The performance-review process is more biased than people like to believe, with consequences that are harmful to employees and organizations alike. And it’s not just the managers conducting the reviews who allow their biases to creep in. Employees do it too, in ways that can harm their own prospects. This article identifies several common sources of bias in the performance-review process and suggests six practices rooted in behavioral science that can help keep bias at bay.
Buy CopiesMany studies have exposed the degree to which bias is a factor in the performance-review process. Because the criteria for evaluation are so often vague and open-ended, it’s dangerously easy for patterns of bias to creep into the process and for managers to be guided by implicit biases. Expectations are often gendered; different standards of behavior apply to different groups of people; feedback can reflect negative stereotypes. All of these factors can lead to inappropriate assessments of performance, which in turn can prompt talented employees to leave — especially when they already have their eyes on the door, as is so often the case today, given how fierce the competition for talent is. Companies simply can’t afford to keep a review system in place that is biased against certain employees, misrepresents their skills and abilities, and even prompts them to seek jobs elsewhere.
Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio is the chair of the Executive Leadership Research Initiative for Women and Minority Attorneys, at Harvard Law School, and a senior research fellow with a joint appointment at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the author of the forthcoming Diversity Dividend (MIT Press, 2023) and the founder of the decision-making consulting firm People Culture Drive Consulting Group. She can be reached at pcecchidimeglio@law.harvard.edu.
Buy CopiesCopyright © Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.
