Kansas State University

Performance Review System in PEARS is Now Available

Submitted by Laurie Chandler

All extension agents should have received an email yesterday (8/15) from PEARS that the performance review system is now available to use. (If you don't remember receiving the email, be sure to check your junk or spam folders.) The performance review system will be available through December 31, 2022.

All documents (action plans, professional development plans, action plan outcomes, self-assessment, etc.) should be completed in PEARS by the locally established deadline or October 1, whichever is soonest. Check with your local unit director or regional director for the deadline for your local unit.

New this year:

• Agent Self-Assessment: Feedback from regional and local unit directors indicated it would be helpful to board members to have access to the information from the self-assessment. It was also requested that the information from the Organizational Leadership and Citizenship Summary be incorporated into the performance review to streamline the process for agents and to make it simpler for board members to access.
  
  All those questions have been placed in the Agent Self-Assessment. In order to cut down on the amount of paperwork for agents and board members, we deleted all the indicators and rankings. The new self-assessment has 9 open-ended questions. The agent’s responses to those questions will be made available to board members. Instructions for attaching the self-assessment is included in the Extension Agent Performance Review Instructions.

• The amount of supporting data attached to each agent’s performance review has been reduced. Board members indicated there was too much data attached to each agent’s review. So, the current year action plans will not be attached this year – hopefully those were provided to board members at the beginning of the year.
  
  Supporting documentation available to board members this year will be: Action Plan Outcomes (current year), Professional Development Plan (next year) and the Agent’s Self-Assessment.

Be sure to check out the following resources:

Agent Performance Review (link) webpage contains specific instructions for agents, local unit directors without supervisory responsibilities and local unit directors with supervisory responsibilities. You’ll also find samples of the board evaluations forms, sample correspondence to board members and other supporting information. In addition, a board leadership video on the agent performance review process is available to help prepare board members for completing this process.

PEARS Support Documentation that includes step-by-step instructions as well as screen shots to guide you through the steps.

For questions, contact your local unit director or regional director or email Laurie Chandler, lchandle@ksu.edu.