SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATIVE MANUAL

PURPOSE:

To assure that performance evaluations are conducted on a timely basis as defined in Civil Service Rules and Personnel Regulations.

LEGAL BASIS:

Civil Service Rules, Section X, Employee Performance Evaluation

Civil Service Rules, Section VI.E., Probation

Personnel Regulations, Section 140, Computation of Probation (hours of service equivalent to six and 12 month probation periods)

Personnel Regulations, Section 161.G., Requirements for Step Advancement

Personnel Regulations, Section 161.H., Hours of Service for Purposes of Step Advancement

Personnel Regulations, Section 171, Supervisory Guide for Employee Performance Evaluations

The Board of Supervisors has directed that departments be evaluated annually by the County Administrative Officer or other appointing authority using the standard County performance evaluation. In addition to evaluation of the full range of responsibilities of the department head, the Board has directed that the following be documented and evaluated:

• Equal Employment Opportunity activities and success in meeting department and County objectives and action steps, using the County's Equal Employment Opportunity Plan, the annual departmental Equal Employment Opportunity plan, and contract compliance reporting.
• Compliance of departmental staff in complying with County guidelines for staff evaluations regarding timely completion of performance evaluations of evaluation of staff in the achievement of the objectives and action steps of the County EEO Plan.

POLICY:

1. Civil Service Rules, Section X, requires that employees in the County's civil service system:
1. be evaluated at three months and six months while serving a six month probation period.
2. be evaluated at three, six and twelve months while serving a twelve month probation period.
3. be evaluated at least once a year when having permanent status in their job class.
2. Civil Service Rules, Section X, also requires that an employee placed on special evaluation receive a performance evaluation at two month intervals during the six month special evaluation process.
3. Section 161.G. of the Personnel Regulations requires that employees be evaluated to be eligible for advancement to the next step in the salary range for their job class.
4. To assist departments in ensuring that employees receive performance evaluations in accordance with the above regulations, an "Hours Accumulator" report is distributed to departmental payroll clerks each pay period. This report shows, for each employee in a department, the employee's present salary, step and the number of hours of service to be completed before the step increase is due - i.e., the step hours are decreased by the hours of service accrued in the preceding pay period. The report also includes a warning message if the employee is within 170 hours of becoming eligible for step advancement. To further remind departments of overdue performance evaluations for step advancements, step hours will continue to decrease past 0 (e.g. to a -80, -160 etc.) This report also shows probation hours to be served, and decreases such hours past 0 to remind departments that evaluations for permanent status are overdue.

The report also shows the number of hours since the last evaluation for employees who are at the top step and have permanent status in the job class. (These hours are shown in the "NEXT EVAL" column.) When an evaluation is submitted, the hours will be reset to 0 to track the timing of any subsequent evaluations.

5. While the "Hours Accumulator" report is produced to help departments complete the required employee performance evaluations on a timely basis, it is the responsibility of each department to ensure that performance evaluations for its employees are completed on a timely basis, including employees who are at the 7th step and who have permanent status in their class.

PROCEDURE:

Procedures for performance evaluations are set forth in the Personnel-Payroll System Transactions Manual, parts K (Performance Evaluations/Special Evaluations) and Transaction type 11 (Step Advancement).