Performance Appraisal Analysis

Are your senior ICs disproportionately taking the available “exceeds expectations” ratings up for grabs? ___________ Performance rating inflation becomes more pronounced at senior IC levels. In Pave’s dataset, 26% of P1s receive a performance rating 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 than “meets expectations”. But for P6s, 40% receive a rating 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 than “meets expectations”. And for P6s, only 6% receive a performance rating 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 than “meets expectations”. ___________ Some takeaways: 1️⃣ There is probably a degree of “career survivorship bias” for the ICs who make it to the senior levels in their discipline. If they’ve made it that far in their career, they’re more likely to be top performers versus a P1/new-grad trying out a job perhaps for the first time. So it perhaps makes some sense that performance ratings are more inflated for senior levels. 2️⃣ In addition to looking at performance rating distributions across the company and broken down by department, 𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁. This will help flag potential anomalies or issues in your company’s incentive system. 3️⃣ A very tangible consequence of the rating inflation skewed towards senior levels is that merit cycle planning can take an unpredicted “peanut butter” turn which may hurt pay-for-performance interests. This is because a 10% raise on a $100k salary is $10k, whereas a 10% raise on a $300k salary is $30k. And if the employees with the $300k salaries are the ones consuming a higher proportion of the “available” exceeds expectations, the average raise amounts percentage-wise will often end up smaller than hoped for in order to make the top line budget math work. ___________ Methodology: Our data science team mapped all available performance ratings from various systems (3-rating, 4-rating, 5-rating, 9-box, etc) into three categories–below meets expectations, equivalent to meets expectations, and above meets expectations. Then, the results were broken down by job level. All 40,000+ incumbent data points in this analysis come from Pave customers who used the compensation planning tool for 2024 merit cycles. #pave #performancerating #benchmarks

Behaviors are learned and reinforced. To make performance evaluations more inclusive, you need to proactively craft new practices. 🧠 Unbiasing nudges, intentional and subtle adjustments I craft with my clients, can play a pivotal role in achieving an objective and inclusive performance assessment. 👇 Here is what to consider: 🔎 Key Decision Points Analyze your evaluation process to identify key decision points. In my practice, focusing on assessment, performance goal setting, and feedback processes has proven crucial. Introduce inclusive prompts at each stage to guide unbiased decision-making. 🔎 Common Biases Examine previous reviews to unearth prevailing biases. Halo/horn effects, recency bias, and affinity bias often surface. Counteract these biases by crafting nudges tailored to your organization, integrating them seamlessly into your review spreadsheets. 🔎 Behavioral Prompts I usually develop concise pre-decision checklists tailored to each organization. The goal is to support raters' metacognition and introduce timed prompts during the evaluation process. 🔎 Feedback Loops Begin with small-scale implementation and collect feedback. Compare perceptions of both raters and ratees to gauge effectiveness. 🔎 Ongoing Training Avoid off-the-shelf solutions; instead, tailor training to your organization's unique context and patterns. Your trainer should understand your specific needs and design a continuous training program that reinforces these unbiasing nudges, providing managers with the necessary competencies. 🔎 Pilot and Evaluation Define metrics to measure progress and impact. Pilot your unbiasing nudges and regularly evaluate their effectiveness. Adjust based on feedback and insights gained during the pilot phase. 👉 Crafting inclusive performance evaluations is an ongoing journey. Yet, I believe, it's one of the most important ones. Each evaluation matters as it defines a person's career and sometimes even the future. ________________________________________ Are you looking for more DEI x Performance-related recommendations like this?  📨 Join my free DEI Newsletter:

Navigating performance appraisals at the end of the year can become a pressure point for leaders. How do you as a leader ensure a fair and constructive appraisal while avoiding conflict, and providing meaningful feedback that would strengthen the individual and team, as well as ensure growth? This week, our leader's conversation will consider how to prepare for purposeful appraisal conversations. Performance appraisals don't have to just be a procedural task. Instead, they are a chance to align the growth of those you lead, manage, or supervise, with broader organizational goals. For senior leaders, investing time in purposeful preparation transforms these conversations into meaningful, future-focused interactions. Imagine you’re preparing to meet Sarah, a project lead who excels in innovation but has struggled with meeting deadlines. The aim here is to celebrate her strengths while addressing opportunities for improvement. How do you purposefully prepare for her appraisal? ✅ First, gather comprehensive data. This will include a review of performance metrics, project milestones, and peer feedback to form a well-rounded view. It is wise to include tangible examples, like the specific project Sarah excelled in, but also note any delays or areas where she needed support. This demonstrates that your feedback is fact-based, not subjective. ✅ Secondly, focus on growth opportunities. Rather than solely addressing past performance, consider what Sarah’s next steps should be. Could she benefit from time management training? Is there a mentor who could guide her? Framing feedback around growth opportunities shows her that you’re invested in her career development. ✅ Thirdly, clarify desired outcomes for the coming year. Clear, measurable goals are essential. For Sarah, this might mean successfully hitting all project milestones in the next quarter or collaborating on team planning. Defining success not only motivates team members but also gives clarity and aligns them with organizational priorities. All this is to say, preparation is not just about evaluation. It is not about enduring or engaging in a not-fun activity. It is about investing in your team’s success. When you come prepared, you can approach each conversation with curiosity, clarity, purpose, and genuine support for your team’s growth. How do you typically prepare for appraisals? Let’s share strategies in the comments. #careers #leaders #leadership #womeninleadership #womenwholead #professionalwomen #personaldevelopment #management #motivation

Most performance reviews try to do two jobs at once: 1️⃣ Pick between people for pay, promotion, and roles. 2️⃣ Develop people by finding strengths and gaps. These goals pull in opposite directions. Why this clash happens (brain + math): 🧠 Brain: When a review affects your pay or job, your brain reads it as a threat. Stress goes up. Learning shuts down. Feedback feels like a warning, not help. 🔢 Math: If you focus on ranking people clearly, everyone’s profile looks the same and you lose detail about strengths and weaknesses. If you focus on rich, detailed feedback, clear rankings get fuzzy. You can’t optimize both at the same time. The fix isn’t “blend them better.” You need a third way. Build two separate tracks with different goals, timing, and rules. Track A — Allocate (between people) - Purpose: pay, promotion, role, and staffing decisions. - Timing: set times (e.g., twice a year). - Evidence: common criteria and comparisons across people. - Norms: fairness, consistency, clear documentation. Track B — Develop (within people) - Purpose: growth, new skills, behavior change. - Timing: ongoing, low‑stakes coaching in regular 1:1s. - Evidence: specific behaviors and goals; focus on the future (“feedforward”). - Norms: psychological safety, curiosity, experimentation. Design moves that make it work: 👉 Separate the moments: Never mix ratings or money talks with coaching time. 👉 Separate the artifacts: Use different forms and language for each track. 👉 Separate the roles: Talent review leaders handle Track A; managers/peers coach in Track B. 👉 Give employees a voice: Enable upward feedback and self‑nominations for growth or promotion. 👉 Aim at behavior and the future: Be specific about what to try next, not who someone “is.” Employee gut‑check: “Is this feedback or a warning?” If people can’t tell, the system isn’t truly separate yet. When we honor the polarity—allocate separately, develop safely—performance management can actually serve both business goals. #EmployeeExperience #PerformanceManagement #Leadership #HR

We've analyzed over 30,000 performance reviews at Confirm, and what we found is consistently alarming. 50% of companies' top performers AND toxic employees remain completely hidden from leadership. 64% of employees view these reviews as a partial or complete waste of time. These aren't just statistics to me. They're personal. BACKGROUND: I've spent 20 years watching talented people get overlooked while office politicians get promoted. I've seen hundreds of HOURS wasted on calibration meetings filled with bias and politics. I've watched companies lose top performers because they couldn't identify who was truly mission-critical. And I've felt the frustration of realizing traditional performance reviews reflect who you know, not your impact. THE PROBLEM: Traditional reviews are fundamentally broken in today's networked world of work: 1) They rely on single-manager assessment (a single point of failure). 2) They reward visibility over actual impact. 3) They're biased toward people who "play the game" well. 4) They fail to identify your true high performers (who often leave quietly). 5) They're administratively exhausting for everyone involved. HOW ONA CHANGES EVERYTHING: Unlike traditional methods, Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) leverages your entire organization instead of just cherry-picked peers. By asking research-validated questions like "Who do you go to for help?" and "Who's making outstanding impact?", we don’t just measure the “What” of work, but also the “How” that managers often don’t see directly. It's like putting on infrared goggles in a dark room. Suddenly you can see what was always there but invisible: your quiet innovators, your connectors, your true top performers. THE IMPACT: One customer, Thoropass, aimed to avoid losing key talent during the Great Resignation. Using ONA, they identified their true mission-critical employees (many who weren't on leadership's radar!)—and retained 100% of them over 12 months. Another, Canada Goose, discovered 2.5X more top performers than their traditional process had surfaced. THE REALITY: Performance reviews weren't designed for today's hybrid, collaborative, cross-functional world. The most impactful employees often work behind the scenes, connecting teams and solving problems others don't even see. ONA finally gives these people the recognition they deserve while giving leaders the confidence to make fair, data-driven talent decisions. We've built an entire system to make this easy. Because data-driven recognition of true impact isn't some far-off ideal—it's rapidly becoming the new normal. The era of highly subjective, opinion-driven talent decisions needs to end.

Are appraisals about the past or the future? If we only reward/review what’s already been done, we’re missing the bigger picture. The real drivers of success aren’t just those who meet their KPIs; they’re the ones who solve unseen problems, take initiative, and push boundaries. Yet, most appraisal conversations follow a predictable pattern: * What did you achieve? * Here’s your rating. * This is your increment. End of discussion. Imagine the potential of an employee walking out thinking "This is what I can become. This is my path to success" rather than just leaving with satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) around the past. What should appraisals actually do? 1. Recognize contribution beyond the obvious – Not all impact fits neatly into a KPI. Some of the most valuable contributions don’t show up on spreadsheets. 2. Fuel ambition, not just determine compensation – A great appraisal conversation should leave employees inspired, not just informed. 3. Set a challenge for the future – If appraisals only reflect on the past, we’re not leading, we’re just keeping scores. For those walking into their appraisal discussions: • Don’t just list achievements, own your journey. Share both wins and failures. Acknowledging mistakes (along with what you learned) shows maturity, self-awareness, and a growth mindset. • If you’re aiming for a promotion, make a case for it. What skills, contributions, and initiatives make you ready for the next role? Saying "I deserve it" isn’t enough, demonstrate why. • Come with a plan, not just expectations. What challenges do you want to take on next? How do you want to grow? Leaders notice those who take charge of their own development. As leaders, we need to think whether we are merely evaluating performance or are we unlocking potential? As employees - are we waiting for recognition or driving our own growth? Appraisals should be more than a retrospective, they should be a launchpad. Would love to hear your thoughts on the same. #AppraisalSeason #Leadership #GrowthMindset

𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬 : 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 ? Appraisals are often seen as a scorecard, a moment in time where performance is measured and rated. But shouldn't we be looking at these another way? Performance appraisals have long been perceived as an evaluation tool and an assessment of what’s been achieved in the past year. But if we truly want to develop talent, we must shift the lens. 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧; 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 A holistic appraisal is much more than ratings and checkboxes. While performance metrics and KPIs provide structure, they don’t capture the full picture. What about the challenges an employee navigated? The skills they acquired? The impact they created beyond defined goals? Their aspirations for the future? If appraisals only measure the past, they miss the opportunity to shape what comes next. This is where feedforward becomes critical—shifting the focus from evaluation to evolution. Instead of just identifying gaps, conversations should center around where an individual wants to go, what skills they need, and how the organization can support that journey. The shift from once a year review to a continuous feedback culture is just as important. Growth is built through ongoing dialogue, coaching, and alignment between individual potential and business needs. When approached this way, appraisals build careers and strengthen the organization’s future. What practices have you experienced/ implemented that made your performance appraisal mechanisms richer? #PerformanceManagement #Feedforward #Appraisals2025

PART 2: HR Workflows getting automated using Agents. WORKFLOW 2: Performance Review Automation using Agents. The Problem Traditional performance management is inefficient, time-consuming, and often biased. Employees and managers rely on manual reviews, subjective assessments, and incomplete data from scattered sources. This leads to inconsistent feedback, lack of actionable insights, and limited growth opportunities for employees. Solution: An AI-powered Performance Management System automates data collection, feedback analysis, and performance evaluation. By aggregating inputs from multiple sources: self-assessments, manager feedback, chat logs, meeting summaries, and psychometric insights, the system provides a holistic, unbiased, and data-driven performance report. 1) The system first gathers inputs from self-assessments, manager feedback, HR 1:1 meeting notes, and structured performance review frameworks, ensuring a holistic view of an employee’s contributions. 2) AI-driven agents further enhance this process by analyzing Slack messages, Zoom interactions, 1:1 feedback, and psychometric evaluations, providing a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of employee performance trends. 3) Once data is collected, the Performance Report Analysis Agent processes it using company-specific performance guidelines. The Employee Performance Analyst Agent continuously monitors this information, delivering real-time feedback, identifying skill gaps, and suggesting personalized goal-setting strategies that align with business objectives. 4) Finally, automated performance reporting and coaching streamline HR’s role in talent development. The Review & Report Generator Agent compiles structured performance reports that outline employee strengths, areas for improvement, and career development recommendations. Complementing this, an AI Coach provides employees with personalized coaching insights, helping them better understand their strengths and weaknesses while offering guidance for professional growth. 5) This AI-driven workflow not only enhances the efficiency and accuracy of performance evaluations but also empowers employees with actionable  insights for career development, fostering a more engaged and high-performing workforce. Tech Stack: LLMs: openAI, GPT4-0 Data Sources: Google Forms/Spreadsheets, Slack, Zoom, HR platforms Vector Database: Qdrant Agent Framework: Lyzr AI Agent API Hosting: AWS Agents: Performance Report Analysis Agent, Slack Messages Analysis Agent, Zoom Meetings Analysis Agent, 1:1 Feedback Analysis Agent, Psychometric Analysis Agent, Employee Performance Analyst Agent, Review & Report Generator Agent. #HRAgents