to allow weighting of goals to factor into the calculation.

• Include a Comment for Each Item: You can select this checkbox to allow users to comment on each item in the section.

• Include Overall Comment: You can select this checkbox to allow users to make an overall comment at the bottom of the section.

You can change the following options to configure a goal section in the XML template:

• Section Name: The <obj-sect-name> element controls this configuration.
• Description: The <obj-sect-intro> element controls this configuration.
• Section Type: The <obj-sect-type> and <obj-sect-plan-id> elements control this configuration.

  • The <obj-sect-type> element indicates how to populate the Objective section and whether a total goal management plan or a bill of materials (BOM) plan is pulled into the section. The only valid option for goal management is "plan".

  • The <obj-sect-plan-id> indicates which specific goal plan is being pulled into the section. You can obtain the goal plan by checking the goal plan template.

• Unable to Rate: The <unrated-rating> element controls this configuration, and defaults to "Too New To Rate". You can change this verbiage as desired.
• Allow Users to Add Goals: A combination of the configurable and hide-addexistinggoals-btn attributes control this configuration.
  • Set configurable="true" to add the Add Goals button to the form. You can further control this button via permissions (discussed in a later module).

  • Set hide-addexistinggoals-btn="false" to enable the Add Existing Goals button in the section. This feature is explained in more detail later in the module.

There are several attributes that dictate how weighting is handled. These are covered in more detail in a later module. 

• auto-pop-weights: When this attribute is set to "true", weights are automatically pulled from the goal plan into the goal section. You can further control it via permissioning. 
• lock-item-weights: When this attribute is set to "true", the weight of each goal cannot be edited. 
• no-weight: When this attribute is set to "true", each goal is weighted equally in the section score.
• in-summ-display: When you set this attribute to "true", a summary of the section appears in the summary section. 
• in-objcomp—summ-display: When you set this attribute to "true", a summary of the section appears in the Objective Competency summary section (this section is discussed in a later module). 
• in-overall-rating: When you set this attribute to "true", the ratings/weights of the section are included in the calculated overall rating. 
• in-objcomp-summ-rating: When you set this attribute to "true", the ratings/weights of the section are included in the Objective Competency summary section. 
• min-goals-required and max-goals-allowed: These attributes determine the maximum and minimum number of goals permitted in a section. You can set warnings and limits to enforce these limits, which are covered in a later module.

You can use the following elements to change various labels or wording within a goal section: 

• <rating-label>: Controls the manager rating label. 
• <rating-label-others>: Controls the subject rating label. 
• <default-rating>: Controls the null value that shows by default in the rating scale. It does not impact overall rating calculations. 
• <section-manager-comments-label>: Controls what label shows with the overall section comments provided by the manager. 
• <section-subject-comments-label>: Controls what label shows with the overall section comments provided by the subject (employee). 
• <manager-comments-label>: Controls what label shows with the item comments provided by the manager. 
• <subject-comments-label>: Controls what label shows with the section comments provided by the subject (employee). 

The ratable sections of a performance form contain items which can be rated and commented upon. Items are either goals or competencies depending on whether the ratable section is a goal or competency section. 

Watch the following videos to learn about the four rating options: 

Rating Option="0": Allows for only one Rating Field that everyone shares: this is the official rating. 

Rating option="1": Allows all users to share the official rating. The employee has an additional rating field available. 

Rating option="2": Allows all users to share the official rating. In addition, all users have their own rating field. 

Rating option="3": Only the employee (E) and the manager (EM) can rate. The official rating can only be accessed by the EM role. 

By default, all goals on the associated goal plan populate to the performance form, but some customers may wish to have only certain categories of goals present on the performance form. Currently, selective addition of goals is a function that you can only complete in the XML Template, not in Manage Templates.

If the goal section of the performance form is auto-populated, goals that are created on the goal plan are not added to the performance form. If the customer wants the user to have the ability to "pull" those goals from the goal plan to the performance form, you can enable the Add Existing Objective button.

It is common for customers to request that goals be added directly to the performance form. You can complete this action with the Add Goal button, and control it via the configurable attribute of the objective section element. You can fully permission this button by role.

When working within a goal plan, users generally set weights for goals. You cannot enforce limits for those weights on the goal plan, but you can enforce them on the performance form.