Last month, I shared 3 common errors managers make when appraising employees.  You may find it “surprising” to discover there are actually 15.  Here are another 3, including the most widespread– Lenient or Inflated Appraisals.

Overemphasis on Isolated Events
A particularly recent or significant event may skew overall judgment of an employee. Take informal notes about employees (both good and bad things) throughout the year to ensure your evaluation is based on the entire appraisal period – not just what happened last week.

This is similar to the Halo effect, but instead of basing an appraisal on a single characteristic or behavior, this is based on one or several events that stick in an appraiser’s mind. These events may have happened right before the appraisal or possibly really upset the appraiser at some time during the year. Perhaps the appraiser had one particularly ugly confrontation during the year or received a complaint about the employee from upper management or a key client. That may impact the appraisal more than it should. The appraisal should be based on what happened during the entire appraisal period.

Lenient or Inflated Appraisals
It’s difficult for most managers to give employees poor ratings. However, not doing it simply avoids the problem and doesn’t give the employee the opportunity to correct it. It’s also awfully difficult to later discipline or terminate an employee whose appraisals have always been good. It opens up risks of discrimination charges.

Appraisers are lenient or inflate scores for a number of different reasons.  Regardless, this mistake has the potential to create large problems for your organization. It is important to educate appraisers about the potential problems that can result from this practice.  Identify the reasons your managers are falling into this trap and take the necessary steps to eliminate the problem.

Appraisal of Potential Worth
When managing a new or inexperienced employee make sure you rate her on actual job performance, not on what she might become. Evaluate the employee based on current results and action. You can use comments to address her potential

Don’t be too generous on an appraisal because you believe that an employee has incredible managerial potential or could be outstanding “some day.” Rate an employee on what he/she can do today. In the comments, a manager can always add that the employee is doing very well given his/her experience.

When done right, the performance appraisal process can be very effective.  Managers and employees both have an opportunity to give and receive valuable feedback.  Reviewing past performance and planning for future growth can engage and motivate your employees.  When done wrong, the process can create a number of problems in an organization.  Here are 3 common errors managers make when appraising employees:

The Halo Effect:
Allowing one highly favorable (or unfavorable) employee behavior or characteristic to affect judgment about the entire appraisal while ignoring other employee strengths and weaknesses.

An employee may have outstanding customer service skills. The manager may have even received compliments or letters from customers telling how professional, helpful and courteous this employee is. However, the manager would not want to let this very positive skill overshadow problems the employee may be having in other areas (e.g., perhaps tardiness is a problem or deadlines are not met). Likewise a manager would not want to let a single employee problem, perhaps a quality or teamwork issue, cloud judgment regarding everything an employee does. Recording critical incidents (discussed earlier) can help appraisers avoid the Halo Effect.

Bias or Prejudice:
We all have our biases. However, allowing personal biases or prejudices to influence the appraisal process can make evaluations unfair and inconsistent. Know your biases.

Be careful to check personal biases or prejudices. Perhaps an appraiser simply does not like an employee’s personality or elements of his/her personality. Some appraisers are biased against certain types of workers (e.g., older workers or students). Be aware of biases to make sure appraisals are clearly job-related. 

It is helpful to take a moment to consider the feedback you are giving your employees.  Ask yourself, “Why is this behavior or performance trait a benefit or detriment to our company?  What core values does this exemplify or counter? How does this positively or negatively impact our department or company as a whole?”  Considering the business reasons behind the feedback you are giving will help to remove personal biases.

Not Knowing Employees:
Unfortunately, many supervisors don’t really know their employees or the quality of their work. Such evaluations aren’t credible.

It is impossible to give honest, direct feedback when you are uninformed.  Make sure enough information and specific examples are available regarding an employee’s performance before an evaluation is completed. Appraisals are more meaningful and more accepted by employees if the appraiser takes the time to interact with the employee on a regular, day-to-day basis.