7 Common Biases That Twist Your Performance Reviews (and How to Avoid Them)

Unless you actively make sure you’re incorporating methods to prevent bias in your performance reviews, you’re taking your prejudices into the room with you. That’s because, whether conscious or unconscious, all people make decisions based on personal intuition as opposed to logic.

That means you need to go against human nature to put a system in place that’s fair for all employees and takes personal opinions out of the performance review process. Since life-changing decisions, like promotions and terminations, can hinge on the outcomes of these assessments, it’s vital you take a proactive approach.

Here are 7 common biases that impact your performance reviews:

1. Recency bias

Focusing on only what an employee has achieved in the time directly prior to their performance review is called recency bias. It can refer to both positive and negative events, but can mean assessments aren’t accurate as managers fail to take into consideration contributions from earlier in the year.

You can overcome recency bias by collecting feedback about employees regularly and keeping it on file from the first day they join the company. This will allow you to refer back to notes when the performance review comes around and make a more accurate analysis of an individual’s overall record. 

2. Similar-to-me bias 

People have a natural affinity with those who come from similar backgrounds or display the same interests, but that doesn’t make them better at doing their job. Allowing a similar-to-me bias to reward employees unduly can lead to a lack of diversity in the workplace and make some staff feel excluded. 

When it comes to preventing this type of bias, the key is to put specific criteria for judgment in place in advance. This reduces the reliance on prejudices and ensures all employees are held to the same standards without allowing stereotypes to take hold.