Meaningful performance management becomes easier when you focus on expectations, actual performance and impact.
The end-of-year conversation lets managers and employee engage in dialogue and develop a shared understanding about overall performance throughout the past year. After Human Resources kicks off the process, employees complete a self-evaluation in Workday, providing critical perspective for their manager to give meaningful performance feedback.
Human Resources has developed prompt questions to help you prepare for your end-of-year conversations. You will find further down this page a high-level overview for completing the documentation steps in Workday, along with several job aids for both employees and managers.
A training video on conducting end-of-year conversations is available here.
For Employees
You do not need to produce an exhaustive list of work from the prior year. Rather, focus on capturing your accomplishments and achieved results, as well as challenges and missed opportunities you faced and how they impacted job performance.
In preparing the self-evaluation, consider the responsibilities outlined in your job description and/or the previous year’s goals and expectations. We encourage you to examine and document not only what you accomplished but also how you approached your work relative to RISD’s competencies. Briefly note your accomplishments as well as any challenges you faced.
For Managers
Prepare for the end-of-year conversation by considering the same body of work. Take into account expectations, accomplishments and obstacles, as well as how employees demonstrate RISD’s competencies in their work. To enhance the quality and content of your conversations, consider collecting feedback from peers and colleagues who the employee has worked with closely throughout the year.
End-of-Year Conversation Guide
In the best performance conversations, managers and employees engage in productive dialogue focused on expectations, performance and impact, with a high degree of mutuality and understanding. These conversations also help you plan for development and set the stage for the year ahead.
During the conversation, both employee and manager should:
- address and summarize goals/expectations and development activities from the past year.
- respond to prompt questions (as applicable) about performance-related highlights and challenges (see below).
- begin to discuss goals/expectations and development activities for the next performance review cycle.
If during your conversation you begin to identify goals/expectations for the coming year, employees should make note and set them aside.
The first step is for the employee to enter goals, expectations and development activities for the year ahead, prior to submitting to their manager via Workday.
End-of-Year Conversation Prompts
In preparing for your conversation, consider the prompts below:
| Employee | Manager |
| Here are the accomplishments and/or milestones I achieved. | Of the results achieved, which are the most impactful to the department and/or institution? |
| Here are some of the things that got in the way of my accomplishing goals or tasks. | What are some of the things that got in the way of achieving your task? |
| Here are examples of how the use of competencies had a positive impact on my performance. | In what ways did your use of competencies influence your performance? |
| Here are the resources or support needed to be the most effective in my role. | What resources or support do you need that will enable you to be most effective in your role? |
| Here are some recommended goals/expectations for the coming year. Here are some refinements to existing goals/expectations that will continue into the next performance review cycle. | Here’s what’s going to be most important (the goals/expectations) in the coming period. Here are some refinements to current goals/expectations that will continue into the next performance review cycle. |
Once the employee submits their self-evaluation, the manager reviews peer feedback and the employee’s self-evaluation, and then adds their own comments and feedback via Workday. Before completing this step, the manager should schedule an in-person meeting for the end-of-year conversation, using the prompts above as a guide.
End-of-Year Process in Workday
Human Resources initiates the end-of-year conversation process each year, sending related tasks to employees and managers simultaneously. Remember, you do not need to heavily document your conversation—the important aspects center around the quality of your conversation, as well as the opportunity to provide useful feedback about employee performance over the past year, and to begin considering the goals/expectations and development activities for the next performance review cycle.
The end-of-year conversation process is as follows:
- peer feedback (manager requests—optional)
- employee self-evaluation
- manager evaluation
- employee/manager conversation
- employee/manager acknowledgement and final comments
End-of-Year Conversation Process Steps
- Human Resources initiates process in Workday
- Employee and manager simultaneously receive Workday inbox items to begin first steps.
- Employee receives instruction to complete the self-evaluation and submit it to their manager.
- Manager receives prompt to collect relevant feedback from the employee’s peers and colleagues. Though optional, we strongly encourage managers to take this step.
- Peers selected to provide feedback will receive a Workday inbox item to do so at the request of the listed employee’s manager (when applicable).
- Manager receives Workday inbox item to review their employee’s self-evaluation as well as peer feedback (when applicable). At this time the manager also provides and submits their own comments and feedback.
- Manager receives Workday inbox item to schedule an end-of-year conversation with the employee. The manager should not submit this inbox task until after they meet with their employee.
- Employee receives Workday inbox item to acknowledge that they’ve had their end-of-year conversation. At this time employees also provide and submit additional comments, as necessary.
- Manager receives Workday inbox item to confirm completion of the end-of-year conversation and provide additional comments, as necessary. The manager then submits this inbox task to complete the process.
Support Documents for Employees
Support Documents for Managers
See our job aids for information related to managing and viewing goals.
End-of-Year Peer Feedback
As part of the end-of-year conversation, managers can (optionally) collect peer feedback about an employee’s performance. This provides multiple points of view to consider when reviewing an employee’s self-evaluation and preparing your own feedback. Only managers can see feedback collected via the Get Feedback function.
Since RISD staff members often work closely with one another, peer feedback offers valuable perspectives about an employee’s contributions. It can also help identify opportunities for growth and development, to the employee’s benefit as well as that of RISD.
The manager is encouraged to talk with their employee to mutually identify individuals who have a firsthand understanding of the employee’s day-to-day work, what it’s like to work with them and more. Through Workday, the manager invites the identified colleagues to respond to a feedback prompt provided by Workday.
Colleague feedback does not substitute for the manager’s perspective, but rather, contributes a more well-rounded understanding of the employee’s contributions in the workplace.
View helpful tips, additional information and FAQ about the peer feedback process