Dean's Directive no. 24/2024

Systematic evaluation of economic and administrative and manual workers at the MFF UK

Article 1
Introductory provisions

1. This directive establishes, in accordance with the Labour Code¹ and in accordance with Article 3(1) of Rector's Directive No. 53/2023, the principles and process for evaluating the work performance and work results of employees of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University (hereinafter referred to as „MFF UK“) who are classified according to their work activities into the categories of economic-administrative, technical and professional staff and workers, service staff and commercial and operational staff (hereinafter referred to as „employees“) in accordance with the Internal Wage Regulation of Charles University². This directive does not apply to academic staff, lecturers and researchers, as the method of their evaluation is laid down in a separate Dean's Directive³, and to staff as referred to in Article 4(7) of this directive.
2. The evaluation of MFF UK employees is an instrument of personnel management. Its aim is to contribute to the personal and professional development of employees and to strengthen their motivation in this development by supporting work with goals and linking individual employee goals with the priorities and needs of the MFF UK.
3. Evaluation provides an overview of the performance and quality of work of individual employees and thus allow to directive the results achieved. In addition, evaluation creates an environment for communication between supervisor and subordinate, enables regular two-way feedback and makes employee pay transparent. It enables targeted development and training of employees, strengthens their co-responsibility and motivation.

Article 2
Basic concepts

Employee: a person who has an employment relationship with the MFF UK based on an employment contract and who is moreover subject to this evaluation.
Senior employee: an employee of the MFF UK who, at the various levels of management of the MFF UK, is authorised to determine and impose work tasks on subordinate employees, to organise, direct and control their work and to give them binding instructions to this end.
Evaluator: a senior employee, the direct superior of the employee being evaluated, or another employee of the MFF UK according to Article 5(1) of this directive.

Article 3
Basic principles of evaluation

1. MFF UK systematically creates conditions and prerequisites for increasing the competences of its employees. Increasing competences is ensured with regard to financial possibilities and according to regular evaluation, especially through:
   1. supporting participation in continuing education courses and obtaining relevant certificates according to the requirements and needs of the workplace,
   2. support for improving English language skills,
   3. encouraging participation in seminars and conferences,
   4. other means according to the specifics and possibilities of the workplace.
2. The basic principles of the assessment are based on the requirement of equal opportunities, including that the specificities of individual social groups and the specificities of people with sensory and physical disabilities are taken into account. In the evaluation of MFF UK employees, there must be no discrimination or exclusion, in particular on grounds of gender, age, race, language, origin, nationality, religion or belief. The following principles shall be applied in regular evaluation:
   1. transparency principle: the system of regular staff appraisal must be transparent (i.e. it must be clear on which criteria staff are evaluated),
   2. the principle of proportionality: performance evaluation must be carried out in relation to the position held, the level of time worked, etc.,
   3. the principle of equal treatment: different evaluation criteria cannot be set for staff holding the same or similar positions within a workplace,
   4. the principle of comprehensiveness: the performance of individual employees should be viewed comprehensively, i.e. all areas of the employee's performance (e.g. including managerial functions, etc.) should be taken into account,
   5. the principle of objectivity: in addition to specific work outputs, other objective external or internal circumstances that may have influenced the employee's performance during the evaluation period (e.g., workload in other activities for the benefit of the University, internships abroad, exceptional family or personal situation, parental leave, etc.) must be taken into account when evaluating the past period and when setting tasks and goals for the following period,
   6. the principle of openness: in the evaluation process, it is essential to give the employee being evaluated the opportunity to comment on the results of the evaluation,
   7. the principle of transparency: a written record is made of the evaluation, summarising the main conclusions of the evaluation, the staff member's work tasks and objectives for the next period, including a personal and professional development plan.
3. The employee being evaluated is required to cooperate during the evaluation and provide relevant and truthful information to the evaluator.

Article 4
Basic evaluation rules

1. Employee evaluations take place at the level of individual departments of the MFF UK once every 2 years, for senior employees once every 1 year.
2. The exceptional evaluation will always take place before the conclusion of the permanent contract.
3. The regular evaluation for the previous evaluation period must be carried out by 30 June of the following calendar year at the latest.
4. The evaluation may be conducted on a different date if requested by the employee's immediate supervisor or the employee himself/herself to the Faculty Bursar. Such an evaluation may, for example, include the re-setting of objectives if the employee's job description changes, or may assess the ongoing achievement of the objectives. Communication with feedback elements between the employee's immediate supervisor and the employee should be ongoing throughout the year.
5. In the case of new employees, before the expiry of the probationary period, the employee's supervisor is obliged to inform the employee of the criteria or areas of evaluation, and also to set with the employee his/her performance objectives for the next period, unless the employment relationship is terminated during the probationary period.
6. Periodic evaluation may be omitted in justified cases, in particular where less than 6 months have elapsed since the staff member's last appraisal.
7. There is no obligation to carry out regular evaluation for employees with a weekly working time of up to and including 16 hours per week and for employees in pay band no. 1, 2 and 3. This is without prejudice to the possibility of an exceptional evaluation on request within the meaning of paragraph 4 of this Article.
8. Employees in the manual, service and commercial and operational professions will be evaluated in a simplified manner, which will be specified in the methodological instruction of the Faculty Bursar, see also Article 6(3) of this directive.

Article 5
Conduct of the evaluation

1. The evaluation of the employee takes the form of an interview. The evaluation is carried out by the relevant senior staff member, the immediate superior of the employee being evaluated. In the case of more than one job or if the work is assigned by someone other than the immediate supervisor (for example, when the employee participates in projects), the supervisor of the main job (‚core‘) is responsible for the evaluation, but the other supervisors may participate in the interview or provide input in advance. The interview may then also take a 2:1 format (e.g., immediate supervisor and Vice-Dean of the corresponding School/project manager and employee).
2. The employee prepares a self-assessment based on the identified areas and proposes work goals for the next period. He/she then discusses his/her self-assessment and objectives in an interview with the evaluator(s), who prepares an evaluation report and agrees or adjusts the objectives based on the discussion with the employee.
3. At the request of the employee or evaluator being evaluated or at the Dean's consideration, the Dean may establish an evaluation committee for a given evaluation. The evaluation committee shall have at least three members; a departmental representative may be a member of the committee; the immediate supervisor is always a member.
4. The evaluation results in a written report including performance targets for the next period.
5. In the event of disagreement of the evaluated employee with the evaluation, the evaluated employee may respond in writing to the evaluation report within 10 working days after the evaluation and request the Dean to change the evaluation, stating the reason for the change. In such a case, the Dean shall establish an evaluation committee within the meaning of the second sentence of paragraph 3 of this Article so that the evaluation committee reviews the evaluation and communicates its opinion to the evaluated employee in writing, normally within 30 working days from the date of receipt of the employee's request for a change in the evaluation. Where an evaluation committee has already been set up pursuant to paragraph 3 of this Article for the evaluation of the staff member, that evaluation committee shall also examine the staff member's request for a change in the evaluation and communicate its opinion in writing to the staff member being evaluated within the time limit referred to in the preceding sentence.
6. The conclusion of the evaluation can also serve as a basis for possible personnel and salary changes of employees, e.g. changes in working hours, classification in pay band, amount of personal remuneration, etc.
7. Following the evaluation, each department head in the Dean's Office will prepare a brief report on his/her departmental evaluation, including any suggestions from staff. This report is addressed to the Faculty Bursar.
8. The evaluation of senior staff of the Dean's Office is carried out in a similar manner. If a senior employee of the Dean's office is not subordinate in terms of content and concept to the Faculty Bursar, the employee in charge of the methodological management of the relevant Dean's Office also takes part in the evaluation as a second evaluator.
9. All information obtained during the evaluation process is confidential. It will only be handled by the Faculty management and the Department of Human Resources of MFF UK as part of the organisation's personnel management. In the case of further processing (especially archiving), care must be taken to comply with data protection rules.
10. Evaluation is usually done within a single university-wide application, if available.
11. All documents related to the evaluation of a given employee are kept in the employee's personal file at the Department of Human Resources of MFF UK or in a single university-wide application, if available.

Article 6
Transitional provisions

1. In 2025 (i.e. for the 2024 evaluation) only a pilot test evaluation of staff will be carried out.
2. The pilot evaluation will include the Faculty Bursar (and also the Head of Department 738), senior employees of Departments no. 721 to 736, and the staff of Department 511 Library and 737 Office of Internal Audit Department and Ombudsman’s office.
3. The detailed evaluation process will be set out in a methodological guideline after the analysis of the pilot test evaluation.

Article 7
Final provisions

1. This Directive comes into force on the date of its approval by the Dean of the MFF UK and is effective on the date of its publication on the public part of the Faculty website, but not earlier than 1 January 2025.

Proposed by: Ing. Blanka Svobodová, Faculty Bursar

The directive was discussed with the Trade Union Organisation of the MFF UK on 4 November 2024 and with the Dean's Board on 11 December 2024.

Approved on 19 December 2024 by:

¹ Section 302(a) of Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labour Code, as amended.
² Article 4(4)(b) of the Internal Wage Regulation of Charles University, as amended.
³ Dean's Directive no. 12/2024 Principles of Career Development of Lecturers, Academics, and Researchers at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University.