Soemone here suggested
“companies need to know how they are going to link performance to pay, promotions, and performance improvement plans.”

In my firm, in the kind of work we do, there is absolutely no relationship whatsoever between the “performance” as measured by the annual review and pay and promotions. There have been no payrises for many, many years (5 or 6) and promotions are meaningless, simply job title changes. I am now senior, chief, principal bottlewasher paid the same, and treated the same as if I were junior, trainee, supernumerary bottlewasher.

As for “performance improvement plans” these are simply there for managment to have excuses to rid themselves of someone they do not like. Most of them break legal rules as regards unfair dismissal. They are full of meaningless measures. They are used to demoralise the individuals they no longer want.

I’d strongly recommend you get onto YouTube, search for Dr Rao on Googletalk. Follow his advice. In a year’s time, we expect you to be happy.

And you will owe us a drink!

Here are the kind of goals my company adopts:-

“We aim to evolve core concepts into a set of tangible, deliverable, measurable, currency-centric services.”

“Giving product information to customers: we will highlight our approach to provide knowledge delivery that is more precise and aligned to the customer lifecycle, conveying the right knowledge at the right time.”

“… reaching this “end-state” aims to improve the overall customer health and experience of the organisation …”

All of it meaningless twaddle and garble. The guys who write this kind of garbage are paid 10 times more than the production staff