Win-Win Performance Appraisals: What to Do Before, During, and After the Review to Get the Best Results for Yourself and Your Employees

3 Improving on Performance Appraisal Forms

All performance appraisal forms are different, yet all performance appraisal forms are the same. All require the manager to evaluate his or her employees against some standards or criteria— objectives, competencies, and goals.

Louis Sullivan, the great American architect whose name is associated with the steel-and-glass skyscraper, famously stated, “Form follows function.” (Actually, he wrote, “Form ever follows function,” but why quibble?) What he meant was that things should be made in a way that suits their intended purpose and use.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case with performance appraisal forms. The array of performance appraisal forms in use today more closely resembles the Tower of ...