Performance appraisal: when two jobs are too many

Performance appraisals involve two aspects: performance improvement and salary administration. Can a single program encompass both tasks? Probably not, because their goals are so different. Salary administration looks backward at the employee's past performance and rewards the employee in comparison to others. Performance appraisals look forward, while seeking to pinpoint specific elements in the employee's work that need improving. The program used for employee evaluation must be suited to the particular task at hand: either salary review or performance evaluation, but not both.