mployees that decide to take legal action based on performance appraisals. That is because there have been a countless number of people that have sued their former employee because they feel that they have not receive a performance appraisal prior to their discharge. However, there are many ways that employers can protect themselves against this kind of action. Some examples are to explain to new employees that their employment is at will, that is the employer reserves the right to discharge the employee at any time for any reason with or without cause and with or without notice. Another example is to say that nothing in the employers policies, practices, or procedures including performance appraisals, should be interpreted as giving any right upon the employee to continued employment. Finally, an employer should state that they are under no obligation to appraise performance.Training Raters:In order for performance appraisal to be accurate, it is important that the people execute these appraisals to be formally trained. It would be the organizations best interest and the for the overall development of the employees for employee appraisals to be as accurate as possible and provide honest feedback.There are essentially three elements effective rater training programs should include: explanations of the performance dimensions, opportunities for trainees to practice ratings, and feedback to the trainees concerning the practice ratings.The first dimension of training raters is through performance dimension rating or PDT. In this stage raters learn to understand the goals and objectives of the firm in order to effectively rate each employee based on these. It is important that appraisals are based relatively to the objectives of the company because it will provide more accurate information on job performance.The other two elements of an effective training program, the opportunity for trainees to practice doing ratings and the feedbac...
