Seems to me like its alot of work to gather evidence and complete forms for no financial or other reward.Have I missed something?

There are mid-year pay rises and promotions. I am not sure if pay rises at mid-year are standard (I presume they're) but I've got one in each of the last three years.

Would agree with PAer, I've had a pay rise at each mid-year so far.

Read this:http://www.amazon.com/Abolishing-Performance-Appraisals-Backfire-Instead/dp/1576752003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214157598&sr=1-1

Its a waste of time and money imho.Furthermore, I think PA's whole review and remuneration system is in serious need of a rethink. The approach of paying low base salaries with the potential to score a great bonus & shares falls down when:1) bonuses are always less than people expect and then the employees is forced to pay the employer's portion of tax2) the shares performance has been average and a big chunk of the share capital is now being taken to finance a fund for Mr Moynihan to play with (ps how much does he get in the first year as a management fee??)phew.. glad I got that of my chest :)

to discuss and measure you're progress against your development objectives and ensure that the ones you set at the start of the year are still valid. Appraisals aren't just about money.

It sounds pretty high-pressure, having appraisals every 6 months. Does anybody actually enjoy appraisals or actually find them useful?

Every 6 months is hardly high-pressure! We actually get assessed on every assignment we complete or every 3 months if you are on a long assignment. I can’t say I find it much of an issue.

No pleasing some folks, if you went a whole year with no feedback then suddenly they tell you you’re average or below you’d be saying that nobody told you and how unfair it was that you didn’t have a chance to change it.

It's a tough old world out there.

It also means that if times are tough and an employees utilisation falls, that can be picked up and the employee performance managed out fairly quickly in reaction to the tougher times.

"Seems to me like its alot of work to gather evidence and complete forms for no financial or other reward"It sounds remarkably similar to the full year PA appraisal process.

Oh my!!!

Because they want to

Well, EY used to also do every 6 months to enable a review and push "exceptions" up for promotion. They are moving to the annual round!