Over the past several years, there have been countless studies about the negative impact of workplace biases. Bias can derail careers. At its worst, it can derail organizations.
As the CEO of Confirm, a software company in the performance management space, I frequently hear about the importance of reducing bias in the workplace. For many companies, it’s a top priority. It should be.
If you want to reduce workplace bias, it has to be measured first. If you can’t identify where bias is happening in your organization, you can’t address it.
Uncovering bias in performance reviews
Companies rely on performance reviews to decide who to promote and who to put on a performance improvement plan (PIP). But they rarely analyze these reviews for bias, or to understand whether particular groups are systemically disadvantaged by them.
Confirm analyzed over 5,000 performance reviews comparing two things:
- Traditional hierarchical ratings, based on individual manager reviews
- Network ratings, gathered from a wider range of employees within the company using the science of organizational network analysis
Here are a few highlights:
- Male employees were 25% more likely to have a higher manager rating than what their network gave them, when compared to female employees.
- Male managers overestimated the performance of their direct reports 37% more often than female managers.
- Female managers are more likely to provide employee ratings that match network ratings.
By analyzing performance reviews, companies can identify pockets of bias. This data leads to insights and action steps that can help reduce the impact it has on promotions and PIPs.
Several tools block biased language in performance reviews. But they won’t give organizations the insights needed to actually fix the issues. Replacing a gender-loaded word like “aggressive” doesn’t address the core problem of gender bias, for example. Even with gender-neutral language, women may still be rated unfairly compared to men.
Related: Biased words in performance reviews
Performance management software shouldn’t stop employees from sharing their views. It should allow for open feedback and empower leaders to identify bias in the evaluation process.
Measuring employee performance fairly
To measure employee performance fairly, companies need a different approach: organizational network analysis (ONA).
ONA is a science that shows how information and communication flows within a company. When applied to performance reviews, it creates a quantitative view of performance based on every employee’s view of one another. This means promotion and PIP decisions are based on more information, not just manager input or feedback from a handful of reviewers.
When managers supplement their reviews with ONA data, they get a broader view of the impact their direct reports make at work. This makes it easy to identify high performers and those who need extra support.
Workplace bias can’t be completely eliminated. But we can minimize its impact. ONA is an effective way of reducing it and creating an even playing field for employees.
Now is the time to fix performance reviews
Reducing the impact bias has on the workplace won’t happen overnight. But we can take a big step forward by creating fairer performance reviews.
Dedicated and hardworking employees who make a difference deserve recognition. Their careers shouldn’t be held back by bias or depend solely on a manager’s opinion or ability to advocate on their behalf.
We talk a lot about quiet quitters, but rarely about quiet contributors. It’s time we rightly recognize everyone for the difference they make at work.
Josh Merrill is cofounder and CEO of Confirm, a performance management platform.
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