Although performance reviews are not required, such reviews allow the employer to advise employees of whether they are meeting or exceeding performance goals, as well as to identify any performance problems that may exist. This record of performance shortcomings may be indispensable in a discrimination case in which an employee or former employee challenges the legitimacy of an adverse employment decision based on performance.
Conversely, an employee may try to use the fact that his or her employer failed to uniformly conduct performance appraisals in a discrimination, termination, or unemployment compensation lawsuit. Evaluations also encourage employees to improve their performance without the imposition of discipline.
Employers should make sure that their policy does not guarantee that a performance appraisal will be performed. This is particularly true in light of the Conner v. City of Forest Acres case.
The employer should attempt to follow the procedures outlined in its performance appraisal policy because careful adherence to those procedures allows the employer to build a record of each employee’s performance. Employees are requested to sign the evaluation form, not to indicate agreement with its contents, but simply to establish a record of the occurrence and contents of the...
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