An ally is someone who is not a member of an underrepresented group but who takes action to support that group to help make their workplace more diverse and inclusive for all.
For workplaces to become truly inclusive it is up to people who hold positions of privilege to be active allies and to take responsibility for making changes that will help others be successful.
Allies at all levels can take action with simple, everyday efforts that make a real difference and in this series, we highlight some things that you can do to be an ally and to support your colleagues from underrepresented groups.
#13: Keep your own bias in check when doing Performance Reviews
It is important to challenge bias and remove barriers within your internal processes. Part of being an ally is ensuring that these reviews take place, seeking feedback from colleagues and identifying and removing barriers and bias. If you are a manager and carry out performance reviews for your team it is also important for you to be aware of and keep your own bias in check when doing performance reviews.
Just making yourself aware of your biases will not, in and of itself, enable you to overcome your biases. This doesn’t mean that we ignore our biases or give into them. Instead, we need to set firm criteria and be consistent and going a step further to set up systems, processes, procedures, and even technology, that enable us to make better decisions. It is also important to get feedback from others.
Biases can lead to the giving or holding back of opportunities and the inflation or deflation of employee ratings, both of which can have an impact on performance reviews.
Here are some ways that you can overcome bias in your performance reviews:
- Don’t just think about what your employee has done recently or give more weight to a recent incident. You should be considering the whole review period – which is why it is important to do performance check-ins throughout the year and for employees to keep a record of their performance and achievements (and any feedback).
- Don’t allow one good or bad trait to overshadow others. To avoid this make sure to evaluate performance on their performance as a whole and against all the set criteria and get feedback from others.
- Try to avoid Similar-to-Me Bias. This is the inclination to give a higher rating to people with similar interests, skills and backgrounds as the person doing the rating. To avoid this make sure to evaluate performance on their performance as a whole and against all the set criteria and get feedback from others..
- Every time you have an impression about someone, go out and seek evidence/feedback. When collecting feedback from others, pay close attention to the feedback that goes against your beliefs.
- When giving feedback, individuals tend to focus more on the personality and attitudes of women. Contrarily, they focus more on the behaviours and accomplishments of men. This exacerbates gender bias, growth/promotion opportunities, and the pay gap. Therefore it is important to discuss specifically talking about situations, behaviours, and impacts/outcomes rather than personality or style.
Read the full “How to be an Ally” series here.
