Learn how to minimize the effect of unconscious bias in your performance management process.
Despite their best intent, many organizations struggle to build fair performance management processes that recognize and advance talent from various demographic segments proportionately to their representation within different departments or levels. Without intentionality, unconcsious bias in systems, processes, and people decisions can show up in patterns that favor employees similar to the organization’s dominant leadership demographic profiles.
Research shows that white men tend to be judged on their potential while “prove-it-again groups'' (women, people of color, individuals with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, older employees, and first-generation professionals) are judged (or scrutinized) on their performance. A study of performance evaluations in tech also found that 66% of women’s performance reviews contained at least one negative personality criticism (“You come off as abrasive”) whereas only 1% of men’s reviews did. Data proves that unconscious bias still has huge impact on intentionally objective performance management.
Assess and build performance management processes that have equitable outcomes by addressing these questions:
Catalyst: Break the Cycle – Eliminating Gender Bias in Talent Management Systems
Project Include: Providing feedback
Seramount: Inclusion Nudges in Performance Management
Center for WorkLife Law: Identifying Bias in Performance Evaluations
NeuroLeadership Institute: Biases in Performance Evaluations
Bias Interrupters: Tools for Organizations
HBR: Why Most Performance Evaluations Are Biased, and How to Fix Them
Foundational Actions
Growing Actions
Leading Actions
