Performance Evaluation Case Study

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ssue: Performance evaluations are a way for an employer to measure how well an employee is performing in their job. These evaluations can be used to encourage positive performance or to resolve employee issues. Formal reviews can be the basis for promotions and pay raises, or in some cases, disciplinary actions. The subjective nature of performance reviews can create potential ethical issues for HR practitioners. While it may be necessary to use different measures for different employees, it is difficult to be objective when a manager can pick and choose what criteria they are using to evaluate. Personal feelings and bias can cloud their judgement and distort the evaluation. Rule of Law There are no laws requiring performance evaluations,…show more content…
In some states sexual orientation is an additional protected class, and recently the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, held that “discrimination based on sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination and thus prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” (Hively, 2017). To avoid real or perceived discrimination in performance evaluation, an organization must create a performance evaluation system that is fair and objective. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) is another example of federal protection against discrimination in performance evaluation. The EPA requires that men and women who work together in the same workplace should be given “equal pay for equal work” (Equal Pay Act (1963)). In the textbook, Alexander and Hartman cite statistics from a 2010 Harris Poll which found that “7 in 10 Americans say women often do not receive the same pay as men for doing exactly the same job” (Alexander and Hartman, 2014, p. 345). A valid claim under the EPA requires that an employee prove that the employer pays men more than women for doing the same job. An employer may…show more content…
They can be effective tools to manage and develop employees. But how can performance reviews be objective when the work being performed is subjective? Some jobs are easier to measure – for example data entry, factory production, or sales representative. But other jobs are more difficult to objectively measure performance – psychologist, human resource practitioner, or President of the United States of America. The company I work for changed their performance evaluation standards recently and instead of being given a 1-5 performance ranking, we are now rated as either “perform” or “not perform”. When the program was first introduced, there was great concern about how these rankings would translate into our bonus pools. However, I think by eliminating the subjective range of 1-5, we are now more focused on actively having more frequent performance conversations in order to clearly understand expectations. We also use the time to exchange feedback and discuss progress toward our performance objectives. Just because the 1-5 rating has changed doesn’t mean there aren’t still development goals and performance objectives. We are still expected to continually enhance and improve our

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