Did you know that according to a study conducted by Organizational Network Analysis,  60% of a manager’s performance rating is influenced by bias, with only 20% of performance feedback reflecting the actual performance of the employee? This discrepancy can lead to misjudgements, affecting employee more, growth opportunities and overall organisational health. Furthermore, a Harvard Business Review survey indicated that 62% of employees who perceive prejudice in performance management believe it has an impact on their professional progress.

With this in mind, how do we address biases and prejudices in performance management practices to foster a fair and inclusive workplace? A solid performance management system can potentially be quite useful in this situation. Here’s how: 

1. Goal setting and alignment

A good performance management system (PMS)  is distinguished by its ability to align individual goals with broader organisational objectives. Rather than basing employees’ goals on their job descriptions, a PMS can provide targets that have been agreed upon by both your management and employees, ensuring that each employee’s efforts directly contribute to your company’s vision and mission. With a PMS, the goal-setting feature limits the tendency to base performance on gut feeling for unquantifiable data that is subject to biases and prejudices. 

2. Continuous feedback and recognition 

Employees gain a lot from getting timely performance feedback from their managers or team leaders. An efficient performance management system can assist you in offering ongoing feedback and coaching sessions, allowing for open communication between employees and managers. This tool uses a feedback module to allow employees to discuss areas for improvement with their managers and build new skills and behaviours that will lead to better performance. Furthermore, this regular and documented interaction in the system encourages good inclusion practice and a sense of belongingness, allowing for more favourable and great business results for everyone.

3. Unbiased performance evaluation

A well-functioning performance management system employs 360-degree feedback, an assessment system in which your employees receive confidential, anonymous evaluations from a variety of sources, including peers, managers, and team leaders who work alongside them. Since it is a multi-rater feedback process, the results and evaluations are fully impartial, as they do not rely on a single individual assessment. This helps to reduce managerial biases and create a more inclusive workplace by ensuring that promotions and rewards are based on merit.

4. Data-driven insights

PMS incorporates measurable metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to provide accurate insights on various aspects of team performance, such as employee productivity, team goals, and financial performance. It allows leaders or administrators to identify areas for improvement and make evidence-based decisions. At the same time, the system can assist you in evaluating whether a particular group in your company receives disproportionately specific types of criticism or is judged more heavily on personality traits (covert bias) or mistakes. This sheds light on how appraisal procedures perpetuate exclusion in your organisation. 

With a dependable system and precise data to evaluate your business and employee performance, everyone will notice that your company has the ethical responsibility to establish a workplace in which everyone feels appreciated, empowered, and motivated. 

A feature-rich performance management system can help address biases in any performance management or evaluation. When investing in a PMS, ensure that the system allows you to associate your employees’ goals with the overarching objective of your company, and that you and your employee agree on it. Also, double-check if the system gives any multi-rater feedback and allows you to give continuous feedback. With these elements built into your PMS, you can foster a culture of trust, respect, and continual development, resulting in improved overall performance and organisational success.

SSA innovations provides performance management solutions to help you achieve operational excellence across your business. To uncover operational weaknesses in your business, we offer you BEST Analytix! Our data analysis tool can examine critical business functions holistically, providing your business quantifiable analytical information that accelerates business growth and fosters a performance culture. Contact us today! To learn more about our performance management system and other products and services, email us at innovations@ssagroup.com. Hope you had a good read!