New Hire Goal Setting & Probation Reviews

University Staff (UStaff) new hires complete three tasks in their Workday inbox over their 12-month probation:

1. New Hire Goal Setting: Within 30 days of hire date
2. Probation Mid-Year Touchpoint: Six-month review
3. Probation Year-End Review: End of probation review

These touchpoints provide regular opportunities for alignment, feedback, and development. After completing probation, you'll transition to your school or unit's regular performance review process.

Notes:

• New hires not on probation only receive the New Hire Goal Setting task
• Employees in schools/units participating in the Performance Engagement process complete quarterly check-ins instead

Medical Center Regular and Wage Staff receive a goal-setting task in their Workday inbox shortly after their start date. Goal setting helps establish clear expectations and support success. Employees submit goals to their manager within 30 days, and managers review and discuss them promptly to ensure alignment and provide early feedback. These goals should be discussed as part of your year-end review, creating a foundation for ongoing development and achievement throughout the year.

UPG Regular and Wage Staff new hires receive a goal-setting task in their Workday inbox shortly after their start date. Goal setting helps establish clear expectations and support success. Employees submit goals to their manager within 30 days, and managers review and discuss them promptly to ensure alignment and provide early feedback. These goals should be discussed as part of your year-end review, creating a foundation for ongoing development and achievement throughout the year.

Discuss with your manager or contact your UPG HR Business Partner for more information.

Completing New Hire Probation tasks in Workday

To complete your new hire goal setting or probation reviews (if applicable), navigate to your Workday inbox and open the task.

Managers: You can search and run the "Performance Completion Report" or "PM Dashboard" to check the status and details of new hire goal setting and probation tasks. Manager tasks are completed by opening them in your Workday inbox (the employee tasks must be submitted to appear in your inbox).

Viewing a Completed Probation Task or Review

Through Your Workday Profile:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner
2. Select "View Profile" from the drop-down menu
3. Click "Performance" in the left-hand menu
4. Select the "Performance Review" tab at the top of the page
5. Click "View" next to your previous performance review

Managers: Open an employee's profile by selecting them from your Team Org Chart or searching their name, then follow steps 3–5.

Goal Setting & Feedback Resources

For additional goal-setting tools and information on how to give feedback, visit the following pages:

• Goal Setting Resources
• Feedback Resources

FAQs

Visit our FAQ page for answers to the most common PM and Workday questions.

Required

Use only UVA-approved AI tools.

Do not upload university work information to unapproved AI platforms. UVA-approved, enterprise-protected tools for Generative AI have the added privilege of enterprise security, meaning what you tell it and upload stays within UVA.

Appropriate vs. Inappropriate AI Use in Performance Management

Appropriate AI Uses:

• Refining goals and vision: Sharing your organization, department, or team vision along with your initial goals, then asking AI to suggest edits or brainstorm refinements.
• Improving feedback delivery: Drafting feedback you plan to give someone, then asking how it may be received or for tips on delivery.
• Enhancing clarity: Creating bullet points of accomplishments and development areas, then asking AI to improve clarity, conciseness, or flag subjective language.
• Checking alignment: Providing rating criteria alongside your written summary, then asking where the language appears to align.
• Getting permission: Asking your employee or colleague if they are OK with you uploading their created work to AI (self-evaluation, goals, feedback), or transcribing a conversation with AI.
• Transcribing 1:1 notes: Using MS Teams Transcription and Recap features to automatically generate meeting notes.
• Verifying accuracy: Asking AI to provide sources and verify the accuracy of its responses.

Inappropriate AI Uses:

• Copy-pasting generic content: Asking AI to write your vision, purpose, or goals, then copying and pasting them as your own.
• Sending unreviewed feedback: Asking AI to draft feedback and sending it directly to an employee or colleague.
• Generating generic reviews: Asking AI to generate a generic performance review about someone.
• Gaming the rating system: Uploading a rating rubric and asking AI to produce a review that matches a specific rating.
• Violating privacy: Uploading someone's self-evaluation or other created work, or transcribing a conversation, without their permission or knowledge.
• Trusting without verification: Assuming AI output is accurate and appropriate.

AI is a tool to enhance clarity and efficiency but should complement authentic, thoughtful input. For questions regarding AI use specific to performance management (reviews, goals, feedback), contact the PM team at AskHR@virginia.edu.