Month: September 2022

Performance Review Bias: What Is It and How Can You Avoid It?

Posted on by Anthony Santa Maria

“Articulate.”

“Competent.”

“Friendly.” 

All of these seem like perfectly nice words with positive connotations, right? On the surface, yes. These are all qualities you’d be happy about a friend or coworker associating with you. However, when they show up on performance reviews, these words might actually indicate bias. How they’re used has everything to do with identity.

Unfortunately, not only is bias all too common in performance reviews, it is something every single person inherently possesses. That doesn’t mean that we should throw our hands up and give up. In fact, there are steps managers can take to become more aware of their biases, mitigate bias, and make the performance review process more equitable for all employees. 

This article will take you through some tips you can put into practice today and explain why all companies should strive to reduce bias in their performance review.

What is Bias and How Does it Show up in Performance Reviews?

The APA Dictionary of Psychology defines bias as ‘partiality: an inclination or predisposition for or against something.’ Another word closely associated with bias is prejudice, or ‘a negative attitude toward another person or group formed in advance of any experience with that person or group.’ 

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who has dedicated much of his career to studying bias, concluded that the vast majority of human decisions are actually based on biases, beliefs, and intuition, not facts or logic. 

This is where performance review bias come in: even when well-intentioned managers believe they are evaluating employees based on “hard facts” or “quantitative metrics,” bias almost always seeps through.

In performance reviews, biases have major implications in situations that inform decisions about promotion, compensation, hiring, or even firing. What does this mean for employees from diverse backgrounds?

How Review Bias Harms Employees from Underrepresented Groups

The relationship between performance review bias and the experiences of diverse employees in the workforce has been studied extensively. Academics across disciplines generally agree that people from different groups are often rated differently for identical behavior. Additionally, expectations for certain functions, like leadership, can themselves be gendered or racialized.

Often, these biases are difficult to quantify because they do not typically rely on standardized rubrics or numerical measurement. Instead, bias is revealed in the type of language used. 

For example, recent research by Correll and Simard showed that “women were described twice as often as men as supportive, collaborative and helpful, and their appraisal contained twice the number of references to the team as opposed to individual accomplishments. In contrast, men’s appraisal focused on assertiveness, independence, and self-confidence, and feedback was much more often linked to business outcomes or technical expertise.”

Obviously, “supportive” and “collaborative” are positive attributes. Yet these traits can hinder women who want to be seen as leaders and promoted to managerial roles. 

In an article for Harvard Business Review, the Center for WorkLife Law detailed the “sobering” results of an audit they conducted at a U.S. law firm’s performance evaluations. Most dramatically, they reported that fewer than 10% of people of color received mentions of leadership in their performance evaluations. This was more more than 70 percentage points lower than white women, and these leadership mentions typically predicted higher competency ratings the next year.

Luckily, following the audit, they were able to help the firm deploy some tactics that actually work to reduce performance review bias. Let’s explore those tactics and how you can put them into place. 

The Solution: Ways to Reduce Performance Review Bias

Bias creeps into our performance reviews whether we realize it or not. The good news is that there are actionable steps leaders can take to confront and mitigate performance review bias.

1. Recognize Your Own Bias

The first step is admitting there is a problem. Simply recognizing that bias exists is not enough. That’s where a comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) program comes into play. 

While educational DEIJ initiatives — especially immersive ones — create a deeper understanding and context for the types of biases a manager might have, it is important to note that recognizing bias is an ongoing process. The reviewer or evaluator should be able to identify bias throughout the evaluation and check in with themselves or colleagues at several points in the process. 

One should always start from a place of empathy and understanding. This applies not only to the person you might be reviewing, but to yourself as well. 

2. Reconsider Performance Indicators and Metrics

The subjects brought up in performance reviews should never be a surprise. Managers should work with their team to craft a performance review process that works for them. This means talking through specific, measurable goals well ahead of the final review.

Additionally, an organization should create a clear evaluation structure for all managers to follow and train them on how to use. This will help improve accuracy and remove bias in the process. Otherwise the reviews will be left up to individual discretion with potentially open-ended, bias-producing questions and criteria.

This is a continuous process. Managers should review employee progress on established goals throughout the year, not just during annual review time. It is often helpful to source feedback from other coworkers throughout the year, as it can help check your own biases.

Bias Reduction as a DEIJ Initiative

Reducing bias in performance reviews is a key step towards unlocking opportunities for your employees, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. 

While bias is ever-present, being aware of it and consciously working to reduce it are incredibly important. These steps may appear small, but they can have massive implications for individual employees’ career paths. 

The more managers and middle-managers understand the extent to which their word choice matters in performance reviews, the more aware they can be about their own biases. In turn, they can build a more equitable employee experience within their team and company. 

 

Ready to take the next step? Learn how practice can help you create a more equitable and diverse workplace.

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Want to Retain Diverse Talent? Launch a Mentorship Program

Posted on by Anthony Santa Maria

First there was “The Great Resignation.” Now, “quiet quitting” is the new big threat facing companies nationwide. The common thread across these phenomena is that many employees are just not satisfied. 

Recent data paints a picture for why employees are seeking greener pastures. According to a survey by McKinsey, the most popular reason why people quit their jobs in the last 18 months was due to a lack of career development and advancement. Other popular responses included uncaring leaders, a non-inclusive or unwelcoming community, and lack of support for health and well-being.

The call for business leaders has never been clearer: people success is business success. When employees feel they can bring their authentic selves to work, and that they will have opportunities to grow and advance, they’ll bring their best ideas that drive your business forward.   

How can companies keep their employees engaged and happy while developing their talent and helping them grow? More importantly, once organizations have gotten diverse talent in the door, how can they create a culture of inclusion that drives belonging and opens opportunities for career advancement? 

One way forward is to develop a strong mentorship program, particularly one that centers employees from underrepresented groups and works in tandem with other Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) efforts. 

How a Robust Mentorship Program Helps Employees and Your Businesses

Generally speaking, a robust mentorship program provides opportunities for skill development and networking that can unlock career advancement. The many benefits of mentoring and the effectiveness of mentorship programs have been studied and supported by scientific studies, and fall into three main buckets: 

  • Mentoring helps employees feel more valued by their employers;
  • Mentoring builds supportive networks with coworkers;
  • Mentoring develops critical skills that help advance their careers.

Employees who feel valued and empowered at work tend to stick around. An Association for Talent Development study saw employee engagement and retention increase by 50% when companies offer mentorship programs. This research fortifies other studies that cite mentoring as absolutely critical to retention, engagement, and a healthy talent ecosystem.

The Connection Between Mentorship and DEIJ

While a mentorship program is useful for all of an organization’s employees, the benefits increase exponentially for members of underrepresented groups. When polled, women and people of color are more likely than others to report mentoring as very important to their career development. 

For Black employees, this likely stems from them being significantly less likely than their white counterparts to report seeing leaders who look like them in their organization. In turn, when Black employees see leaders of their own race, a Gallup study found that they have 12 times more trust in their organization. 

Not only should employees of underrepresented groups simply see leaders that look like them, companies should take the proactive step of creating formal mentorship programs that connect these leaders with more junior staff from similar backgrounds. 

Though it may seem simple compared to other DEIJ initiatives, the impact of mentorship cannot be understated. A 2016 study in the American Sociological Review found that mentoring, in comparison to other tactics (such as diversity trainings, grievance systems or job tests), increased minority representation among managers in the workplace anywhere from nine to 24 percent. Some of the largest increases in leadership positions were among Black, Hispanic and Asian women, respectively. 

What a Mentorship Program Looks Like in a Remote or Hybrid Environment

Now that we can agree that mentorship is highly important for employee retention, what does it actually look like in practice? After all, mentorship can look like anything from informal coffee meetings with a senior colleague to a formal program with metrics and goal-setting. 

The post-pandemic landscape further complicates matters, as some activities traditionally thought of as mentoring are less feasible or effective in a remote or hybrid work environment. And the need for connection when working remotely can be even greater with many employees feeling less engaged or burnt out since the start of the pandemic. 

For large, globally-distributed companies, a remote environment can actually be an asset to mentorship. Mentees can form relationships with leaders in other parts of the country and even world. Mentors can be chosen for reasons other than geographic proximity, which can make connections more meaningful.  

The following four forms of mentorship can be effective in any type of workplace environment, whether in-person, remote, or hybrid:

1. Career Mentoring

This is the traditional type of one-on-one career development that many think of when they think of mentorship. Career mentorship can illuminate employees’ paths to advancement by identifying opportunities for stretch assignments, promotion, and increased pay.

2. Reverse Mentoring

Just as it sounds, this type of mentoring refers to senior leaders being the mentees and more junior employees acting as mentors. When applying a DEIJ lens to reverse mentoring, junior employees from diverse backgrounds have the opportunity to mentor senior executives. This empowers junior employees with an opportunity to influence business decisions and can help the more senior professional learn about new perspectives, technologies, and trends. 

3. Buddy Program

Here, a new hire is paired with someone who’s been at the company for a while to informally share knowledge. The key is that this starts early on, and on a regular basis. This can help build a sense of belonging, especially those from underrepresented groups, cultivate other workplace relationships, and foster connection to the company’s culture. 

4. Peer to Peer

This type of mentorship enables employees to find coworkers with different backgrounds and share experiences as a group. This type of networking increases understanding across an organization. Often, this looks like joining employee resource groups (ERGs) that connect people based on shared identities, such as women or members of the LGBTQ+ community. These have proven to be highly effective for networking, creating community, removing barriers, confronting bias, and building more empathetic relationships in the workplace. Especially when supported by executive sponsors and funding, ERGs can be a powerful tool for culture-building, career advancement, and accountability. 

In all four of these types of mentorship, employees are able to bypass the traditional hierarchical chains of command, creating more organizational trust and empowering those who may otherwise feel alienated or unengaged. 

Don’t Overlook the Value of Mentorship

While they can be a bit of work to get off the ground, mentorship programs are hugely important in helping a company build a culture that supports diversity and inclusion initiatives. It is no wonder that the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies have formal mentorship programs, and that the vast majority of younger workers see mentoring as crucial to their career success.

With the right planning and training, mentoring can save your company high turnover costs, develop employees’ leadership and management skills, and ultimately create more trust and connection within your organization. 

Five Activities to Build Empathy in the Workplace

Posted on by Miranda Villanueva

It goes without saying that we’ve experienced monumental changes in the last two years. The workplace looks very different and even the very nature of work itself feels unfamiliar. As a result, the skills needed to be effective in these changing environments have also changed and evolved.

Empathy, or the ability to share and understand the internal states of others, is an important skill in both in-person offices and remote settings. Yet the way it is presented and experienced can be quite different. For example, authentic communication may be harder to detect over Zoom and Slack than in-person meetings and interactions. 

Workplaces can implement several types of activities and exercises that help employees practice and build empathy. Many of them are best enjoyed through immersive learning. New and emerging technology allows learners to navigate real-world experiences in a safe, simulated environment.

What is Empathy? Two Types to Know 

Empathy is now a workplace buzzword. Its use spans anything from feeling something deeply to taking the time to understand a perspective different from one’s own. Before we dive into the importance of empathy in today’s modern workplace, let’s explore what it actually is. 

Psychologists will typically define  empathy in two ways, cognitive and emotional empathy. While emotional empathy is associated with automatic and unconscious processing, cognitive empathy is associated with mentalizing or perspective-taking. It concerns the explicit effort to understand how you might feel if placed in the circumstances of another. 

Both experience-sharing and perspective-taking have been proven to predict prosocial or helping behavior that benefits others. Research strongly suggests that empathy in the workplace is positively related to job performance. One wide-reaching study found that managers who practice compassionate leadership toward direct reports are viewed as better performers by their bosses. In turn, leaders rated as empathetic by their team were also rated as high performing by their boss.  

The best part? Empathy is something that every person in the workplace can learn. 

Activities and Exercises that Practice and Build Empathy

Cognitive empathy is not something people are innately born with, and there are exercises that can build and strengthen these important muscles. A soft skill, like any other skill, must be practiced. Here are some examples of these types of activities:

1. Active Listening

Give others your full attention in order to better understand them. This can look like being present in conversations, giving nonverbal cues, asking connective questions, and paraphrasing. Going a bit further, empathetic active listening puts a special emphasis on understanding the other person’s emotional experience.

2. Perspective-taking

Workplaces are often the most diverse environments we encounter in our lives. Taking the time to understand and imagine what it is like to experience the world as someone other than yourself can be a valuable way to deepen relationships with your colleagues. Using immersive learning technology, such as VR and MR, can be a huge help here. It can allow employees to experience situations through the eyes of colleagues from different races, genders, abilities, and backgrounds than them. This helps employees gain a better understanding and appreciation for the challenges their colleagues face on a daily basis.

3. Understand History and Context

No company or person exists in a vacuum, and therefore all must put in a conscious effort to learn about the diverse backgrounds and past experiences of team members. A robust and, importantly, ongoing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) training strategy goes a long way in building this understanding. History can be a powerful tool to help employees understand why inequities persist over time and to help reimagine a more inclusive and equitable society. 

4. Practice Empathetic Language:

In person, a large part of this is body language, while over Zoom it has more to do with verbal responses. One should avoid asking direct questions, arguing with what is being said, making assumptions, or disputing facts. Instead, practice acknowledging feelings, showing sincere interest, and being supportive and encouraging.

5. Take Accountability

How we respond to workplace bias and discrimination is a crucial piece of cultivating an empathetic workplace. The key is to communicate clear expectations for all team members and create a system of ongoing feedback. This type of open-door policy builds higher trust within the team, which leads to better business outcomes. 

It is also important to note that some of these recommended empathy-building behaviors can be more difficult for some than others, such as those who are neurodivergent. Ableism is often overlooked, and can seem more invisible when not interacting with colleagues in-person on a daily basis. In an empathetic workplace environment, these differences can be accepted and even celebrated. 

Empathy and the Evolving Workplace

A 2021 Businessolver study found that a whopping 84% of CEOs and 70% of employees believe empathy drives better business outcomes. Yet, many leaders don’t know how to build empathy, especially in our “new normal” of hybrid and remote work. 

Fortunately, with new research and major advancements in immersive learning technology, workplaces can practice empathy through a variety of exercises and activities.