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Performance Management - Moderation
We are in the process of investigating possible ways of introducing moderation of the appraisal scores to optimize objectivity and give people a level of comfort, that when we use this information to inform other practices, e.g. remuneration (that would be long term performance where base pay is affected) and rewards (short term performance), nobody was unfairly advantaged / disadvantaged.
One way of doing this would be to use a process of statistical normalization. The other methods we have investigated are very labor intensive or not practical at this stage for various reasons:
- Go through each performance contract / appraisal to ensure people are fairly contracted / appraised
- Use moderation committees to scrutinize performance ratings across divisions to ensure consistency
Does anyone have information on this and / or used moderation in the Performance Management space? Your thoughts / comments would be appreciated.
Hi Tabitav,
Indeed, a major issue with individual performance assessment is subjectivity. One of my favourite quotes of the topic comes from the third century when the Chinese philosopher Sin Yu reportedly criticized a rater employed by the Wei Dynasty with the following words: “The Imperial Rater of Nine Grade seldom rates men according to their merits, but always according to his likes and dislikes” (Patten (1977) as cited in Banner & Cooke (1984).
In a way the issue of subjectivity hasn't been resolved over time and it is unlikely it will. Perhaps a more natural approach would be to embrace it and leverage on it. Building capability to enable employee self assements might have a better ROI overall, due to its implications outside the assessment itself.
I am keen to hear more on how things are progressing. Many organisations find it challenging to have assessments done at all, so such advanced approaches are pioneering new directions in the field.
References:
Banner, D.K., & Cooke, R.A. (1984). Ethical dilemmas in performance appraisal. Journal of Business Ethics, No. 3, pp. 327-333
Patten, T.H., Jr (1977), Pay: Employee Compensation and Incentive Plans, pp. 352 Free Press, London