Board wishing to view performance evaluations

jbnunzio

We are a non-profit credit union and members of our Executive Committee have requested to view the performance evaluations of the CFO,CIO and COO. The Executive Committee is comprised of volunteers, they are not employees of the credit union. My question is, does anyone see any reasons why they shouldn't be able to view them? Should we obtain the individual employee's permission for the committee to view them?

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-12-02 AT 02:44PM (CST)[/font][p]I think the President of the Credit Union, usually an employee of the Credit Union, should advise the volunteer board that they may not view such documents and files. The Board generally does have the authority to recommend termination of C.U. Employees if enough complaints are lodged. These members tend to roll off after a period of a year, two at most. And then, they are often just down the hall from the person whose confidential file they viewed, perceived as co-workers in almost a true sense. As volunteers or elected by their friends and co-workers, they are often entrusted with far too much information already about other employees' personal business. They should not be viewing such documents. I don't think they have the authority to review member loan files either unless the member has been reported to the board as delinquent and they need to make certain credit related decisions and then they should only have the minimum information required by your charter and not have access to member files. These are co-workers after all. Sounds like an overly zealous board, or just a snoopy member.

jbnunzio

I am actually looking for any documentation that would be able to back up what you and I are both thinking. I would like to present something to the president to show to the board stating that they should not be privy to such information. We are in the state of Pennsylvania and I thought that there may be an applicable state law, but haven't found anything yet.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-15-02 AT 08:11AM (CST)[/font][p]I don't think you'll find an applicable state statute. It's my feeling that this sort of logical policy falls more under 'institutional procedures'. I view this the same as I do employees outside the HR Department having access to employee personnel files (except on need-to-know supervisory relationships). The members of the Executive Committee are not employees of the Credit Union and have no business viewing such files, period. Maybe the best thing you can provide to the President of the C.U. is a memo strongly urging confidentiality of those records with some solid recommendations against volunteer or elected boards or committees ever, under any circumstances, having the authority to review such files. Does the credit union have bylaws or written duties and responsibilities of ex-officio board/committee members? If not, they should have and each newly elected board member should be given a copy. If you don't have any success with educating the President, I personally think I would simply refuse to allow them to view any such files.

Margaret Morford

Who does the President report to? Who reviews the President's performance? Who determines what the President gets for an annual salary increase? Who removes the President if he/she is not performing? Surely it's not this committee. This is what I would use as the appropriate party or body to look at these records.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

jbnunzio

The President reports to the Board of Directors. Members of the executive committee include the board of directors as well as 2 additional volunteers. This is the committee charged with policy review/approval.

The request came from the Chairman of the Board. He would like to share the information with members of the Executive Committee. However, the board has no training/background on how to interpret the performance evaluation. And, there has been no reasons given as to why they would like to view them. They have never requested them in the past.

Margaret Morford

Who writes the President's preformance review? I'm assumning that it is the Chairman of the Board. I'd discuss with the Chairman that the President has the same right to privacy that any other employee does, that it would be inappropriate given the composition of the Executive Committee to expose that information to the committee, particular since it is made up of employees from the credit union. I would think that whatever disclosure is required by the by-laws should be sufficient for the committee.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]