Also, they should be scheduled at regular intervals so people can anticipate them, and for everyone in the company at the same time so it becomes a standardized thing!

This doesn’t mean you don’t then hold a higher standard of excellence to that person for coming years though. They might do just as well the following year, and it could then “meeting expectations” since there is a higher level of expectation. Its all relative to what you expect as a manager of each individual and whether they are performing better or worse than you expect. Its your job to be very clear about that and explain your reasoning for each rating (hopefully throughout the year!).

Its perfectly OK to have your top performer getting lower scores than a new junior person since the ratings are entirely based on how they perform compared to your expectation. Your compensation and raises however, will most definitely NOT be directly related to the individual scores, but instead to the value to the organization. Someone with high ratings might be improving quickly and faster than expected but they could still be massively under performing compared to your top performer.

In my mind, if you are doing a great job and meeting all expectations as a valued member of the team, checking off the “meeting expectations” box is a really good score. The hard part is making sure the team all understand that.