Annual Employee Reviews

What is the nature of the "Annual Employee Review"?

The Annual Employee Review is a personal interview between employee and her*his direct superior within strict adherence to the four eyes principle.

It is mandatory, that it take place once a year.

How shall Annual Employee Reviews be conducted?

The Annual Employee Reviews shall be conducted in a structured, confidential way; based on mutual respect and appreciation, so to say on "on eye level".

We hereby provide you with some documents, which shall support superiors and employees in the preparation and conduct of the Annual Employee Reviews.

Why must "Annual Employee Reviews" take place?

Superiors and leaders can use this occasion to fix objectives together with their coworker(s). Both can keep track of the realisation and discuss adjustments. Leaders have the chance to get to know the perspective of their coworker(s) and discuss themes which risk to be neglected in the work routine.

Employees get the chance to influence the shape of forthcoming work loads and address personal development-, qualification- and career chances.

As for the University, the annual employee reviews play an important role since they open additional possibilities to improve work conditions and promote the implementation of a culture of mutual and lifelong learning.

Under the category "That´s why we conduct Annual Employee Reviews" we have gathered opinions from different perspectives.

Evaluation of Annual Employee Reviews

The instrument of the Annual Employee Reviews was evaluated by HR Development in 2021. This means that managers and employees of the university received an online questionnaire, which were filled out anonymously.

Once the survey has been completed, the results were evaluated by the HR Development and presented to the Executive Board and the Staff Council. The discussion about the future of the annual meetings in the Executive Board and with the Staff Council is currently in progress.

You can find an overview of the results here.


Origins of the Annual Employee Reviews at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The Annual Employee Reviews were established at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in 2017. The concept had been developed by an expert group under the auspices of the vice president Dr. Holger Schroeter with the support of the representants of the workers´council, the division Gender Equality and the Representatives for Severely Handicapped Persons in collaboration with the faculty representatives.