It is the time of year your organization sets aside for performance reviews. You must assess your team's performance over the past six months. You will start with the person who corresponds to the job description as the junior data analyst job description.

You are assessing your team member, "Member A," who started working seven months ago, so this is their first performance review.

Background information for the assessment

• At the end of their 30-day probation period, their supervisor wrote a summary of their work, giving a baseline from which to conduct the assessment. That summary indicated Member A. met expectations on all aspects of the job and suggested that A. needs to work on punctuality and accountability, with no additional details.
• As you have supervised A. for the last six months, you know that they come from a cultural background that is high individuality, low power distance, and low context (see Hofstede's dimensions).
• Your team primarily works virtually, using video conferencing and instant messaging frequently.
• A. has self-identified to the team as preferring gender-neutral pronouns such as they and them.

Day of the assessment scenario

• You set a time with A. to meet over Zoom to review the job requirements and their performance.
• A week before the meeting, you send a template for the performance review to A., asking them to complete it as a self-assessment and bring it to the conversation.
• Team Member A. logs into the Zoom meeting five minutes late, explaining they had technical problems with the application and apologizes profusely. It seems to be a few technical glitches or an unstable connection, and A. asks if they can turn off their camera to save bandwidth. You'd like to tell A. to leave it on as much as possible, except that it can be turned off if needed.
• You ask A. to share their overall self-assessment of their work over the last six months. A. acknowledges their struggles with being on time and the steps they take to become more accountable to their teammates.
• Over the next 20 minutes, you have a productive conversation with A. about improving these performance elements, including using A.'s lateness to the current Zoom meeting as an example.
• You then ask A. to choose one job task they excel at and one they would like to improve. This situation leads to another productive discussion.
• At the end of the Zoom meeting, you tell A. that you will document the conversation by sending a memo that will form the supervisor's remarks part of the formal written performance evaluation.
• This memo will go to A. and your supervisor, A.'s second-level supervisor, and will become part of A.'s performance management file.

Assignment Instructions

For this, craft this memo. Include the following:

• Describe the job task A. excels at (choose one from the relevant job description), and create a paragraph of praise for A.'s work in this area.
• Describe the job task A. wants to improve (choose one from the relevant job description) and write a paragraph with suggestions for how A. can build skills or knowledge related to this task. You should make up some specific examples of skill or knowledge-building activities to include in this paragraph.
• List three steps A. will take to improve time management; cite a source for time management skills A. can use in this effort.
• List three steps A. will take to improve their accountability to their teammates; cite a source for learning more about teamwork that A. can use in this effort.

I'd like you to please consider carefully that your written memo will be read by A., by your supervisor, and will become part of A.'s employment record.

• Be sure to use a professional, courteous tone and clear, precise, and concise language.
• Please include an introduction that sets the context of the memo and a conclusion that summarizes the next steps.
• Use the formal memo format.