Your Manager's Bias is Affecting Your Performance Reviews: How Can You Navigate This Challenge?

Performance reviews are crucial for companies to recognize and reward effort and talent and assess employees' training needs. However, they can feel daunting for a few employees who are dissatisfied with their assessments. Although performance reviews are supposed to objectively assess our work and our efforts at the workplace, the reviewer's biases can sometimes reflect on our reviews, influencing the evaluation parameters.

Bias can manifest in many forms, occasionally unconscious favoritism or an outdated perception. You must comprehend the different biases and know how to deal with them since they affect your growth, compensation, and career path. Let’s explore how you can own the narrative rather than letting the narrative own you. 

Recognize the Bias in Your Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are a valuable tool for organizations to assess employee performance, but they are not without challenges. It can occasionally cause frustration and conflict for both managers and employees because it is so important. Here are a few common performance biases that might creep into your performance appraisal and impact fairness and accuracy, which can hurt your prospects with your current employer. 

1. Recency error: Sometimes, reviews might feel shortsighted. They fail to account for the performance throughout the year and focus just on a recent event, thus rendering the review inaccurate and biased. Recency error is more accurately defined as a review considering the recent performance instead of the overall annual performance. For instance, an employee who worked hard for the entire year may receive negative feedback for a recent error. However, employees who performed poorly the entire year but did well on the last project might receive positive feedback. 

2. Personal bias: In a world where diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) take center stage for social justice, examining performance evaluations and their impact in the workplace is equally important. Individuals' (managers') personal biases can severely impact fairness. Instead of giving employees a fair rating based on their professional performance, managers may do so based on their social and cultural backgrounds, subjective opinions, and information gleaned from rumors. Such biases can lead to inaccurate ratings and flawed appraisals. 

3. Inefficient evaluation systems: Performance appraisals and reviews are complex, and errors are inevitable. Distribution error is the most common of all the biases and complexities in the review processes. It happens when the evaluator gives the entire workforce an average or similar rating. Yet another error here can be the similarity error. We all tend to favor the people we think are more like us and relate to the most. This statement also applies to managers, who often may give employees higher ratings when they feel they are most similar to and relatable to them. Yet another bias is the proximity bias; for example, if one employee gets negative feedback, the next employee likely does too, or in some cases, they get much better feedback, overcompensating for the last one or vice versa. 

4. Lack of guidance or resistance: When the performance feedback and its usage are not communicated to employees, they might resist feedback, thinking it might be detrimental to their current stint with the organization. However, occasionally, inexperienced managers make mistakes when conducting performance reviews, failing to consider all relevant factors and failing to mentor team members through the entire process effectively. 

None of this is fair, but understanding it is the first step. Let’s explore how you can effectively navigate these biases without seeming to oppose the organization or your manager.

Effectively Navigate Biases in the Workplace

If you feel you have been inaccurately evaluated, and although it can be frustrating, you are advised to keep your composure and navigate these in a result-oriented way that leads to a solution rather than a showdown! Let us examine some strategies to assist you in taking charge of the narrative. 

1. Keep a record: Managers are often overworked, and managing a larger team involves several duties and responsibilities you may not be aware of. Occasionally, they may overlook something during the appraisal process. As a result, keeping records of your work is a smart idea. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated or a complex report but a simple document with the projects you have worked on, any measurable wins such as cost savings, getting new business, or any process improvements, and any positive feedback from clients or other managers on the project. So, when you have your appraisal meeting, you can simply pull up the document and share the notable things you did rather than scouring through your memory. This approach gives you greater control over the story and demonstrates your readiness. 

2. Work on your visibility: You might have heard this one too often! And if you are not someone who self-promotes, this is tough. However, if no one notices the work, it might not exist. You can become more expressive and vocal by sharing important information or problems you solved as a quick update in the team chat. You should also share the positive feedback from clients with your manager. Once you finish a project or any long-pending task, summarize the impact in a way that makes it clear to understand its value. You don’t have to go overboard, but ensure you’re not invisible.

3. Speak up, but strategically: Negative performance feedback can be disappointing, but maintain your calm, and don’t take it personally! The first thing to do in this situation is to avoid entering defense mode. You can approach your manager or human resources and explain that while a specific project or marker received much attention during the review, you also made significant contributions to other projects and wanted to see how they were evaluated. This could do two things: they might realize they made a mistake. Additionally, it presents you as proactive and involved rather than defensive. 

4. Get additional inputs: If you’re worried your manager’s perception of you is inaccurate, don’t solely rely on their feedback. Get input from other people you work with—colleagues, senior team members, even clients. The objective shouldn’t be to draw attention to your manager's prejudice or your emotions. All you need to do is ask for their opinion and any constructive criticism that could improve your performance. You could also ask them for any contributions from you they thought were significant in the past year. Sometimes, hearing how others see you can give you an insight into how you could balance out a biased review.

5. Establish a rapport with your manager: It is critical to establish a rapport with your manager because bias can sometimes be attributed to familiarity rather than distaste or disregard. If your manager naturally connects more with other employees, it might not be personal but affects you. You can find ways to connect over shared interests, engage in conversations, and ensure the communication channel is open between you and your boss. Be proactive and open if you ask them for their opinion or insight on a project you are working on. Simply put, you are taking constant advice and criticism to help you avoid last-minute changes while improving your performance. This also means you wouldn’t be as surprised by the performance review. 

6. Recognize the situation: Some situations snowball, however much we try to contain it! In today's time, knowing when to escalate or give up is essential. Speak with HR if, despite your best efforts, your manager still undervalues you. Ensure you have clear examples and a documented track record—facts will always back you up better than emotions. Additionally, you do not have to remain at your job if it does not value justice. The best course of action is to find a new system where you genuinely receive the credit you deserve rather than attempting to alter the current one.

Conclusion

Bias in performance reviews is real, but it doesn’t have to define your career. Stay proactive, keep track of your accolades and achievements, and don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself. You bring value to the table—ensure the right people see it. But remember that managers are only humans who can also make mistakes. In case of an honest error, show empathy and handle the situation tactfully. You do not have to disregard it, but it also does not have to be personal. Gain more control over both your career path and your mindset!