Avoid bias – Week 5 of our ‘Top Tip Tuesday’ series on Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal Tip 5 – Avoid Bias

Make every effort to avoid bias during appraisals. Just because a member of your team did an outstanding piece of work doesn’t necessarily mean that they are brilliant at everything. Similarly, the employee who is regularly late may have an issue with timekeeping but this doesn’t mean that their performance is poor in other areas. This type of bias, called the ‘halo’ and ‘horns’ effect can result in behaviour such as giving harsh feedback or lower ratings, giving higher rewards or setting unrealistic expectations of future performance. The use of rating scales with clear examples can be helpful in reducing bias by providing an objective measure of performance.