Do I have to wait for the annual performance appraisal to tell an employee that his or her performance is unacceptable?
No, you should not wait. In fact, good managers provide their
employees with performance feedback throughout the appraisal cycle. The
Office of Personnel Management reinforces this in its regulations where
it states that employees need to be notified of
unacceptable performance, "At any time during the performance
appraisal cycle that an employee's performance is determined to be
unacceptable . . . ." Notice also that the Governmentwide regulations
only call for a determination, not a formal rating of record. Check
with your agency on your internal policy regarding whether or not a full
performance rating needs to be prepared before you inform an employee
of unacceptable performance. Remember, regardless of whatever agency
requirements apply, no employee likes to feel "sandbagged" at appraisal
time, so confront the poor performance as soon as you become aware of
it.
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