qualities of an individual may not make them a bad employee overall. As stated, if a person has an attendance or tardiness problem, evaluate that as such and state that clearly. The fact that an applicant has worked for a competitor shouldn’t make all qualities of the applicant negative. PROJECTION / “LIKE ME” ERROR: Sometimes, managers will look for people who have personal traits similar to their own through a process known as projection. This error comes in the form of giving people more favorable ratings based on the fact that they have similar characteristics to you. People with different motives and personalities can get the job done. If an organization would hire only people who think alike, creativity would be hindered and the business would become stale and unimaginative. If you are a sports-minded person, are you hiring people who only like sports? Is an employee great just because they like the same music and movies that you do? During performance evaluations, are you reviewing people based on the way you would do the same job? and not the way they are doing it?
clear information and situations are stated. Refrain from using phases such as “you always” or “you never do this part of your job duties correctly.” STEREOTYPING: Assigning characteristics to all of the members of a group is the worst form of prejudice. Assuming that all chefs are temperamental, those women are absent more than men, and that disabled people are more accidentprone is unfair and incorrect. In fact, statistics have clearly shown that those with disabilities have fewer worker compensation claims and women generally have better attendance records. In performance evaluations, do you rate employees on their participation in certain informal groups? Is an employee connected to a group of under-performing employees and rated for their association to this group and not the effort they put forth? Or, because a certain employee associates with the “right group,” are their job performance weaknesses overlooked because of who they associate with?
cess, these impulsive conclusions are exhibited in the form of allowing good or bad performance at the very end of a rating period to overshadow or good or bad performance during the early portion of the period. This is called recency error judging employee performance solely on the most recent period. Is one month enough time to truly evaluate an employee? Base any evaluation on all the facts… not just a few.
Tips for overcoming miscues in an evaluation process: •
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Get another person to assist in the evaluation if you feel you have strong biases. Make sure all decisions are based objectively and on factual information. Make sure all decisions are applied equally to all employees. Make sure any evaluation made is based on job related factors and not personal biases. Take your time when evaluating and avoid tendencies to hurry and make unfortunate mistakes.
OVERSIMPLIFICATION:
A common error made in evaluation is to draw conclusions to quickly and without supporting evidence. This happens frequently in the interviewing process. We simply look at a few factors and immediately rule out candidates based on one or two characteristics. This can be warranted in some cases, such as criminal convictions and required licensees or certifications. However in the case of education level, don’t overlook people who are currently pursuing degrees and simply rule them out. In the performance appraisal pro-
Adapted from Managing Human Resources in the Hospitality Industry by David Wheelhouse, CHRE (Educational Institute of the AH&LA, Lansing, MI, 1989. For more information on the SOCIETY FOR HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT, visit our website at www.hospitalitysociety.org
ISSUE 17
In hiring or in the evaluation process, managers may incorrectly assume that because a person reacted one way in a given situation or instance, he or she will react that way in all instances. To prevent oversimplification, focus on repeated behaviors and patterns of action by asking additional questions or making further observation. In hiring, a candidate may respond to a question that causes you concern. To overcome that concern, ask other questions dealing with the same subject and see if the same response is given. In a performance appraisal, make sure that
IMPULSIVE CONCLUSIONS AND RECENCY ERROR:
HOSPITALITY MALDIVES
Refrain from basing decisions on small things like how a person looks you in the eye or gives a handshake.
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