Performance Appraisal...

Performance appraisal is an interesting concept. I think that the reports are can be helpful and eye-opening to employees. They can figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are and what type of skills and knowledge they would need to obtain in order to become better and more productive part of the company. But having a performance appraisal/ performance management should be a constant thing, there should be open and comfortable communication between management, HR and employees. Showing someone a piece of paper just doesnt cut it, most people need explanations and situations where something as occurred and how they handled it properly or how they can learn how to perform better. Every employees should have goals either daily, weekly, monthly etc. on what they should accomplish, then measures of those goals, future advancement, commission, raise in pay, etc. Last assessment, regular appraisals lets employees/teams know where they stand, what is expected and this helps with progress and building communication between management and employees.

This link is to a website giving a definition for performance appraisal, why companies should consider them, and how to construct a performance pay structure. There are also additional resources such as SMART goals...
http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/HR/performance-appraisal.html