Checklist for Mitigating Bias in Performance Management
Design your performance management problem to mitigate biases
Most organizations believe bias in performance management is a people problem. They assume that if managers are more aware, more thoughtful, or better trained, bias will decrease.
But research suggests otherwise.
Bias does not primarily come from intent. It comes from how performance management systems are designed.
When organizations rely on individual managers to interpret performance, write reviews, and apply standards on their own, variation becomes inevitable. Performance is defined differently across teams. Feedback is inconsistent. And decisions increasingly rely on individual judgment, which is where bias is most likely to show up.
At JST People Strategy, we believe that reducing bias is not about trying harder to be fair. It is about building systems that make fairness more likely. That is why we developed a set of structured, research-informed guidelines to help organizations design bias out of their performance management processes.