Posts Tagged: performance evaluation
Annual staff performance evaluation process starts March 2
The Annual Staff Performance Evaluation process will begin on March 2, 2021. The annual performance evaluation is an opportunity for staff and supervisors to recognize accomplishments, identify opportunities to build skills, and align individual efforts to high-level unit and division goals. After an interruption in 2020, the annual cycle is resuming for the review period that runs from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021.
On March 2, all staff employees and their supervisors will receive an email notification that evaluation documents are available in UC Path ePerformance. The email will contain a link to take you directly to the electronic form. You may also locate the form by accessing your Dashboard in UC Path, and selecting Performance Work Center. The UCPath log in page is found at http://ucpath.universityofcalifornia.edu/.
In March, ANR Human Resources will host webinars for staff and supervisors to review the process and describe available support tools. The webinars will be recorded and available on the HR website for those unable to attend in person.
Employee role: March 15, Mon., 2 p.m.-3 p.m.
Zoom link: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/91426260492?pwd=bmdpc1luejlmQVd1OHlzcEppdVlGQT09
ID: 914 2626 0492; Password: 788112
iPhone one-tap: US: +16699006833,,91426260492# or +12532158782,,91426260492#
Telephone: 669 900 6833; International numbers available: https://ucanr.zoom.us/u/abVT80noAd
Supervisor role: March 17, Wed., 3 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Zoom link: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/92243428611?pwd=QUoyQThEdzZSK3dOOHpDS0VQZVRHZz09
ID: 922 4342 8611; Password: 767271
iPhone one-tap: US: +16699006833,,92243428611# or +13462487799,,92243428611#
Telephone: 669 900 6799; International numbers available: https://ucanr.zoom.us/u/axqa8gHi
If you are a supervisor, you only need to participate in a supervisor session.
More information about the annual process, including timelines, guidelines and Performance Appraisal Tools are available on the ANR Human Resources website http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRSPU/Supervisor_Resources/Performance_Management.
Note: ANR staff based at the Office of the President will follow the UCOP-HR performance process with separate trainings, timelines and forms.
If you have questions regarding the appraisal process, please email humanresouces@ucanr.edu.
Annual staff performance evaluation begins March 6 with ePerformance
The Annual Staff Performance Evaluation process will begin on March 6, 2020. As part of the recent transition to UC Path, we are implementing ePerformance, an electronic process for completing staff evaluations. UC Path ePerformance will replace the PDF-based Employee Performance Evaluation Report (EPAR). This program will provide a more streamlined process for both the employee and the supervisor.
(Please note: ANR staff based at the Office of the President will follow the UCOP-HR performance process with separate trainings, timelines and forms.)
On March 6, all staff employees and their supervisors will receive an email notification that evaluation documents are available in UC Path ePerformance. The email will contain a link to take you directly to the electronic form. You may also locate the form by accessing your Dashboard in UC Path, and selecting Performance Work Center. The UCPath log in page may be found at http://ucpath.universityofcalifornia.edu/.
In March, Human Resources will host a series of webinars for employees and supervisors. The webinars will provide training on how to use the ePerformance program. If you are a supervisor, you only need to participate in a supervisor session.
Please hold one of these dates/times on your calendar:
Employee Role: March 5, Thurs., 3 p.m.–4 p.m. Supervisor Role: March 12, Thurs., 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
Employee Role:March 10, Tues., 2 p.m.–3 p.m. Supervisor Role: March 31, Tues., 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
Zoom login: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/5307501321
Meeting ID: 530 750 1321
Call-in number: 669 900-6833
More details about the annual process, including guidelines, a detailed timeline and FAQs, are available on the ANR Human Resources website http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRSPU/Supervisor_Resources/Performance_Management.
If you have any questions regarding the process, please contact Mary Vlandis at maryvlandis@ucanr.edu or Jodi Rosenbaum at jrosenbaum@ucanr.edu. For system related questions, please contact Patricia Glass at pglass@ucanr.edu.
ANR timeline for staff performance appraisals differs from campuses
On March 5, ANR Human Resources launched the 2017-18 Annual Staff Performance Appraisal Process. The UC Davis campus has also announced their annual “call” for staff performance appraisals. Please be aware that ANR has a separate process and timeline. Please do not use the UC Davis online system for submitting Summary of Accomplishments and Employee Performance Appraisals.
It is critical that all units meet the May 14 deadline for submitting proposed overall ratings.
This timeline is subject to change with prior notice:
March 1-23: Employee prepares Summary of Accomplishments. Supervisor option: Employee prepares Self-Assessment using the Performance Appraisal form.
March 23-May 11: Supervisor meets with employee to review Summary of Accomplishments. Supervisor drafts Employee Performance Appraisal. Supervisor confirms agreement on proposed rating with second-level supervisor.
May 14: Proposed overall ratings and draft appraisals due to ANR Human Resources.
May 14-June 1: HR reviews proposed ratings for consistency, and confirms final ratings.
June 1-July 31: Supervisor meets with employee to communicate overall rating.
If you are uncertain about the process, please reach out to your supervisor or contact Mary Vlandis at (530) 750-1321 or maryvlandis@ucanr.edu.
Forms and more information regarding the ANR process are available on the Staff Human Resources webpage http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRSPU/Supervisor_Resources/Performance_Management.
President Napolitano analyzes options for ANR in UCOP structure
Dear Colleagues,
In my ANR Update message on Feb. 8, I shared a report released in January by the Huron Consulting Group on the UC Office of the President's (UCOP) organizational structure. President Napolitano's goal in commissioning that review was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of UCOP, while aligning its work to best support the university's core mission.
As I mentioned last month, Huron offered options that we believe would harm ANR's ability to deliver our mission of research and extension and to bring UC to local communities in every part of California. We identified several issues with both options, chief among those were adding layers of administration between ANR and the UC president as well as between ANR and the public we serve. Those additional layers would likely increase administrative costs and reduce funding for program delivery. At the president's request, we have developed an alternative proposal that would strengthen ANR's ability to deliver our mission while also serving the needs of UCOP for better financial management and administrative efficiency.
A challenge we have faced for years is that about half of our budget flows through UCOP while we manage the remainder directly. ANR is the only major operating division at UCOP that directly conducts research and program delivery, with hundreds of employees throughout California deploying over $200 million in resources. This has caused a great deal of confusion for auditors and often led to budget cuts during calls to reduce UC administrative overhead. Our recommendation places the entire ANR budget into one operating unit/location within the UC Chart of Accounts and allows for more transparency to the public. It also improves ANR's opportunities to stabilize our funding, rebuild our academic footprint and enhance program delivery.
Unlike the institutions used as examples in Huron's report, there is no one flagship campus serving as California's land-grant institution; instead, the entire UC system is responsible for the land-grant mission. To effectively deliver that mission, ANR is structured as a large statewide operating unit administering over 300 Memoranda of Understanding with a wide array of public and private sector partners, including deployment of resources on multiple campuses across the UC system and in close partnership with local governments in every county. The Huron report recognized that housing ANR within one campus was suboptimal and could create perceptions of favoritism and inequities between the campuses. Our proposal calls for a collaborative relationship; injecting competition and administrative layers would not serve the UC system nor our stakeholders well.
Separating ANR's budget and FTE from UCOP offers many advantages to both entities. Under the proposal we have offered, the ANR vice president continues to report directly to the president, the ANR governance structure does not change and no people or infrastructure would be moved. The proposal does agree with the Huron recommendation that ANR funding should be changed to state appropriations and that reconnecting the UC Natural Reserve System to ANR offers improved research opportunities for both entities. We believe these changes would best achieve the president's objectives to better align UCOP support functions to campuses while enhancing the systemwide and statewide functions of a vital outreach and engagement arm of the university.
The president continues to analyze the different options before her to ensure UCOP is best serving the UC system as well as all Californians for the long term. We are excited to work closely with President Napolitano to strengthen UC as a premiere research and extension institute by giving these vital programs room to grow and better serve the critical needs of California's economy and communities. I will continue to keep you apprised as our discussions unfold.
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
Names in the News
Torres named grape advisor for Tulare and Kings counties
Gabriel Torres joined UCCE on Feb. 1, 2018, as an area viticulture advisor in Tulare and Kings counties.
Prior to joining UCCE, Torres was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Nematology at UC Riverside developing an integrated pest management strategy for controlling the most prevalent nematode species in grape vineyards in California. Torres evaluated rootstock resistance, chemical and biological compounds, and anaerobic soil disinfestation methods. Torres conducted most of the nematode experiments under the supervision of UC Cooperative Extension specialist Andreas Westphal.
From 2014 to 2016, Torres was a leader of the plant pathology program for the Colombian Oil Palm Natural Research Centre (CENIPALMA) in Bogota, Colombia. There he developed and guided projects aimed at solving disease problems of the oil palm crop in Colombia, including bud rot, lethal wilt, and basal stem rot.
He completed a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Michigan State University and a B.Sc. in agronomy from Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.
Torres is based in Tulare and can be reached at (559) 684-3316 and gabtorres@ucanr.edu.
Lund named grape advisor for Madera, Merced and Mariposa counties
Karl Lund joined UCCE on Jan. 8, 2018, as an area viticulture advisor in Madera, Merced and Mariposa counties.
Prior to joining UCCE, Lund was a trial specialist at Syngenta Flower, where he designed and conducted floriculture research trials under both greenhouse and garden conditions for a wide variety of flowering plants, specifically focused on the development of fertilization recommendations and nutrient profiles. In 2016, Lund was a technology development representative at Monsanto, where he worked with seed distributors and local farmers to plant, maintain and evaluate pre-commercial varieties of lettuce, bell peppers and spinach.
Lund spent many years teaching and conducting research in viticulture. Starting in 2008, he worked in the laboratory of Andy Walker at UC Davis, where he ran a project looking at the phenotypic and genetic diversity of phylloxera in Northern California, and trying to understand the genetics of phylloxera resistance in hopes of breeding new phylloxera resistance rootstocks for California. His research helped identify new feeding types of phylloxera in Northern California and connected those feeding types to genetic groups. He also identified new sources of broad phylloxera resistance to be used in breeding phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.
As a postdoc in the Walker lab, Lund looked at drought avoidance in grapevine rootstocks. Insights from this work may be useful in the creation of more drought-tolerant rootstocks. In addition to his research, he was a teaching assistant for several UC Davis classes. Lund wrote a book chapter on grapevine breeding in the western United States and lectured at Cal Poly SLO for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Lund completed a B.S. and a Ph.D. in genetics at UC Davis.
Based in Madera, Lund can be reached at (559) 675-7879, ext. 7205 and ktlund@ucanr.edu.
Kansal joins CSIT as portfolio and project manager
Namita Kansal recently joined the Communication Services and Information Technology as a portfolio and project manager.
Some of the projects she is working on include assessing the network status of all UCCE sites in California to inform strategic decisions to fund and prioritize the UCCE sites that urgently need network upgrades, portfolio-level reports to inform strategic, operational and funding decisions for the Web IT team, a change management process for the entire IT team, and a project plan and funding estimates for the ANR website redesign.
Before joining ANR, Kansal was a project manager at the UC Davis School of Medicine, working to operationalize strategic initiatives, program development and project management.
She earned a masters in public administration and a master in arts from Syracuse University.
Kansal is based at the ANR building in Davis and can be reached at (530) 750-1207 and namkansal@ucanr.edu.
Pourreza wins ASABE Sunkist Young Designer Award
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers has selected Ali Pourreza, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at UC Davis, to receive the Sunkist Young Designer Award.
This award recognizes and honors ASABE members under 40 years of age for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the agricultural engineering profession and to stimulate professional achievement.
Sponsored by Sunkist Growers, Inc., the Young Designer Award recognizes the development of a technical plan that influences agricultural engineering progress, as evidenced by use in the field.
Pourreza developed a polarized imaging technique to detect accumulation of starch in citrus leaves as an early indication of citrus greening disease or huanglongbing (HLB).
“The polarized imaging technique was primarily used for early citrus greening detection, that is a major disease of citrus with no known cure,” said Pourreza. “Early detection of citrus greening is important because growers can prevent further spread of the disease before the entire orchard gets infected. The polarized imaging technique can also be used in other applications that involve the detection of starch or sugar.”
He also developed the Virtual Orchard, which uses aerial imagery and photogrammetry to create a 3-D image of an orchard.
“Knowledge about tree geometry such as individual canopy cover, volume, height and density is important for growers to understand variability within their orchard and make timely decisions about irrigation, nutrient, pest and disease, etc.,” Pourreza said. ”Virtual Orchard is an affordable technology that makes this information accessible for growers. Information extracted from the Virtual Orchard can be used to apply variable rate inputs in a site-specific manner according to the prescription maps that identify the application rate at different locations of an orchard.”
The award will be presented to Pourreza during the ASABE annual meeting in July in Detroit.
UC ANR receives award for extending high-speed broadband
The nonprofit organization CENIC has awardedUC ANR its 2018 Innovations in Networking Award for Broadband Applications. The award recognizes work to extend high-speed broadband to University of California researchers in rural communities across California by connecting UC ANR sites to the California Research and Education Network (CalREN),
Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer; Tolgay Kizilelma, chief information security officer; and Tu Tran, associate vice president for business operations, were recognized as project leaders.
In 2016, CENIC began working with UC ANR to connect its nine research and extension centers to CalREN, equipping them with internet speeds comparable to those found on UC campuses. For example, the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center in Mendocino County and the UC Desert Research and Extension Center in Imperial County are both connected at 500 Mbps, five times their previous level of connectivity.
“You can't do big data with dial-up internet speed,” said Jeffery Dahlberg, director of the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center. “Before this upgrade, our internet was slower than my home internet speeds. Now we have speeds more like you will find on UC campuses.”
Due to the remote location of most of these facilities, the work involved in identifying suitable pathways for connections between each site and the CalREN network has been extensive. Engineers from CENIC and UC ANR collaborated on network design, deployment, and troubleshooting to equip these facilities with the high-speed internet they need.
In addition to the RECs, Highlander Hall, home to News and Information Outreach in Spanish and the Citrus Clonal Protection Program, is now connected to CalREN. Elkus Ranch (the environmental education center for Bay Area youths), the UC ANR building in Davis and 30 UC Cooperative Extension sites are in the process of being connected.