________ errors occur when ratings are assigned on the basis of a global impression of a ratee.

Employee performance is tricky to measure, but one strategy used by millions of domestic and international companies is performance rating. What better way to determine employee abilities than to ask their supervisors, subordinates, and peers who work with them every day?

Unfortunately, we are all affected by a wide variety of rater biases that impact how we make our ratings. These biases might skew employee ratings too high or too low. Ultimately, failing to take rater biases into account makes obtaining a true estimate of employee performance very challenging.

Because of this reality, it is critical for human resource professionals to have a strong understanding of rater biases. Understanding them can prevent decision making errors, which strengthens a company’s ability to use performance rating to its full potential.

Keep these 8 rater biases in mind when reviewing employee rating data.

1) The Halo Effect

The human mind is primed to focus on single attributes that stand out. If that attribute is positive, researchers have found that it will actually affect ratings of other attributes. That’s the halo effect in action. The halo effect is the tendency for a single positive rating to cause raters to inflate all other ratings. It’s almost like the rater is thinking, “If she’s good at this, then she’s probably good at that, too.”

Nobody is perfect; HR professionals know that all employees have unique strengths and weaknesses. Positive ratings across the board aren’t particularly helpful when making decisions. That’s why it is important to watch carefully for evidence of the halo effect in employee rating data.

2) The Horns Effect

If the halo affects makes you think of coworkers as perfect angels, the horns effect makes you think of them as devils. The horns effect is the tendency for a single negative attribute to cause raters to mark everything on the low end of the scale. One bad attribute seems to spoil the bunch.

Like the halo effect, the horns effect makes decision making challenging. Universal negative scores might lead to unfair sanctions or inappropriate employee dismissal. Those are land mines every HR department wants to avoid. For that reason, keep the horns effect in mind when reviewing employee ratings.

3) The Central Tendency Bias

Scores can be high. Scores can be low. And scores can be right in the middle. Some raters apparently think only the latter is an option. The central tendency bias causes some raters to score every question on a scale near the center. A rating of “3” on a 5 point scale for every question is a clear example of the central tendency bias at play.

4) The Leniency Bias

The leniency bias is exactly what it sounds like – it means the rater is lenient and is going “too easy” on the person they are rating. That means all scores will be very high. Like the halo effect, the leniency bias makes it challenging to know an employee’s true pattern of strengths and weaknesses.

5) The Strictness Bias

The strictness bias is the opposite of the leniency bias. As you’d expect, it means the rater is going “too hard” on the person they are rating, causing all scores to be very low. This creates an unfair negative representation of the person being rated. Like the horns effect, inaccurate, negative scores can have serious implications for employees and for HR decision making. Monitor performance reviews carefully to search for the strictness biases – if one person is rating someone very low on everything, while others are rating them normally, the strictness bias may be the culprit.

6) The Contrast Effect

Comparisons can be helpful when making ratings. But the contrast effect is too much of this particular good thing – it causes raters to overuse comparisons when making their scores.

Take Mike for example. Mike is very detail oriented, but slightly less detail oriented than his coworker Sharon. The contrast effect might cause Mike’s boss to rate him low because the boss can’t help comparing him to Sharon. The contrast effect can lead to overestimates or underestimates of a person’s abilities.

7) The Recency Bias

Often, performance reviews are made with a particular time frame in mind. Perhaps a supervisor is asked to think about the last quarter or the past fiscal year when making their rankings. The recency bias creeps in when a recent event clouds memory of previous performance. The recency bias leads to overestimates if the person being rated had a recent “good streak.” On the other hand, it will lead to underestimates if the person being rated had a recent “bad streak.” Either way, it leads to inaccurate ratings, which ultimately makes decision making difficult.

8) The Similar-to-Me Effect

The similar-to-me effect is an interesting concept, but we see it in both nature and in the workplace. Birds of a feather flock together – and people are prone to favor someone who is similar to them. Men rate men higher than women. Women rate women higher than men. Older employees rate their contemporaries higher than younger employees. The list of possible similarities is huge. Similarity in age, gender, race, and experience all affect ratings. Even similar work habits, similar attitudes, or similar personalities lead to inflated ratings. The similar-to-me effect is everywhere – it shows up when rating supervisors, rating subordinates, and rating peers.

If you have any questions about whether you have similar-to-me effects, you can use data to break down your reviews.

Use Performance Review Software to Counteract Rater Bias

Measuring employee performance is important – and asking employees to rate one another is a valuable piece of that puzzle. Don’t let rater bias prevent you from using this important information.

One of the best was to counteract rater bias is to carefully review employee rating data. High-quality performance review software, like Trakstar, is designed to make this a breeze. Performance review software gives you the tools you need to know when rating data might be compromised. In this way, you can prevent your company from using inaccurate data to make the wrong decisions about employee performance.

This can be thought of as a kind of compass, one that indicates a person's actual direction as well as a person's desired direction.

performance management

An administrative exercise that is typically done once a year to identify and discuss job-relevant strengths and weaknesses of individuals or work teams is:

performance appraisal

The broad process of performance management requires that you do which things well? A. define performance. B. facilitate performance. C. encourage performance. D. All of the above

All of the above

Defining performance requires all of the following EXCEPT: A. goals. B. measures. C. assessment. D. performance facilitation.

performance facilitation.

The process of encouraging performance is concerned with all of the following except: A. sufficient amount of rewards. B. cost of rewards. C. timing of rewards. D. value of rewards.

cost of rewards

Which of the following statements about performance appraisal is false? A. It is an exercise in observation and judgment. B. It is a feedback process. C. It is an exact, human process. D. It is a measurement process.

It is an exact, human process.

Appraisals provide legal and formal organizational justification for:

employment decisions

Legal and scientific requirements for a successful appraisal system include all of the following EXCEPT: A. relevance. B. acceptability. C. reliability. D. sensitivity.

acceptability

_________ implies that there are clear links between the performance standards for a particular job and organizational objectives, and between the critical job elements identified through a job analysis and the dimensions to be rated on an appraisal form.

Relevance

The answer to the question "What really makes the difference between success and failure on a particular job, and according to whom?" determines:

Relevance

_____ translate job requirements into levels of acceptable or unacceptable employee behavior.

performance standards

_____ implies that a performance-appraisal system is capable of distinguishing effective from ineffective performers.

Sensitivity

One requirement of sound appraisal systems is ____, which refers to consistency of judgment.

Reliability

_____ implies that appraisal systems are easy for managers and employees to understand and use.

Practicality

Which of the following steps will NOT help to avoid legal difficulties in regard to performance appraisals? A. Conduct a job analysis to determine the characteristics necessary for successful job performance. B. Include formal appeal mechanisms, coupled with higher-level review of appraisals. C. Train supervisors to avoid documenting cases where subjective standards were applied unevenly to members of protected groups. D. Provide some form of performance counseling or corrective guidance to assist poor performers.

Train supervisors to avoid documenting cases where subjective standards were applied unevenly to members of protected groups.

Comparing the performance of employees to that of other employees is known as a(n) _____ rating system.

relative

_________ focus on employee behaviors, either by comparing the performance of employees to that of other employees or by evaluating each employee in terms of performance standards without reference to others.

behavior oriented rating systems

The simplest type of absolute rating system is ____, in which a rater describes, in writing, an employee's strengths, weaknesses, and potential, together with suggestions for improvement.

narrative essay

This approach assumes that a candid statement from a rater who is knowledgeable about an employee's performance is just as valid as more formal and more complicated rating methods.

narrative essay

_____ requires only that a rater order all employees from highest to lowest, from "best" employee to "worst" employee.

simple ranking

When using ____, each employee is compared with every other employee, usually in terms of an overall category such as "present value to the organization."

paired comparisons

According to a study, individuals who tend to be most lenient: A. score high in agreeableness. B. are noncooperative. C. strive for excellence. D. set difficult goals.

score high in agreeableness.

Which rating format is likely to cause a great deal of employee resentment? A. BARS B. MBO C. Critical incidents D. Forced distribution

Forced distribution

_____ are brief anecdotal reports by supervisors of things employees do that are particularly effective or ineffective in accomplishing parts of their jobs.

Critical incidents

Which of the following statements about graphic rating scales is false? A. They may not yield the depth of essays or critical incidents. B. They are time-consuming to develop and administer. C. They allow results to be expressed in quantitative terms. D. They consider more than one performance dimension.

They are time-consuming to develop and administer.

Graphic rating scales that use critical incidents to anchor various points along the scale are known as _______.

BARS

The term BARS stands for:

behaviorally anchored rating scales

_____ is a process of managing that relies on goal-setting to establish objectives for the organization as a whole, for each department, for each manager within each department, and for each employee.

MBO

Which of the following is an advantage of narrative essays? A. Good for individual feedback and development. B. Good for making comparisons across employees. C. Forces raters to make distinctions among employees. D. Provides a direct link between job analysis and performance appraisal.

Good for individual feedback and development.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of forced distribution? A. Difficult to make comparisons across employees. B. May be inaccurate if a group of employees is either very effective or ineffective. C. Provides little basis for individual feedback and development. D. Forces raters to make distinctions among employees.

May be inaccurate if a group of employees is either very effective or ineffective.

The advantage of using a behavioral checklist is that: A. it is good for individual feedback and development. B. the meaning of response categories is generally interpreted similarly by various raters. C. it focuses directly on job behaviors. D. it provides a direct link between job analysis and performance appraisal.

it provides a direct link between job analysis and performance appraisal.

If objective performance data are available, which of the following is the best strategy to use? A. MBO B. BARS C. Summated rating scales D. Work planning and review

MBO

Friendship bias is most likely to be a problem when performance ratings are provided by:

peers

A source of performance ratings that is probably more appropriate for counseling and development than for personnel decisions is:

self

________ feedback utilizes input from a variety of sources including managers, subordinates, peers and customers to provide a perspective on performance from all angles. A. Multi-variance B. Multirater or 360-degree C. Various sources D. SPOT

Multirater or 360-degree

If a rater is asked to assess an employee's performance over a 6- to 12-month period, _____ ratings may result, especially if information has been stored in a rater's memory according to irrelevant, oversimplistic, or otherwise faulty categories.

biased

What type of team is assembled for a specific purpose and expected to disband after their task is completed?

project

_____ errors occur when ratings are assigned on the basis of a global impression of a ratee.

Halo

_____ error results when a rater assigns his/her ratings on the basis of the employee's most recent performance, and is most likely to occur when appraisals are done only after long periods.

Recency

Which of the following is not a supervisory activity that should be done before a performance feedback interview? A. Set goals that you feel the employee should strive for. B. Communicate frequently with subordinates about their performance. C. Get training in performance appraisal interviewing. D. Plan to use a problem-solving approach rather than "tell-and-sell."

Set goals that you feel the employee should strive for.

_____ is a kind of compass that indicates a person's actual direction as well as a person's desired direction.

performance management

Only _____ percent of respondents agreed that employees have a sense of trust in their performance-management system.

30

One of the reasons it is difficult to execute well throughout an entire organization is that performance management demands _____, not _____, attention from every manager.

daily, annual

_____ includes eliminating roadblocks, providing adequate resources, and paying careful attention to selection.

performance facilitation

Managers who are committed to managing for maximum performance recognize that one of their major responsibilities is to _____ to successful performance.

eliminate roadblocks

If employees lack the tools to reach the challenging goals they have set, they will become _____ and disenchanted.

frustrated

Despite their shortcomings, _____ continue to be used widely, especially as a basis for tying pay to performance.

appraisals

_____ implies that there are clear links between the performance standards for a particular job and organizational objectives.

Relevance

Smart managers enlist the active support and cooperation of subordinates or teams by making explicit exactly what aspects of _____ they will be evaluated on.

Job performance

When determining adverse impact, organizations must keep records of who is eligible and interested in promotion. This defines the _____.

applicant group

The _____ is the simplest type of absolute rating system, and requires the rater to describe in writing the employee's strengths, weaknesses, and potential.

narrative essay

Ranking methods that compare employees to one another are useful for generating initial rankings for purposes of _____.

employment decisions

_____ stands for behaviorally anchored rating scales.

BARS

The _____ is not as important as the relevance and acceptability of the rating system.

rating format

Longitudinal research shows that managers who met with their direct reports to discuss their _____ improved more than other managers.

upward feedback

_____ or 360-degree feedback utilizes input from managers, subordinates, peers and customers to provide a perspective on performance from all angles.

Multirater

Assessing team performance should be seen as complementary to the assessment and recognition of individual performance and individuals' behaviors and skills that contribute to _____.

team performance

After a _____ interview, supervisors should communicate frequently with subordinates about their performance.

performance appraisal