July 7, 2020
COVID-19 and Performance Reviews: How Will it Work?
I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!
There were a lot of really good questions that were submitted to the Joint Council of Extension Professionals survey of Extension professionals. So many, in fact, that we could not address them all on our JCEP Special Edition Friday Extension Update on June 26. We will do our best to address them all either through some sort of document or via the Tuesday Letter.
One question that did not make it on the program concerned how performance reviews would be conducted. The concern was not focused on the logistics of the performance reviews, but how performance reviews would be conducted given the ban on our traditional and familiar face-to-face programming that lasted nearly four months. It is also an important question because non face-to-face programming will probably be an educational delivery option for many of our Extension professionals from now on.
I asked Regional Director Dr. Chris Onstad to address this question. He responded with the following:
“The core mission of Extension is educational programming based off the current community needs. Delivery of the education is done by workshops (groups of people), media, and one-on-one. Thus, employee performance has been and will be about educational program delivery.
Community Need>>>>Educational Programming>>>>>>Evaluation
Some of the immediate needs have changed and that continues to be Extension's strength, the ability to respond to critical issues. The main shift has been in HOW we deliver educational programming. Since we were prohibited from meeting in-person for about four months, we used social media and other communication technology to transfer knowledge to others. There were workshops being held by webinars, an immense number of media efforts and even one-on-one phone calls, emails and texts.
It is likely that you will not have the same quantity of programming that you may have had in the past during the same time period. That is understandable! Some events may have been cancelled or postponed. But you may have had more time to do professional development to learn the technology needed for distance education. Perhaps you took the opportunity to write more articles or record educational videos. Maybe you delved into an important issue and developed a grant proposal to help address it.
Communicating is critical! Conveying your accomplishments to a board member or supervisor will prevent the impression that you were not productive. You could have been more productive than ever, but if it isn't communicated, nobody knows. An email summary to board members or a formal invite to a zoom meeting are examples of easy methods to let others know of your accomplishments during the pandemic.
And yes, you may have had family to deal with at home during this period of time limiting quantity of work. That is part of the communications. You were given restrictive circumstances and most people recognize that and will be understanding. Do you remember in elementary school when you received two grades; a subject grade and another grade for EFFORT? That is still important in our daily work and ensuring that effort was given is a stronger statement than no effort was given.
Overall, we wanted you to feel safe during that four month period of time. We want you to feel safe now. If there is something that is making you uncomfortable, talk to your supervisor so that there is a mutual understanding. The best advice is to simply visit about it.”