Best Practices for Successful Career Conferences

Prior to Career Conference Report Meeting:

Gather teaching evaluations from residency and fellowship programs so that you can provide feedback to your faculty.
Obtain clinical performance metrics that reflect the faculty member's clinical contributions.
Review part 1 of the career conference report so that you are familiar with the successes and challenges the faculty faced this year. Pay particular attention to the "Career Plans" section where you will learn how best to retain your faculty. They really appreciate being recognized for their contributions and the fact that you took time to prepare.
Review previous year's Career Conference Reports (see pull down menu at the top of part I) to determine if there are any open action items or performance concerns that were not addressed.
If the possibility of promotion is imminent for a faculty member, review promotion guidelines before discussing promotion possibilities.

During the meeting:

Review last year's goals, and if they were not met, discuss to identify the barriers and whether the goals were realistic.
Try to present both strengths and weaknesses for all three missions (education, scholarship, service). Frame the weaknesses in the context of what was done well and remind faculty that we all have opportunities for development. Any serious performance-related issues should be addressed and noted in writing. This is also a good time to give any personal examples or experiences.
Create specific goals or milestones to address weak areas and to ensure continued success. Ask for faculty member input on how to improve his/her performance.
Find out what the faculty member's expectations are in terms of career progression. Develop a plan for meeting those expectations, or help to create more realistic ones. Refer the faculty member to the promotion guidelines.
Ask if the faculty member has/wants a mentor, and if necessary, point them to mentoring resources in the school or department and help them find a mentor.
Ask the faculty member if there are any other items he/she would like to discuss that were not listed in the Career Conference Report. This is a good opportunity to address work-life balance issues.

After the meeting:

Prepare a short summary right away while the information is fresh in your mind.
Include a note about achievements so that the department can recognize the faculty member's contribution.
Upload your summary to Part II so that the faculty member sees it soon after your meeting.
Follow up on any issues prior to the next scheduled career conference report—12 months is too long to wait for successful intervention. If appropriate, let the faculty mentor know how he/she can help.

Rating Scale

Please remember that it is the overall rating that will be pulled into the salary workbook.

Performance Category	Estimated Proportion of Faculty Pool	Category Description
Exemplary	30%	Truly outstanding performance throughout the entire review/rating period. Outstanding productivity and leadership in research, service or teaching, as appropriate for rank, including strong funding portfolio (e.g. multiple grants, >65% salary recovery), high impact publications, keynote speaking invitations. Outstanding performance in teaching, university service and clinical practice (if applicable). Demonstrated and measureable performance that is always excellent. Extraordinarily productive throughout the year and across all key aspects of the position. Inspires others; sets standards for the measurement of expert performance. Critical and essential to the success of a program, unit, division, department.
Meets Expectations	60%	Solid, effective performance of a good contributor and valued faculty member. Excellent research productivity (if applicable), including one or more grants as PI and multiple scholarly publications, frequent speaking invitations, stc. Strong teaching, university service and clinical practice (if applicable). Strong, sustained, consistent performance that produces results and adds value, often benefiting the division/department. Contributes to the success of others and partners in way that promotes scholarly advancement, improves service, clinical success, and organizational effectiveness. Consistently demonstrates capable or satisfactory performance that meets department/school/healthcare standards. May occasionally exceed expectations, but not in a sustained and repeated fashion. Steady, dependable and reliable as individual contributor or team member. Consistent, productive, solid.
Needs Development	<10%	Adequate performance in most areas, but needs improvement in one or more aspects that are significant and critical to the position, and to be competitive at the next level. Consistently performs below the academic targets articulated by department/school or clinical performance targets (if applicable). Fails to make a contribution that advances program, division, department, or school. May represent an economic liability if improvement is not made. May demonstrate a lack of motivation or focus.

Performance Category

Estimated Proportion of Faculty Pool

Category Description

Exemplary

30%

Truly outstanding performance throughout the entire review/rating period.

Outstanding productivity and leadership in research, service or teaching, as appropriate for rank, including strong funding portfolio (e.g. multiple grants, >65% salary recovery), high impact publications, keynote speaking invitations. Outstanding performance in teaching, university service and clinical practice (if applicable).
Demonstrated and measureable performance that is always excellent. Extraordinarily productive throughout the year and across all key aspects of the position. Inspires others; sets standards for the measurement of expert performance.
Critical and essential to the success of a program, unit, division, department.

Meets Expectations

60%

Solid, effective performance of a good contributor and valued faculty member.

Excellent research productivity (if applicable), including one or more grants as PI and multiple scholarly publications, frequent speaking invitations, stc. Strong teaching, university service and clinical practice (if applicable).
Strong, sustained, consistent performance that produces results and adds value, often benefiting the division/department.
Contributes to the success of others and partners in way that promotes scholarly advancement, improves service, clinical success, and organizational effectiveness.
Consistently demonstrates capable or satisfactory performance that meets department/school/healthcare standards. May occasionally exceed expectations, but not in a sustained and repeated fashion.
Steady, dependable and reliable as individual contributor or team member. Consistent, productive, solid.

Needs Development

<10%

Adequate performance in most areas, but needs improvement in one or more aspects that are significant and critical to the position, and to be competitive at the next level.

Consistently performs below the academic targets articulated by department/school or clinical performance targets (if applicable).
Fails to make a contribution that advances program, division, department, or school.
May represent an economic liability if improvement is not made.
May demonstrate a lack of motivation or focus.