HI - In previous versions of Totara you could include review questions such as Goals in performance appraisals, but it doesn't seem like this now in Perform - is this correct and if so why is this - seems like a backwards step not to be able to do this?
Totara Perform Open Discussions
Goals
Goals
Re: Goals
Hi Alistair.
Firstly to introduce myself. I'm the product owner for the perform product.
With any development we need to prioritise what can be delivered in a specific timeframe. This feature is complex and there were a number of issues with the v12 functionality that needed to be addressed. Unfortunately that meant it didn't make the cut for v13.
However, we also recognise the importance of this feature and are developing this for delivery in v14 (April). The tracker ticket for this work is TL-29163.
If there are any particular functions of this feature that you did like, or didn't like I love to hear about them as your feedback is critical to our success.
Thanks
Re: Goals
Hi Phil
Thanks for the info and that makes sense. I look forward to v14. Related to that specific Goals feature, I'd like the option to just include personal goals, rather than company goals as these are often not relevant to check-ins. More generally, I do have a broader question on these Perform activities. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal. Is this this just a label? It doesnt appear to have any functional affect on the activity?
Thanks
Alistair
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Alistair.
- I'd like the option to just include personal goals.
Agreed, this is a clear requirement and forms part of the scope of this work. - What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal. Is this this just a label?
Yes, these are just labels to help differentiate the types of activity for users.
When we looked at the functionality these types of activity we decided that in fact they were all constructed and managed the same.
Where the these types differs is in the way the activity is used in the business; fundamentally, a progression from short to long cycles.
So in fact its the richer scheduling and assignment v13 offers that provides the differentiation.
I hope that helps
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Phil - Thanks for your reply.
Just following up on the functionality, having now looked at rebuilding our appraisal/review in Perform Activities, it's highlighted some other things that aren't yet present in the new version. As well as Goals, is the plan to include other user information from the user profile, along with competencies etc as you can with the old version?
Also, reporting. I've realised there is no avaiable report source in the report builder for question responses, to build dashboards etc based on user responses. There is a embedded report which allows you to download individual responses, but not to view/export all user responses and filter etc. Will there be?
On Goals, you've confirmed they will be included - will it be possible to actually view/update/create new goals from within the activity more seamlessley that the current version, which effectively takes you out of the activity to update.
Also, as a manager, in the "My Activities/Activities about others" screen, this list can get very long very quickly. It would be good to have filters/sorting options on this.
Last question, until the new Perform Activities do everything that could be done before, will they still be supported in v14
Thanks
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Alistair.
To your points
- As well as Goals, is the plan to include other user information from the user profile, along with competencies etc as you can with the old version?
- Yes. We're intending to allow review content from:
- Competency/competencies (1 or many)
- Goals, both organisational and or personal
- Learning (current learning and completed learning), and
- Evidence
- Yes. We're intending to allow review content from:
- Also, reporting. I've realized there is no available report source in the report builder for question responses, to build dashboards etc based on user responses. There is a embedded report which allows you to download individual responses, but not to view/export all user responses and filter etc. Will there be?
- Yes. For v14 we'll introduce similar response reporting as is available in v12
The issue here is that the performance frameworks in large organisations can represent significant numbers of people. Consequentially allowing adhoc reporting can have a significant impact on site performance. We're working through that.
- Yes. For v14 we'll introduce similar response reporting as is available in v12
- On Goals, you've confirmed they will be included - will it be possible to actually view/update/create new goals from within the activity more seamlessley that the current version, which effectively takes you out of the activity to update.
- Yes, it is our intention that all updates to review content (competency rating, goal updates) should occur within the current user's activity.
- Also, as a manager, in the "My Activities/Activities about others" screen, this list can get very long very quickly. It would be good to have filters/sorting options on this.
- Good point. I've added this as an idea ticket. TL-29273
- Last question, until the new Perform Activities do everything that could be done before, will they still be supported in v14.
- Yes.
Keep the feedback coming, this is gold for us.
Phil
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
HI Phil
One more suggestion/request on the performance activities woudl be the option to allow stages to be completed in parallel rather than locking them down to be completed sequentially. In our usecase, we often have multiple reviewers ath the second stage and so it would be good to have this option.
thanks
A
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Alistair.
Performance Activities in v13 does not enforce a stage order. Typically we get more feedback about introducing workflow into the questionnaires to enforce an order to participation. I'll add the concept of parallel workflows into the requirements we have for workflow in performance activities.
As always thanks for your feedback
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
That's great thanks. I'm still working in the legacy appraisals at the moment , but when the other funcionality is introdeced (goals etc) I will will start using the new ones. Thanks again
A
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Alistair. In the previous comment I missed that we'd done the filter work
Also, as a manager, in the "My Activities/Activities about others" screen, this list can get very long very quickly. It would be good to have filters/sorting options on this.
In TL-25648 we implemented filters on this page. This was released as part of 13.3. Does this meet your requirement?
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Phil,
We've noticed the same challenge as Alistair, and while the new filter option in 13.3 is an improvement, we still see a challenge for a team manager when looking at 'Activities about others'.
This specifically when it comes to cases with repeated activity instances (check-ins), and of course even more so if the team is larger.
So, we would guess that some kind of filter related to instance creation date/period would be useful. Perhaps also the ability to filter by user under 'Activities about others'.
In addition, if an activity (check-in) would be setup with 'view only' for the staff manager, then the current progress 'Your progress'-filter won't really help (while a filter for 'Overall progress' would help).
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Also, just a small thing :-) but it would be good to be able to target a specific tab in the URL so if creating a quick link for managers, to take them to the Activities about Others tab i.e. "?tab=2" suffix to the URL
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi there Alistair, good suggestion. As part of our ongoing UX improvements and solution design, using in-page navigation techniques like your suggestion is certainly something we can consider building into our core products where it makes sense to.
In the meantime, if you or your team are able to manipulate Vue and Javascript within a custom theme, it's possible for you to do this and we can help point you in the right direction if need be.
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Rickard.
I'd like to clarify some of your points
- some kind of filter related to instance creation date/period would be useful.
- The default table sort is instance creation date. Is this not sufficient (particularly if other activity filter were available)?
- The default table sort is instance creation date. Is this not sufficient (particularly if other activity filter were available)?
- Perhaps also the ability to filter by user under 'Activities about others'.
- Agreed.
- Agreed.
- In addition, if an activity (check-in) would be setup with 'view only' for the staff manager, then the current progress 'Your progress'-filter won't really help (while a filter for 'Overall progress' would help).
- The your progress dropdown includes an option to filter to 'view only'. Is this not the same thing?
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Phil,
1. The default sort order is good. But to me it still looks like this list can easily get 'massive', especially when using check-ins/regular activities. So, to somehow more easily indicate which activities that are 'current' (and to 'hide' the ones that are not) would be benificial I think. In a scenario of e.g., bi-weekly activities and 10 team members the list would quickly become really long, and I'm not sure how often the manager would want to access such regular activities that are more than 3-6 months old.
Not sure what would be the best UX-solution though ...
3. The point in this case is that 'your progress' will always be 'view only' - so this filter won't help me as a manager to filter by (overall) progress.
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
Hi Rickard.
Thanks. I'm looking at performance reporting now so I'll consider these ideas. ideas I have atm.
for 1. Additional filters for the manage table. For 3. Enabling managers to see activities for their team (rather than only as a participant)
I'll come back when I have some more concrete options
Re: Goals. What is the different between Feedback, Check-in and Appraisal?
HI - Yes I saw this thanks, in v12 we don't use this screen (equivalent) we use a report to list out all the appraisals and the users because we have very large groups (classes) to review, so we use a report we built with users names dates and hyperlinks to their appraisals and in the report we have filters so we can search by user/date/appraisal etc. Currently we cant do this as there is not an equivalent report surce for performance activities, but hopefully this will be solved in v14, or else on this screen it would be great to be able to list and search by user.. thanks
