The manager calibration process is a critical step in performance reviews because it ensures fairness, consistency, and credibility across the organization. Without it, performance ratings can become subjective and uneven as calibration:
- Ensures fairness across teams as it helps align managers in the meaning of each point on the scale.
- Improves consistency in ratings as managers compare and discuss employee evaluations.
- Reduces bias as managers and HR teams challenge assumptions and ask for evidence, which leads to more balanced and accurate assessments.
- Builds organizational trust as employees are more likely to trust the performance review process when they believe that it is fair and consistent.
- Aligns performance with company standards as evaluations reflect the organization’s expectations, values, and goals not just individual manager preferences.
What happens if the calibration is not complete?
If a manager does not complete an employee calibration, the performance review cannot be considered finalized so the results that the employee receives may be incomplete, inaccurate, or not fully validated.
There are two possible scenarios, depending on the set up of the delivery of results:
- Send all results: If the administrator has decided that all the results are sent during the results delivery phase, even if the manager hasn’t performed the calibration, the participant can receive the feedback provided by peers or direct reports. However, the information from the manager will not be sent, so the evaluation is not fully completed.
- Send only the manager’s evaluation: In the case that only the manager evaluation is sent to the employee, if the calibration is not performed, the employee will not have results available for being delivered and they will be stuck on the calibration phase. If the manager can’t perform the calibration, it would be advisable to appoint another manager to perform the calibration and the results delivery following the steps described below:
- Access to your Performance section and select the review campaign.
- Next, look for the person that hasn’t received the calibration and click on the three dots icon that appears next to their name.
- Select the Change manager of this review option and select the new manager.
- Finally, click on the Update manager button to save your changes.
The new manager will receive a notification informing of the new calibration that needs to be performed.