That’s not the first time an organization has been criticized for showing bias against certain employees. Although prejudice is a difficult set of beliefs to eradicate, it is possible to create a more impartial performance evaluation process.

How do biases and prejudices make their way into an employee review? They are not always consistent in their application. And if there aren’t checks and balances within the system, personal beliefs and opinions can overshadow what’s supposed to be an impartial, objective assessment.

Biases and prejudices based on gender, skin color, religion, sexual orientation or any other category is not a minor matter. Employees can take your company to court over discrimination, and if the evaluation shows that you had an unfair bias against them, they might win. In addition to the moral victory, they might also be awarded a cash settlement, which could have a serious impact on your business.

There are a few ways to significantly reduce the chances that discrimination will have an adverse effect on employee reviews.

Firstly, companies should consider conducting employee reviews more often than once a year. When annual evaluations are held, supervisors tend to focus on one good (or not so good) thing that individual did during the last 365 days. They ignore all of the other actions that employee has taken, leading to a rather superficial report.

Secondly, formulating a set of consistent benchmarks means employees are measured according to the same standards. These benchmarks should be crafted so they take differences in roles, departments and hierarchical positions into account.

Finally, using customized questions for departments and roles means that evaluators have an accurate way to assess performance. They aren’t using a vague and general tool to measure diverse roles and departments.

Are you dissatisfied with your current performance evaluation system? Contact Grapevine Evaluations today at 1-866-386-2163 to learn more about 360 Degree Feedback.

360 Degree Feedback is a web-based tool which enables HR users to easily and quickly create, distribute, manage and track employee participation in the review process. Users can see results in real time. HR departments can customize the questions so the survey meets the company’s unique needs.

Take bias out of your employee reviews with 360 Degree Feedback for evaluations that are fair and impartial.