Bargaining Unit Review Process

This process was last updated at a Staff Collective meeting on Friday, June 29, 2012.

Purpose

Regular performance reviews of staff is a best practice for organizations of all sizes and missions. They should not replace informal communication or serve as a formal complaint process; instead, they are opportunities to help staff align themselves with the expectations that are placed on them and to assist them in achieving their stated goals in their positions. Where appropriate, Free Geek also uses the review process to help the Collective make a decision about the probationary status of a bargaining unit employee.

Bargaining unit employees currently are reviewed around 3 months after hire, around 6 months after hire, and annually around their dates of hire.

Free Geek aspires to a democratic and, where possible, non-hierarchical organizational culture. Bargaining unit employees are therefore invited to provide feedback as part of reviews of their peers. This participation is never mandatory, and it will always be anonymous unless an individual employee requests to be identified in connection with their feedback. Collective members may also participate.

The HR Administrator is currently the review coordinator for all bargaining unit employees.

Procedure and Timeline

1. HR should maintain a list of current job descriptions on the wiki.
2. HR should create or update a separate instance of an online review survey for each employee to be reviewed.
3. In the last week of each month, HR should sends out an email publicizing which employees' reviews are coming up in the next month. (Who they are and whether the reviews are 3-month, 6-month, annual or ad-hoc.) The email has links to the job descriptions and the review surveys.
4. The deadline for feedback that will be formally incorporated into reviews should be the 10th of the month. Feedback received after that should still be looked at, but it should be treated as informal.
5. The review coordinator and supervisors should encourage direct co-workers in person to complete their forms by the 10th.
6. The review coordinator should forward the results of each survey to the reviewed employee and their supervisor by the 15th.
7. Supervisors should sit down with reviewed employees by the 20th.
8. Reviewed employees should complete their written responses to questions, concerns and criticisms by the 25th. They should send their full responses to their supervisor. Employees may also, if they choose, send identical or edited responses to the paidworkers list.
9. Employee 6-month reviews should be discussed at the Collective meeting on the last Friday of the month, unless it falls before the 28th, in which case they should be discussed on the first Friday of the following month. These discussions should be substantive.

Outcomes

• Each review should result in an overall performance evaluation of Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory.
• An evaluation of Satisfactory or above is needed at a 6-month review in order to move an employee from probationary to regular status.
• An evaluation of Needs Improvement at a 6-month review triggers an ad-hoc review to occur in another 3 months, i.e., a 9-month review. An evaluation of Unsatisfactory at a 6-month review triggers termination.
• An evaluation of either Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory at a 9-month review triggers termination.
• Since Collective consensus is required to move an employee from probationary to regular status, failure to reach consensus about an evaluation following a 6-month or 9-month review triggers termination.