With the end of the year in sight, many employers are gearing up to write their yearly performance appraisals. Although this is a great opportunity to give your employees feedback and reward those who have been exceeding expectations, it can also be a time of year when you’re accused of favoritism and discrimination.
How do you protect yourself during the appraisal writing process?
To avoid being accused of wrongdoing in the appraisal process, there are steps that you can take to ensure that you’re writing the best and safest appraisals possible:
- Don’t surprise your employees: Nothing in your appraisals should be surprising to your employees. Therefore, you should be honest with them at all times and provide feedback throughout the year.
- Remember that the appraisal period covers the whole year: A lot of supervisors tend to focus on just the last few months of the appraisal period, which is a disservice to their employees and can raise concerns about discrimination.
- Be objective: The goals that you’ve created for your employees should be as objective as possible. We know that there’s still going to be some subjectivity in the process but try to take a step back and view each employee in a holistic and objective fashion.
- Describe performance: A lot of times when employers get in trouble with performance appraisals it’s because they end up describing the employee’s personality or character traits rather than focusing on performance. Do your best to avoid falling into that trap.
Have you already been accused of discrimination?
If you’ve already been accused of discrimination or retaliation, then you need to take action to protect yourself. What this looks like will depend in large part on the facts of your situation. But if you want to learn more about what you can do to protect your business and your interests, then please consider reaching out to a law firm like ours for assistance.
