“My human resources team wants me to get involved in “Performance Calibration Meetings.” It seems like a lot of work and something that will take away my ability to rate my people the way I want. Why should I get involved?”A Performance Calibration Meeting is a discussion between a manager and one or more supervisors where they come to an agreement about the performance ratings to be applied to the supervisor’s employees.
By performance ratings I mean the kind of feedback we give to employees in their performance reviews. They are usually some variation of the Below Expectations, Meets Goals, and Exceeds Standards variety. There are two kinds of calibration: common UNDERSTANDING of the RATINGS that define each level of performance, and common APPLICATION of the RATINGS across a range of performers. A better term for the meetings may be Ratings Reviews, or Ratings Consensus meetings.
The meetings are designed to enable managers and supervisors to reach agreement on the performance ratings to be given to each employee. They do take time and require some deep thinking about the standards your employees are achieving. They are definitely a good idea, and I support their introduction into every management and executive team I work with. Here’s why.
We know that one of the things that is most important to employees is a sense they are being treated equally and fairly in the workplace. Performance ratings have such a huge impact on career development, job opportunities and work distribution. It’s important that every employee feels they are being judged by the same standards. We’re used to diversity requirements that ensure we treat employees equally and without fear or favor based on their race, gender or age. Ensuring performance ratings are applied equally is just an extension of the same principle.
We also know that if we want to use our performance ratings as input to decisions such as pay, bonuses, promotions and disciplinary actions…they had better be right! I have seen many organizations open themselves up to significant legal and financial consequences because their performance management system contained inherent biases or a disorganized application of standards.
Quite apart from making sure that the organization applies consequences and rewards appropriately, you want to make sure you don’t suffer from applying performance ratings inappropriately.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power that comes from having everyone in the organization aligned around the right tasks performed to the right standards. Providing a common language, common understanding and common application of performance ratings eases communication and ensures accountability. We know that with a well functioning performance management system you can easily achieve 10 – 15% efficiency and productivity gains with the same resources.
As always, trust is essential. If you are going to participate in a performance consensus process of some sort there had better be an atmosphere of respect and trust. You are going to talk about how employees are judged, and how you set and enforce standards. The people you are sharing with had better respect confidentiality, and be well motivated to supporting and helping each other. If they are, the rewards are significant.
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