Performance Reviews: Overcoming 5 Common Biases

Performance review is a process that is supposed to be objective in order to properly assess the performance of the employees, which should benefit the company and filling its strategic needs. One of the most difficult parts of performance reviews is learning how to overcome various biases such as contrast, horn, halo, recency or leniency. Without fully understanding the biases and what causes them, it is almost impossible for a manager to provide an objective performance assessment. As a result, employees are given a wrong feedback, company is not utilizing employee’s potential and manager give future career guidance that may not be applicable to a specific situation.

Key Takeaways:

• Contrast bias is when an employee is compared to co-workers rather than to a company standard.
• Halo and horn biases both put too much emphasis on only one aspect of the employee’s performance.
• Recency bias focuses too heavily on the most recent activities of the employee.

“Even for managers with solid writing skills, it’s not always easy to find the right words when an employee needs to improve their performance.”

Read more: https://www.hrbartender.com/2020/leadership-and-management/performance-reviews-biases/