(1) It is the policy of the state of Montana that:

(a) each agency shall be required to manage and evaluate the performance of permanent employees on a regularly recurring basis;

(b) a process implemented by an agency shall be based on an evaluation of contributions made and results achieved by individual employees and teams of employees through measures of performance including competence;

(c) employee involvement in performance management and evaluation is encouraged;

(d) an employee shall have the right to submit a written response to an evaluation which shall be retained with the evaluation in the employee's personnel record. The response shall be submitted to the employee's supervisor or another person designated in an agency policy within 10 working days of the evaluation or in a time period established in an agency's policy of not less than 10 working days;

(e) procedural errors which are subject to the filing of a grievance pursuant to ARM 2.21.8001 et seq., grievances, are failure of an evaluator to:

(i) inform an employee of the performance management plan at the start of an evaluation period or changes to the plan made during the evaluation period;

(ii) provide an employee with the completed evaluation and any reviewer's comments; and

(iii) advise an employee of the right to submit a written response.

(f) no employee may file a grievance based on the content of a performance management plan, the evaluation or reviewer's comments;

(g) an employee who has not attained permanent status may not file a grievance under ARM 2.21.8001 et seq., grievances, involving any aspect of the performance management and evaluation process; and

(h) initiation of informal or formal disciplinary actions under the discipline handling policy, ARM 2.21.6501 et seq., is not dependent on completion of the performance evaluation process.

(2) It is the objective of this policy pursuant to 2-18-102 , MCA, to delegate to each agency the authority to select a method of performance management and evaluation which incorporates and implements the requirements of this policy and which may be adapted to the mission and needs of the agency.