We are closing in on the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year performance cycle! Your final STEP Check-in conversation with your manager must take place by March 27. In ePerformance, this will show up as Finalize Criteria. This is your last opportunity for this performance year to share your accomplishments, discuss the status of your goals and competencies, give and receive feedback, address concerns and discuss any needed support with your manager.

Here’s what you need to know to meet the March 27 deadline.

New employees

• Everyone: Please take the required STEP Fundamentals for Managers or Employees
• Managers: You must complete the Manager and Employee Conversations series —Part 1: Feedback and Coaching Employees (2 hours) and Part 2: Feedback for Employee Accountability (2.5 hours). These courses were previously offered as the “GROWing your check-ins series.” If you have already completed the earlier version, you do not need to take the courses again.

All employees

• Review your goals and competencies in ePerformance and add your final comments
• Answer the four STEP discussion questions
• Enter all the required training courses you have completed in the Required Training tab
• Then: Share the document with your manager and have your Check-in conversation.

Optional live training for everyone

Managing Up: Cultivating a Partnership with Your Manager
March 18, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Come explore ways to develop a mutually beneficial working relationship with your supervisor as an individual contributor. We will explore how individual contributors can develop trust by exploring their manager’s perspective, advocating for themselves and providing upward feedback.

STEP: Setting Goals and Competencies 
Tuesday, April 14, 1 – 2 p.m.
In this instructor-led STEP training for new employees and those who would like a refresher, we’ll focus on the first stage of STEP, Define Criteria. We’ll practice writing goals and review how to align them to the UCOP Competencies.

People managers

• Check employee records and complete all prior steps. Make sure the Define Criteria stage and both Check-in conversations are complete for all employees. If you have not completed and approved the Define Criteria stage or either of the Check-ins for an employee, they won’t be able to complete the Finalize Criteria stage.
• Complete Finalize Criteria (final STEP Check-in) by March 27. Complete the Finalize Criteria conversation with all your employees and complete your Finalize Criteria conversation with your manager.

Optional live training for people managers

People Leader Forum: Managing Represented Employees
March 20, 1 – 2 p.m.  or  April 16, 9-10:30 am
The People Leader Forum is a monthly opportunity for people managers to connect with one another to develop leadership skills, build community, share best practices, swap strategies for navigating current challenges and learn to better support themselves and their teams. In this extended 1.5 hour session, Director and HR Business Partner Karen Arnold, Direction of Compensation JJ Lerma and Employee Relations Manager Dean Lewis will provide managers with essential guidance for effectively managing represented employees in a unionized environment. Participants will learn the fundamentals of labor relations, including contract awareness, roles and responsibilities and appropriate communication practices.  This presentation will not be recorded.  A repeat offering of Managing Represented Employees is on April 16, 9-10:30 

Managing Psychological Safe Teams
April 17, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Research shows that a culture of psychological safety is the top determinant of team success. But what is psychological safety and what power do we have to influence the working conditions of our teams? Join us in this workshop designed for managers as we explore psychological safety and the benefits of incorporating it into your team culture.

Additional STEP resources

• STEP Fundamentals: After you have completed the required course, you can take this self-paced, streamlined version of all individual STEP modules for managers and employees. Use the course table of contents to navigate to the modules you need.
• LinkedIn Learning Collection: Helpful on-demand videos provide more insight into the performance appraisal process for managers and employees.
• ePerformance demonstration videos are located on the STEP website, including Finalize Criteria for Managers and Finalize Criteria for Employees.
• ePerformance User Guide
• STEP website: A one-stop shop for STEP

Questions? Contact your manager, HR business partner or step@ucop.edu.

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