Jennifer and Mel disagree over the importance of having appraisals.  Mels says it's quite clear whether any particular LearninMotion employee is doing his or her job.  It's obvious, for instance, if the salespeople are selling, if the Web designer is designing, if the Web surfer is surfing, and if the content management people are managing to get the customers' content up on the Web site in a timely fashion.  Mel's position, like that of many small-business managers, is that "we have 1,000 higher-priority things to attend to "such as boosting sales and creating the calendar.  And in any case, he says, the employees already get plenty of day-to-day feedback from him or Jennifer rgarding what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong.
This informal feedback notwithstanding, Jennifer believes that a more formal appraisal approach is required.  For one thing, they're approaching the end of the 90-day "introductory" period for many of these employees, and the owners need to make decisions about whether they should go or stay.  And from a practical point of view, Jennifer just believes that sitting down and providing formal, written feedback is more likely to reinforce what employees are doing right, and to get them to modify what they might be doing wrong.  "Maybe this is one reason we're not getting enough sales", she says.
The purpose of a performance appraisal is to provide employees with feedback on how they are doing, as well as give them an opportunity to give feedback.  These are 4 reasons for appraising performance: 1)  appraisals provide information upon which promotion and salary decisions are made;  2)  they provide an opportunity for you and your subordinate to review his or her work-related behavior;  3)  it provides an opportunity to review the subordinate's career plans in light of his or her strengths and weaknesses;  4)  they help you better manage and improve your firm's importance.
NOW, that you have your  supervisor's opinion, prepare a response for Jennifer and Mel highlighting your thoughts.  Here are the questions they need answered:
1.  IS JENNIFER RIGHT ABOUT THE NEED TO EVALUATE THE WORKERS FORMALLY?  why OR why not?  IF YOU THINK SHE IS RIGHT, HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN AWAY MEL'S ARGUMENTS?
2.  Select a performance appraisal method for the salespeople, Web designer, or Web surfer, and provide reasoning as to why this is the most appropriate method for this position.  Along with selecting the method, develop the appraisal form you would use, customized for the position you selected.