In 1911, performance appraisal pioneer Frederick Winslow Taylor published two books: The Principles of Scientific Management and Shop Management. He would die a few years later, but these twin tomes stand as testament to his pioneering work in the areas of identifying, improving and, most crucially, modifying the flow of employee tasks and expectations.

Taylor was a big believer in the idea of that if an employee was struggling with one set of duties, it could often serve the company better to re-assign that employee rather than simply fire them. He also helped cement the concept of work efficiency in the post-Victoria, industrialized factories of the world. Some of the companies where he bore great influence were Bethlehem Steel, Cramp's Shipbuilding, and Midvale Steel.

Long Line of Pioneers

Building upon Taylor's groundbreaking science of the workplace, many others have since put their stamp on the performance appraisal process. Too many to name, really. But one good example is Silicon Valley consultant Harold Fethe.Like a number of other performance appraisal scientists, he can point to one or more contributions that have been patented.

In Fethe's case, he came up with something called Visual 360, a computer-driven graphical interface that allows for information to constantly be input and updated by all those connected to a particular employee, creating an ongoing and fully panoramic view of that employee's performance. Also known as Sum Total, the software is a turn-key solution and a great example of how software innovation has completely revamped the dusty old forms of Taylor's 19^th century days.

Performance Appraisal Software, Appraised

Sum Total has grown to the point where it now claims that it is being used by more than 39 million workers across 2,400 different companies. Ironically, this performance appraisal tracking software gets regular performance appraisals of its own, in the form of consumer magazine reviews. For its latest, 2011 editions, the reviews have been glowing.