Performance and talent: Pros and cons of performance assessments

Abstract

Employee performance assessment is generically referred to as a process that combines a system of tools and methods aimed at evaluating an individual employee’s job performance and productivity in relation to certain preestablished criteria and organizational objectives. Performance assessment methods vary, while the assessment cycles depend on the company’s corporate management decisions. The potential benefits of performance assessment are commonly considered to be: employee performance improvement by means of setting goals and improving collaboration; facilitation of communication between the management and the personnel; determining employee career development and training needs to achieve strategic initiatives; increasing employee motivation and trust; providing feedback to employees; and counseling and developing them. In other words performance appraisal is a process that involves determining and communicating to an employee how he or she is performing the job and, ideally, establishing a plan of improvement.