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Race and gender bias still play a powerful part in performance reviews, according to a new study of performance reviews from HR tech company Textio.
Signs of bias. The report analyzed 23,000 performance reviews and surveyed 450 workers and found that managers were inconsistent in who was given high-quality, actionable feedback.
The language used to describe employee feedback appears to be influenced in part by the person’s race or gender. For example, women are most likely to receive low-quality feedback based on their personality. Some 56% of women surveyed said they have been described as unlikeable in their performance reviews and 78% have been called emotional, while 16% and 11% of men respectively said they have been similarly described.
Women are also 22% more likely to receive personality-based feedback, which can be both positive and negative. While men more often get called intelligent and gifted, women are more likely to be called abrasive, difficult, or friendly. Workers are likely internalizing positive and negative feedback, as Textio found in the survey. Women are seven times more likely to internalize negative stereotypes about themselves than positive.
While women are more likely to receive feedback on their personality, men and women are equally likely to provide that feedback. “High-performing women get exactly as much personality feedback as their lower-performing peers,” the report said. High-performing women also are more likely to receive negative feedback: 76% of high-performing women receive negative feedback, compared to just 2% of high-performing men.
Race also appeared to play a role in performance review language. White and Asian men receive the highest quality feedback, and half of them said they’ve been called intelligent compared to less than 20% of Black and Hispanic/Latino workers, according to the survey. Furthermore, over 60% of Hispanic/Latino and Black workers are described as emotional, according to the survey.
Regardless of whether they’re high-performing employees, women and people of color receive lower quality feedback than male or white workers, which can have a ripple effect on their progression, according to Rocki Howard, founder and CEO of Diversiology, a DE&I consulting firm.
Deep impact. Low-quality feedback that’s not actionable could cost teams money, and is responsible for 10% of employee attrition, the report found.
Howard told HR Brew that organizations should mitigate bias by teaching managers how to give unbiased, actionable feedback because feedback impacts future performance, productivity, engagement, and retention of underrepresented groups.
“I don’t believe that they’re consciously trying to be biased,” she said, but managers regardless can have a lasting negative impact on workers when they don’t provide quality feedback.
“Feedback is a bridge towards promotion and additional opportunities,” Howard said. “This is problematic because lack of actionable feedback significantly creates less opportunity to learn and improve, which over time creates less opportunity for greater pay and promotional opportunities.”