Because women continue to bear most of the burdens of caregiving, many have benefitted from the flexibility of hybrid and remote work, which has allowed them to remain part of the full-time workforce while spending more time at home. In theory, this is good news, because full-time employees tend to be promoted more often and let go less often — but in practice that’s not what’s happening. Why? Because when women take advantage of hybrid and remote work options today, they become subject to biases that creep into the performance-review process and cause them to be judged unfairly.
Watch Out for These 3 Gender Biases in Performance Reviews
Identify the practices that lead organizations to overvalue the work of men.
June 26, 2023
Summary.
Three kinds of bias often creep into the performance-review process, in ways that disproportionately affect women, especially when they choose to take advantage of the flexibility offered by hybrid and remote work. These biases are experience bias, which leads reviewers to overvalue tasks that are easy to define; proximity bias, which leads them to think that people in their immediate orbit do the most important work; and in-group/out-group bias, which leads them to give preferential treatment to people they feel belong to a group they identify with. This article, based on the author’s study of a large multinational consulting group, explains the nature of these biases and offers suggestions for how to combat them.
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New!
HBR Learning
Performance Appraisal Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Performance Appraisal. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Take the pain out of employee reviews.