What should I know about employee performance review forms?

Here's a short list of things every manager should know about performance management and employee review forms.

• Focusing on completing the form is a mistake. Better to focus on communicating effectively with employees rather than just getting the form done.
• There is no perfect employee review form. You should augment (with notes, comments, etc) the form, when completing it so that the information on it is useful to you and the employee to improve performance.
• No form will result in completely objective employee evaluations. It's impossible. It's the holy grail. Remember that the form, whether it's a rating form or some other type of narrative form is a reflection of subjective judgements. Don't treat it as the final word on performance quality.
• When performance management and employee review forms, and properly completed, and accompanied by constructive discussions between manager and employee, the results can be helpful in legal situations. However, when it's done badly, the results can actually reduce the company's ability to defend against false charges of discrimination.