Job performance appraisals provide information about employee performance rankings that is used to make decisions regarding compensation and promotion. They also provide feedback to employees on their achievement levels and behavior, helping to identify deficiencies and set new performance standards. These appraisals aim to counsel employees, diagnose skills gaps, determine training needs, facilitate employee growth, and prevent grievances. They serve several purposes, including maintaining satisfactory performance, facilitating employee development, enabling management to understand subordinates better, guiding job changes, enabling fair compensation, and informing decisions around layoffs. The content appraised, such as productivity or behaviors, varies depending on the job and appraisal purpose.

1. Job appraisal
Job performance appraisals are needed in order to provide information about
performance rankings. This information helps in making decisions regarding salary
fixation, confirmation, promotion, transfer and demotion. In addition, job
performance appraisals provide feedback information about the level of achievement
and behavior of subordinates. This information helps to review the performance of the
subordinate, rectifying performance deficiencies and to set new standards of work, if
necessary.
These appraisals play a pivotal part in providing information that helps to counsel the
subordinate. The information helps to diagnose deficiency in employees regarding
skill and knowledge; determine training and developmental needs; prescribe the
means for employee growth; and suggestions for correcting placement. Moreover, job
performance appraisals prevent grievances and disciplinary activities.
Performance appraisal aims at attaining various purposes. The first purpose is to
create and maintain a satisfactory level of performance. The second purpose is to
contribute to employee growth and development through training, self and
management development programs. The third purpose is to help the superiors to
have a proper understanding about their subordinates. They also play a significant part
in guiding employees to job changes with the help of continuous ranking. The fourth
purpose is to facilitate fair and equitable compensation based on performance and to
facilitate for testing and validating selection tests, interview techniques through
comparing their scores with performance appraisal ranks. The last purpose is to
provide information for making decisions regarding layoff and retrenchment; ensure
organizational effectiveness through correcting the employee for standard and
improved performance; and suggesting the change in employee behavior.
Every organization has to decide upon the content to be appraised before the program
is approved. Generally, content to be appraised is determined on the basis of job
analysis. Content to be appraised may be in the form of contribution to organizational
objectives (measures) like production, cost saving, return on capital etc. Other
measures are based on behavior, which measure observable physical actions,
movements. Then there are objectives which measure job related results, like amount
of deposits mobilized. Finally, there are traits which are measured in terms of
personal characteristics observable in employee job activities. Content to be appraised
may vary with the purpose of appraisal and type and level of employees.
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