HSM220
The six messages must occur on at least three different days during the online week.
 DQ responses will count toward participation (Please note a 100-200 word requirement for initial responses to all discussion questions.)

In order to earn full participation points, the messages must be a minimum of 75 words

Performance Management
There are many ways in which to rate an employee’s performances in an organization. Performance appraisals are being used more and more in organizations throughout the world. Performance appraisals are periodic examinations of employee performance to ascertain how well the employee is performing relative to what is expected. (McConnell, 2007) One of the performance appraisals that are in use today is the essay approach which is currently in use by the University of California Davis to use on its staff employee’s. In this performance appraisal, the manager describes employee performance at whatever length they deem necessary. They then discuss the contents of the evaluation with the employee and they provide a copy for the employee’s personnel file. Performance appraisals, not matter which ones are used, are used to facilitate improvement in employee performance, provide formal, official feedback to employees concerning performance, provide information for decisions concerning compensation and other personnel transactions for example promotions and transfers to other departments or facilities (McConnell, 2007).
Advantages and Disadvantages
As with each different type of performance appraisal there are some advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages with the form that is used are that it lets the employer provide as much information as they wish. It gives the employee the opportunity to provide their side of their review in dept, it gives the employee a complete view of how their supervisor and management staff views them, and the performance appraisal form has to be signed by the upper management at the end of the review process. By limiting or having a numerical scale there may be a chance that the employer may not get a chance to say what they really mean. In the essay form they have adequate space to fully explain any situation that may have risen during the review period. The same situation applies to the employee. Another advantage is that it gives the employee a view of what the management thinks about them overall. This is good because it can give the employee motivation to either step up performances in the workplace or maintain the level of output that they are performing at in order to make it to the next level in their department or organization. By having the performance appraisal going up the chain of command this keeps the executives informed as to what is going on with the lower level employees. This helps executives recognize common issues whether they are with the employees or with the managers and make corrections or step in when necessary. If there is a negative point in the performance appraisal it gives the manager a chance to give examples of ways to improve their performance. One of the disadvantages of having an essay form performance appraisal is that it may become time consuming and the evaluator may become complacent when preparing them. As with all employee appraisals it leaves a chance for the employer to leave comments that are based on the employee’s personality instead of their performance. Without the proper training raters may unknowingly leave out important information or make many errors that may reflect negatively on the employee. Another disadvantage is the fact that since it is in essay for it leaves a chance for the employer to only remember the most recent events that the employee was involved in. It will be hard to for the manager to think of everything that each employee has done during the review period. So in order to combat this, the manager should frequently have discussions with the employee and take notes