Tis’ the Season for Better Performance Management!

Tis’ the Season…No I’m not talking about the winter holidays, I’m talking about that time of year when managers and HR are swamped with performance reviews. This often comes with a lot of grumbling and overwhelm. Many organizations don’t even do formal performance reviews because of the organizational drain. So is it all worth it??

Yes.

I recently heard an executive say, “I know my people. I don’t need a performance review system to tell me who to promote.” Red flag! Managers and leaders often suffer from expertise bias where our expertise can blind us to new, critical information that doesn’t fit with our existing theories.

We all want to promote the right people and give constructive feedback to ensure employees meet organizational standards and can learn and grow. Foregoing a performance management system can lead to all sorts of bad decisions built on poor data, bad memories, favoritism, and bias. Making “gut” decisions about weighty outcomes like rewards, recognition, bonuses, and promotions, is fraught.

So, yes, you should have a performance management system in place, but the ROI on it depends on the design of your system.?

Bias in Performance Management

Like in hiring (that we covered in our last newsletter), unconscious biases can shape how employees are evaluated in the workplace. Evaluators (of all backgrounds, genders, and races/ethnicities) often suffer from the “shifting standards bias,” where the level of scrutiny and criteria they use to evaluate depends on the identity of the employee.

Studies show that women and people of color often receive more scrutiny, less credit for their contributions, and more criticism for mistakes. They also receive more vague, less actionable performance evaluations. For example, men are three times more likely than women to hear feedback related to a specific business outcome. And 76% of women’s performance reviews also contain negative personality criticisms about being “too aggressive”, compared to 24% of men’s.

As the new year approaches, let’s leave vaguery behind.

How to Address Bias in Performance Management

Here are three key ways your organization can ensure fair, unbiased people decisions:

1. Learning & Development. Organizations should invest in ongoing unconscious bias training for both hiring managers and employees to create awareness and equip people with unbiased decision-making skills. To help companies excel in performance measurement, illuceo has workshops that specifically address these issues.? These are? Beyond Unconscious Bias Workshop & Inclusive Performance Reviews.
2. Systems. Set clear criteria and standardized measurement processes across your performance review and promotion processes. Don’t throw spaghetti at the wall wasting time and effort. Instead, start with illuceo’s system DEI Assessments and make targeted customized improvements.?
3. Tools. Use just-in-time tools that prime inclusiveness in the performance evaluation process right when and where you need them. For example, illuceo’s Talent Review Cards prime leaders’ awareness of bias and offers phrases for addressing it in the moment (e.g. “Can you tell me about a time you saw them demonstrate that high potential for leadership?”).

Feeling daunted? Don’t. Refreshing your performance management system doesn’t mean adding bureaucracy. The goal is weaving standardization into the existing architecture of the system that interrupts unconscious bias. This will actually make performance management more streamlined, efficient, and effective.

Need support with data efforts, analysis, process assessment, or crafting your messaging around DEI in tricky times? Please reach out to illuceo for any of your organizational effectiveness needs.

Lauren Aguilar, PhD

illuceo, Founder & CEO

[email protected]