Why performance appraisals are worthless.(Human Resources)

Fairfield County Business Journal, January, 2006 by Hauck, Wally

Performance appraisals have come to be a fact of life in the business world. Consultants Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins, authors of "Abolishing Performance Appraisals," estimated that probably 90 percent or more of all organizations conduct performance reviews in some form or another. It is therefore unnerving to realize appraisals add no measurable value because of their nature of judging and criticizing employees instead of evaluating and improving employee methods.

Performance appraisals come in different forms. They may range from the simple written appraisal of an employee's performance by his manager, to a more intensive method called the 360-degree feedback instrument in which all those who "surround" the employee--customers, boss, colleagues and direct...