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Performance: For People Leaders

Cornell advances an environment of continuous learning and professional growth as a way to align the needs of the institution with the skills, interests and abilities of those in our workforce. 

The development of staff is a shared responsibility of individual staff members, people leaders, and the university leadership.

Components

Performance management isn't one-and-done. At Cornell, it falls into three buckets:

A People Leader’s Role in Performance

Conversations about performance are important because they:

  • Apply a holistic, ongoing process to develop employees and enable strategic visions or goals.
  • Ensure consistent focus on employee development across units, aligning performance conversations with strategic goals.
  • Provide employees with a clear understanding of the outcomes they are expected to deliver.
  • Develop a common language and transparent process to enable achievement.

People leaders are expected to create and foster an environment that facilitates and enhances the success of staff by:

  • Discussing with staff members development needs in relation to the work of the unit and the division.
  • Addressing performance and behavior issues in a productive and timely manner that aligns with the university’s progressive approach to discipline.
  • Providing opportunities for the discussion of individual goals on at least an annual basis and for the development of a mutually agreed on plan for training and career development.
  • Recognizing developmental achievements during the year.
  • Based on the operational requirements of the unit, providing job-specific training to enable staff members to acquire skills and knowledge necessary to complete the work of the unit based on identified needs.
  • To the extent that operational requirements allow, providing staff members with appropriate opportunities to acquire skills or experience which would enhance the staff member's ability to make a continuing contribution to the work of the University.

Performance Management Process

The PMP is a crucial tool to maximize staff engagement, performance, and development. Central to this process is the annual employee Performance Dialogue, which reviews past performance and identifies future development opportunities that are aligned to individual, unit, and university goals.

Successful performance management supports:

  • Cornell’s inclusion efforts
  • Proactive succession management
  • Aligns staff roles and goals with the university’s mission
  • Enhances full development and utilization of employee talent

Performance Dialogues

To help you and your team members achieve, the Performance Dialogue (PD) process is a University process that enables people leaders to share appreciation and to recognize you for a job well done, create open dialogue about expectations, provide coaching, and to align priorities of the division with you to develop your goals, and to pave a path for you to be well positioned for the next career opportunity.

Performance Dialogues resources webpage.

Performance conversations need to be captured in Workday, the approved centralized record.

Performance Improvement

The university’s philosophy on improving performance and behavior is corrective and progressive. Whenever possible, the university encourages informal resolutions to problems including coaching, counseling, and training. When these efforts don’t result in desired change, formal progressive discipline is an appropriate next step. Before imposing discipline, supervisors are expected to consult with their college or unit HR representative.


Supervisor Responsibilities:

It’s important that supervisors give clear feedback, and that the PMP is conducted consistently across all units, with transparency, fairness, and efficiency.

  • Review Talent Management Matrix (pdf), Skills for SuccessLeadership Skills for Success
  • Establish goals, expectations, and measures for success.
  • Continually monitor performance toward expectations.
  • Provide ongoing performance feedback and coaching.
  • Follow the performance management process for annual performance reviews.
  • Be receptive to feedback from your staff member.
  • Complete Individual Goals Alignment (doc) bi-annual check-in with staff member
  • Gather feedback for the staff member as agreed upon by the unit
  • Recognize and reward staff member
  • Talent discussion with leadership team to share staff performance and skill sets.
9 Minute Instructional Video for Performance Management Process:
Workday Performance Management Video - Workday Manager View

Performance Management Toolkit

Framework

Workload

Setting Goals

 Check-Ins

also see: Coaching - Executive Coaching at Cornell


Video Transcript

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welcome back to the manager Take 5

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series I'm Maria Wolf the senior

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consultant for talent retention during

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this segment we'll take five minutes to

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talk about the importance of retaining

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talented employees and what you as a

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manager can do to proactively address

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challenges you may be experiencing in

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this area we know people are leaving

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Cornell and the top three reasons

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include

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lack of advancement opportunities

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dissatisfaction with their salary and

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not receiving enough recognition for the

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work they do the goal of this video is

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to provide you with some helpful tips

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and tools that you can leverage right

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away so let's get started

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foreign

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[Music]

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speaking with Dustin Cutler Dustin

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welcome and thanks so much for being

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here yeah it's my absolute pleasure and

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an honor to be here so thank you for the

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inviting so the reality is people are

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leaving jobs they're leaving jobs

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everywhere and hiring managers are

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having a really hard time filling vacant

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positions

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how has this Dynamic impacted your

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organization we have hired over 110 new

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Frontline Associates here at Cornell

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dining and that is a massive effort and

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very strategic approach in leveraging

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the Partnerships within our our HR

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partners and and student and campus life

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so what do you focus on when it comes to

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being proactive about retention and what

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role does Career Development play we got

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away from talking a lot about

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compensation compensation is very very

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important we're explaining really the

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why and the benefit of being a Cornell

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employee in particular Cornell dining

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employee and we have it's yielded us

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some some great success with recruiting

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as well as allowing people to grow

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within the organization so for two years

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we're really focused on how to continue

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to nourish our team provide them with

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the training that they needed and the

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tools to make them successful for the

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future and that has yielded some some

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outstanding results let's talk about

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recognition it's so important for people

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to feel valued and appreciated for the

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work we all do so how do you recognize

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people in Cornell Diamond recognition is

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so key A couple of years ago my

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organization started a program called

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The Big Red Apple and some of you may

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have seen that around campus as you go

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into our locations there's a really big

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tree and individuals recognize one

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another and that's really been a core

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value of our organization and the key to

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our success of letting people know Hey

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listen we care about you we care about

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your impact we care about your career

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over I think 10 000 recognitions have

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happened over the past five years so

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we're very proud about that and and it's

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yielded some great results it's pretty

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clear that we are caring and

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compassionate leader is a priority for

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you so how does your leadership style

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help keep your staff engaged and wanting

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to stay at Cornell quite frequently we

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really explain to our Frontline staff

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and our management team our why in our

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purpose

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it's very important for people to be

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able to connect what I am doing what

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that impact is to the our community and

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the individuals that we serve and it's

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very important to simplify that agenda

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like our purpose statement is nourishing

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the future our staff knows that our

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training and development efforts are to

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help nourish their their minds and and

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allow them to grow the food that we make

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helps nourish the people's bodies that

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we feed on a regular basis right so

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being able to connect that why is very

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important you want individuals to come

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to work because they know their why they

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understand what their purpose is

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it's important to be a servant leader

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and making sure that people can really

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connect to why I come to work

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what is the impact and building a sense

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of community

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amongst your group that is what really

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builds a great culture that propels

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success thank you so much for sharing

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all that as we come to the end of our

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conversation would you mind just sharing

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two to three tips managers can leverage

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right away the three tips that I would

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give in areas that I would say has

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worked for Cornell dining and myself is

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to focus on authentic communication

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recognition and servant leadership and

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when I say communication try as much as

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possible to get in front of human beings

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face to face be present when I say

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recognition do it frequently do it

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consistently and again allow it to be

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authentic when I talk about servant

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leadership this is where I say that

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individuals need to look at

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leadership in the sense of it's an honor

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to be able to lead an organization to

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give guidance and make sure that you are

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seeking to understand before being

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understood I often say that best

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communicators are the most effective

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listeners and I think a lot of people

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during these times need to do a lot of

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listening Dustin I really enjoyed

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talking with you

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so much for the opportunity my pleasure

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thanks Cornell dining we hope the past

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few minutes have provided you with some

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actionable tips to implement today

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please check out these additional

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resources

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thank you