Performance evaluation is a term that causes nightmares to employees as well as employers.   

Why?  

Because a lot of effort and time is put into the appraisal process to make it a fair one. The managers and employees have to spend hours to complete the appraisal work by taking time out of their work, which eventually impacts their productivity. Despite all that hard work, the process does not go as they expect.  

But does everyone do that? The process’s fairness and effectiveness vary with each leader. The errors will occur when the leaders exhibit the following traits.  

1. Feeling uncomfortable meeting the employees to discuss performance.  

2. Judging people by the behavior out of their performance criteria.  

3. Following their first impressions of a team member and not evaluating based on the work.  

4. Not evaluating the overall performance but just one big failure or success project.  

5. Favouring one employee and overlooking the performance problems of that employee.  

6. Not being a good listener; acting upon listening to one side of the story.  

“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a PROFOUND tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there.”  

– M.Scott Peck  

If the managers have these traits, they certainly need more training in leadership skills, and if the organization turns a blind eye to inappropriate training, that would affect the whole team and eventually the business. Then, the employees and employers would gradually lose their trust in the process and do it just for doing it with no purpose. The errors that might occur when the managers assessing an employee are as follows.  

Central Tendency Bias – The manager places most of the employees on the center of the rating scale just like how everyone selects ‘neutral’ in a feedback form. 

Recency Bias – The manager evaluates a team member based on recent achievements because he/she remembers only them.  

Halo Effect – The managers are influenced by previous positive opinions of the employees and evaluate them based on it rather than performance.  

Confirmatory or Similarity bias – The managers take only the information that supports their conceptions into account. Also, when the managers find an employee who is similar to them, they view the employee in a more positive way rather than a fairway based on performance. 

Spillover bias – Contradictory to the Halo effect, spillover bias happens when the managers take only the past incidents into account and leave out the recent achievements.  

Primacy Bias – Managers evaluate an employee based on the first impressions he/she has created.   

Horns effect – Horns effect is when the leaders evaluate an employee based on one negative incident that showed the employee in the bad light and not the overall performance.  

What is Leniency Bias?  

Leniency Bias is one of the most common biases among managers. The managers do not want to have tough conversations with their team members, so they would avoid giving low scores to the low performers as it would lead to a feedback session where the manager has to confront the employee and discuss the reasons for the low score. But they are not to be blamed. It is a human tendency to avoid difficult confrontations. Only a strong leader with the right training will be willing to go against the wind.   

Managers also evaluate an employee with their personal standards instead of doing it based on the performance expectations of the role. One way of finding whether the bias exists or not in a team is by looking at the chart of the evaluation scores. If the majority of employees have scored higher, then there are high chances of the performance review not being done in a fair way. A study reveals that out of 12,000 employers, 85% scored higher in their performance review process, and only 1% received ratings below the highest mark. Leniency error is the reason behind it.  

How to overcome it?  

Continuous feedback is the key to steer clear of Leniency Bias. The managers and employees will get comfortable having conversations and exchanging feedback with each other. The managers should also train the employees to have a receptive mindset to develop themselves by taking constructive feedback well. The managers should master the art of delivering feedback by beginning it with a positive tone and gradually moving to the areas for improvement in a polite way. Regular check-ins would make appraisal conversation smooth.   

Benefits of Continuous Feedback 

Continuous feedback not only helps to overcome Leniency Bias but also the halo effect, spillover bias, and also recency bias.   

1. Continuous feedback helps managers to know their team members well.  
2. The open conversations during the feedback sessions make managers look at things from the employees’ perspective too.  
3. Continuous Check-ins make employees improve their performance and lower the chances of failure of a project.  
4. Through the continuous feedback sessions, managers get to know better the effort put in by the employees throughout the year, thus making them evaluate fairly based on the performance.  
5. The sessions will be recorded and it saves the managers from the recency effect. The conversations can be referred to by the managers before the appraisal process. The transition manager too can refer to that and give ratings accordingly.   
6. Continuous feedback also builds mutual trust and loyalty between the managers and employees. The strong bond will force the employees and managers to take up the appraisal process seriously.  
7. Building future leaders and high performing teams become possible with Continuous check-ins.   
8. Continuous feedback, if done properly, motivates the workforce and increases the productivity and profitability of the organization.   
9. Employee retention rate increases despite this COVID period because the employees will be engaged with the work and love their company for taking interest in their development.  
10. Informed decisions can be made with continuous Check-ins.  

Every problem has a solution. And the solution to help an organization escape the biased appraisal process is continuous feedback, proper training, and frequent appraisal processes.