The most important purpose or goal of the appraisal is to improve performance and hence productivity in the future. Performance appraisals allow employees to see where they are at and managers can get valuable information from employees to help them make employee's jobs more productive. Performance appraisals sound great in theory but the odd thing is that they often don't get done, and many managers, supervisors and employees hate them. Legal implications, concerns about fairness and accuracy, costs and time are some of the issues which perhaps incline some managers to avoid performance appraisals but the reality is companies which have adopted this system find the benefits to be more than rewarding.
As a result of appraisals, managers' control over work and results may increase, problems can be identified early, employees are motivated by being allowed to input into and own their objectives, enhances communication, objective feedback given back to employees, facilitates decision making in regard to pay scale and promotion, centralized record of performances. (http://www.work911.com/performance/particles/pmch1.htm)
Typically, the performance appraisal is due one year from the end of the probationary period or before the merit cycle. The preparation process involves 3 main steps which are to review data, hold a preliminary meeting with the employee, and finally a self-appraisal from the employee.
To begin, the employee's job description and work record should be reviewed and if possible obtain performance feedback from people with whom the employee has worked. The employee should be given advance notice of the performance appraisal so that he or she has the chance to review and prepare. After the notice has been given, hold a preliminary meeting with the empl ...