Why do companies go to the bother of setting up a performance appraisal system? The most common reason is to give employees feedback on how they’re doing. If a company has a performance appraisal process, then the individual learns exactly how well her boss feels she did during the previous twelve months.
Whether she agrees or disagrees with the evaluation (and remember—a performance appraisal is a formal record of a supervisor’s opinion of the quality of an employee’s work) she can then use that information to improve her performance in the future. And there’s something else here, too.
Performance appraisal serves another vital purpose by putting pressure on the boss to clearly communicate his performance expectations. How can you hold someone accountable for doing a good job if you haven’t told them what it is that you expect them to do and how their performance will be evaluated?
About the Author
Dick Grote is a management consultant in Dallas, Texas and the author of several books. His most recent book, How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals, was published by the Harvard Business Review Press in July 2011.
