Building out a performance plan by creating goals is the first step in the performance planning checklist.

Once a plan is built, you will leverage the plan to continue through the performance checklist. Throughout the year you will use your plan to complete the planning task, coaching session, and year-end evaluations.

Begin Creating a Goal

1. Starting from the Cornerstone homepage, navigate to the Performance Planning page by selecting the tile

2. In the top right of the Performance Planning page, click the Create button.

Title & Description

1. Add a title for your goal.

2. When adding a description, you can use the text editor controls for formatting. You can also copy from MS Word or other text editing programs and often retain formatting.

(Optional) Aligning a Goal

​If you choose to align goals, you can do so by clicking the Align button to the right of the goal's title.

1. Click on the Align button.

2. You will see a list of your goals, as well as any your supervisor has made visible to you.

3. Choose a goal from the list to align by selecting the radio button to the right.

4. Click the Align button on the bottom right.

   1. If you check the box to "overwrite the following fields when aligning: Title, Description, Weight" then the goal you are in the process of creating will copy those three fields with information from the goal you've chosen to align with and overwrite any text you may have entered.

5. You'll now see a visual representation of your alignment.

6. If you wish to change or cancel your alignment, use the Edit button.

Goal Dates

The start date and due date defaults to the current planning cycle that works for both Classified and University staff (8/1/current-year - 6/30/next-year). This ensures they will be pulled into your Final Evaluation.

In the case of a goal having specific dates, these can be changed by using the date range tool.

(Optional) Weighting Goals

Entering weights is optional and up to a department’s discretion.  Supervisors are encouraged to apply weighting consistently and equitably throughout their teams.

Adding No Weights: Weights can all remain at zero if your department does not use weighting. This will weight each goal equally for the evaluation.

Scaling: During your Final Evaluation, the system will scale all goals that have above a zero weight and scale them to 100​, e.g. if you have 2 goals weighted at 25% and 1 goal at 0%, the Final Evaluation will scale the 2 goals to 50% and the goal at 0% will remain at zero.

Strategic Imperatives

The type of goal and the University Imperative to which the goal aligns are required.

1. Click the dropdown for Type and choose if you are creating a competency, goal, or job duty.

2. Click the dropdown for University Imperative and choose the imperatives for this goal; you may choose multiple.

(Optional) Adding Tasks & Targets to Goals

Tasks and targets allow you to add in objectives and key results. Adding tasks and targets is not required but can be very useful for tracking and evaluating performance.

1. Click the Add Tasks or Targets button.

2. Enter a brief description of the task or target.

3. Check the box to Include Target.

4. Select the type of measurement for your target.

5. Enter the measurement values.

6. Click Done on the bottom right of the box.

Attachments

Relevant documents can be added to a goal. Each goal can have up to three documents attached.

1. Click the Choose File button.

2. Select the document you wish to upload from your computer.

3. If you decide you do not need the document, click the X next to the document to remove it.

Visibility

Selecting this option will allow other users to search for and align to your goal.

This can be used by managers to allow direct reports to align individual goals. If you prefer to not have your goal searchable by all users, be sure to uncheck this box.

Assignment

If you do not have direct reports, the only Assignment option will be yourself.

If you are a supervisor, you will see the option to assign this goal to yourself or your team. If assigning to a team, select that option and the employees you wish to assign the goal to. This guide walks you through creating a goal for yourself, but you can view the guide for creating a goal as a supervisor for more information on assigning goals to the employees you supervise.

Saving Goals as Drafts

Saving a goal as a draft will preserve the work you've done but will not yet assign or submit the goal.

The goal will not be visible to your supervisor and will not be pulled into your performance plan until submitted.

Once saved as a draft, you can come back to the system at any time and continue to edit the goal. If you save a goal as a draft, you will see these on your performance plan overview page with a status of DRAFT.

Submitting Goals for Approval

Submitting a goal for approval will route the goal to your supervisor, and once approved it will be added to your performance plan. To submit the goal for approval click “Send Approval Request” on the top. This will send an email to your supervisor to check their Inbox in Cornerstone to approve your request.

If you submit a goal as a supervisor for your employee, it will add the goal to the employee's plan with no approval required.