Establishing individual employee goals and aligning them with department goals not only enhances performance, but builds collaborative relationships between employees, teams and their supervisors focused on using dialogue and feedback as developmental tools. All goals, updates and comments will be gathered into the end-of-year final evaluation.
The System Administration performance cycle aligns with the fiscal year of July 1 – June 30.
Cornerstone users
University Staff in most System Administration departments use the Cornerstone.
- Advancement
- CU Health Plan (Trust)
- Employee Services
- Employee & Information Services
- Internal Audit
- Office of Information Security
- Procurement Service Center
- University Information Services
If your department does not use Cornerstone, please visit the System Administration Performance Review page.

Why use Cornerstone?
One of the most prominent methodologies for personal growth and habit change is the idea of setting SMART goals – that is, goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Cornerstone is a performance management platform that enables users – employees and supervisors – to set and track SMART goals. With Cornerstone, departments can:
- List specific goals, such as learning new software suites or increasing their customer satisfaction rating.
- Measure the progress of each goal through timely benchmarks, personal notes and document uploads, such as training certificates.
- Facilitate collaboration between supervisors and direct reports to assess how relevant and attainable each goal is.
- Set due dates for each goal that can organize sequential tasks (such as increasingly specialized courses on a set skill) and keep each person’s professional growth on track.
Cornerstone Resources for Supervisors
Step-by-step guides
Activity overviews
Professional Development Resources for Supervisors
Cornerstone Resources for Staff
Step-by-step guides
Activity overviews
Webinars/ Video Presentation
- Goal and performance planning activity (4 minute video)
- Creating my goals
- Tracking goal progress
- Final evaluation activity (5 minute video)
- Cornerstone Webinar
Other
Professional Development Resources for Staff
Feedback
Cornerstone is new to System Administration. That's why we would like you share your experiences with the tool. We will use your feedback to ensure Cornerstone is meeting the users' needs. Please share your feedback.
Rating Score
Definitions for mid-year review rating scores are below.
Exceeding Expectations: The employee has performed above expectations and has demonstrated a very high level of quality relating to job duties, goals, and competencies. Goals may be ahead of schedule and the employee may have taken on new duties.
Meeting Expectations: The employee fulfills performance expectations regularly. The employee’s job duties, goals, and competencies are on track.
Below Expectations: The manager and employee have identified and discussed areas of improvement for the remainder of the performance cycle. This could include goals that are behind schedule, job duties that are not being completed effectively, or performance issues related to behavior or competencies.
Per Administrative Policy #5009, definitions for final evaluation rating scores are below.
5- Outstanding: Far exceeds performance expectations on a consistent and uniform basis. Work is of exceptional quality in all essential areas of responsibility. In addition, makes an exceptional or unique contribution in achievement of unit, department, and University objectives.
4- Exceeding Expectations: Always achieves performance expectations and frequently exceeds them. Demonstrates performance of a very high level of quality in all areas of responsibility.
3- Meeting Expectations: Consistently fulfills performance expectations and periodically may exceed them. Work is of high quality in all significant areas of responsibility.
2- Below Expectations: Frequently fails to meet expectations and improvement is needed in these areas.
1- Fails to Meet Expectations: Consistently fails to meet expectations and improvement is needed in most aspects of position.