Traditional, old-school employee assessments are fraught with flaws. The standard and most common assessments found in workplaces across industries are annual reviews by managers. 

This involved a sit-down with each employee annually, and a discussion or lecture on the employee’s performance based on deliverables, goals, and expectations over the last 12 months.

Assessment Fairness

This generalized assessment of past performance is based on an individual rater and usually focuses on identifying shortfalls. Rewards such as raises are given to those who outperform others in the eyes of managers, and sanctions are placed on those who do not. 

The employee has little recourse to appeal the assessment if it is unfair, inaccurate or biased. In fact, 67% of employees feel they are not heard during their reviews. Perhaps the employee fell short of deliverables because of factors outside of their control, but since the assessment was not all-encompassing, the employee has no leg to stand on. Studies show that more than half of employees feel performance assessments are inaccurate.

The unintended result of this stressful exercise is a strained relationship between employees and managers, increased competition amongst coworkers, and a decrease in performance because employees become resentful and unmotivated.

Traditional Employee Assessment

Biases are inherent to the traditional employee assessment process and have a negative effect on employee morale and performance. 

Here are some biases that plague traditional employee assessments:

• Single Rater Bias – with one single rater there is a lack of objectivity to any performance assessment. Managers only see one aspect of an employee’s performance, they cannot see how the employee interacts with their colleagues, subordinates or customers. They also cannot see how workflow and processes can influence an employee’s effectiveness.
• Focused on Negatives – annual performance reviews mostly focus on negative factors and employee shortfalls as those are likely the most memorable to the rater. Instances where the employee exceeded expectations are usually glossed over.
•   Recency Effect – during an annual performance assessment managers are likely to only focus on the most recent time period, ignoring the first portion of the year. If the employee recently failed at meeting expectations (but was exceeding them during the first 6 months) this bias will negatively taint their overall assessment.
•  Attribution Errors – when an employee performs well, they are recognized for it, and when they do not meet expectations they are deemed to be at fault. Although this might partially be true, employees exist within a business ecosystem, and there can be several factors outside their control that led to them not meeting expectations.
• Primacy Effects – some managers do not have regular interaction with some of their subordinates and form an opinion of them based on first impressions. This primacy effect clouds their perception of all future employee behaviour.
• Halo and Horn Effect – first impressions can have a lasting effect and can lead to exaggerating an employee’s positive (Halo) or negative (Horn) traits based solely on superficial first impressions.
• Confirmation Bias – the natural tendency to seek information that conforms to pre-existing beliefs extends to employee assessments. Raters may unconsciously overlook several performance factors because those that stand out to them are the ones they already assumed existed.

360-Degree Feedback

The goal of a 360-degree evaluation is to get an accurate and thorough assessment of an employee's performance within the company at large. The benefits of 360-degree assessments remove the biases of traditional assessment methods, and motivate employees, work groups, departments and executives to find solutions to improve performance.

360-degree feedback offers businesses and every employee an opportunity to improve, and removes the negative elements found in traditional employee assessment methods:

Breadth of Perspective - 360-degree feedback there is a breadth of perspective thanks to multiple raters including coworkers, supervisors, subordinates and clients. This in itself negates most single-rater biases and problems inherent in the traditional employee assessment method.

Negate Biases - personal biases and office politics are eliminated from the equation because questions are standardized, and reviews are gathered from a multitude of sources, ensuring results are not dominated by a single point of view or perspective.

Forward-Looking - 360-degree assessments are not meant to be used as a way of punishing or rewarding employees in terms of things like sales targets or the number of absences. The goal of a 360-degree evaluation is to help employees gain more insight on themselves so that they may develop a personal career plan enabling them to grow and contribute to the company in a more effective, meaningful way.

Identify Issues - 360-degree assessment provide an opportunity for a company to assess the functions of every aspect of their business at all levels. Results can help identify issues before they become problems, and changes can be implemented to benefit employees and the company.

Retain & Develop Talents - 360 results can identify and bridge any talent gaps by providing employees with a starting point to develop new skills and actions that they might not have realized were exceedingly beneficial to the company.

Motivate Performance - because ratings in a 360 evaluation are anonymous there is no strain on relationships with colleagues, managers and subordinates. The results do not place blame on an employee's shoulders; instead they identify areas where different approaches or solutions are needed to help the employee grow. This contributes to a positive work environment that focuses on employee growth and wellbeing.

The Bottom Line

Due to the pitfalls and negative impact caused by traditional annual employee assessments, there is an ongoing movement towards 360-degree employee assessment models that produce actionable results and help employees become better at their jobs.

Get a free demo of Grapevine’s 360-degree feedback tools, and see for yourself how performance reviews can become a tool of positive change for your business.

If you found this post interesting, why not check out our 360 Degree Feedback Tools In Education