Types of performance review biases & how to avoid them - Culture Amp

Editorial verdict

Solid practitioner guide. The ten bias types are well-documented in research and the prevention strategies are actionable. However, it leans toward vendor promotion of Culture Amp's solutions and lacks citations to original research sources.

Executive summary

This article addresses bias in performance review processes, arguing that human cognitive biases significantly compromise the objectivity of employee evaluations. The author, a former Senior People Scientist at Culture Amp, presents ten specific types of bias that affect performance reviews, including recency bias, primacy bias, halo/horns effect, and gender bias. The article provides examples of each bias in workplace scenarios and offers practical prevention strategies such as collecting feedback at multiple time points, using structured rating scales, and implementing calibration processes. The piece emphasizes that biases can have serious consequences for promotion, compensation, and retention decisions, potentially undermining employee trust in the performance management process. The article concludes that recognizing these biases is the first step toward creating more fair and objective performance evaluation systems.