Performance reviews provide the employer a valuable opportunity to apprise the employee of how the employer is viewing the employee’s performance, which can prevent surprise on the part of the employee if he or she is subjected to an adverse employment action in the future. If the evaluations are properly documented, they can both head off discrimination claims in the first instance and provide valuable defenses to the employer should litigation eventually ensue.
On the other hand, if the evaluation is merely perfunctory and does not serve to inform the employee of how they are actually performing, the review can come back to haunt the employer in the event the employee files a discrimination claim. Too often, supervisors or managers who rate employees have received no instructions concerning how to properly evaluate employees. As a result, they may rate an employee’s performance as “satisfactory” or “good” without giving much thought to whether these descriptors are accurate. It is not uncommon for an individual filling out a performance evaluation to use the same comments for virtually all employees. Such use of the performance review is relatively meaningless, unreliable and leaves the employer exposed to potential litigation. For example, it is difficult to convince a jury...
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