UA Statewide employees had a discussion earlier this year with their supervisors about performance factors and objectives as part of the required annual performance appraisal. See UA Performance Appraisal Form for a list of performance factors and descriptions.

Supervisors and employees were encouraged during the rollout and the training on the performance appraisal form to have regular and ongoing discussions about performance factors and objectives. We understand that everyone gets busy and sometimes those discussions just don’t occur. ���

If you haven’t had a chance to meet with your supervisor and discuss objectives and performance factors, this is a good time to conduct a self-check on your own efforts and successes. �

Take a few minutes to review your performance appraisal document. Notate and celebrate your hard work and achievements on those performance objectives. In addition, don’t forget to recognize your teammates for those milestones met and the results or wins that you accomplished together.

If there’s a performance factor that you know is a challenge for you, or if you’re a high achiever and want to look at all the performance factors, you can do a search through the UA Employee E-Learning resources via Skillsoft. In addition, the campus libraries or your coworkers may have related resources, electronic documents or experiences to share with you. ���

Because there are so many resources available within Skillsoft, a one page flyer identifying courses and online books in the area of “Communication” is available as a starting point to assist employees. Communication, as a performance factor, is included on each of the universities’ performance appraisal forms across the University of Alaska System. �

Truth be told, you’ll likely find a “communication” performance factor on most employers’ performance appraisal forms, which is an indicator of its importance.

If you have suggestions on other resources that provided foundational support or helped strengthen your knowledge, skills and abilities in the areas of communication (verbal, written, interpersonal communication, teamwork, etc.) or in any of the other UA Performance Factors, please email those recommendations to ua-hrtraining@alaska.edu �