Most employers understand that they should discourage the use of subjective criteria to make hiring, advancement, and severance decisions. However, many supervisors still insist that they must consider subjective criteria because factors like “attitude,” “initiative,” and “reliability” simply can’t be made objective. True or false? Let’s break it down. Every employee undoubtedly has certain tasks that he must perform as part of his job. Even without a formal written job description, employees are tasked with certain functions they must perform satisfactorily if they want to retain their jobs. Employers and employees alike would typically agree that major and essential job duties (e.g., produce 10 widgets per hour) are usually identified up front and are generally well understood by both parties to the employment relationship. Still, employers frequently insist that there are also a number of subjective factors that are critical to an employee’s success. For example, does the employee have a good “attitude”? Will he demonstrate satisfactory “initiative”? Is he “reliable” and a “team player”? So is it true that every job has several performance criteria that are simply subjective and “squishy” and must be left to the employer’s judgment? No. Every organization can make seemingly subjective performance criteria objective if it simply takes the time to analyze the critical criteria and identify the objective performance measures that should be taken into consideration to arrive at the allegedly “subjective” rating of an employee’s performance. Here’s an example. Employment Practices Self-Audit Workbook Choose your ‘attitude’ Here are some sample questions to help “objectify” the seemingly subjective performance criterion of “attitude.” Focusing on the employee’s performance of specific assigned tasks or projects, determine whether the employee:
These are only examples, but if you take the time, you can identify similar objective performance measures that can ultimately help you define and evaluate whether an employee displays a good attitude. HR Guide to Employment Law: A practical compliance reference manual covering 14 topics, including documentation issues such as performance evaluations What about ‘reliability’? Basic Training for Supervisors guidebook series, including a guide on documentation and evaluations Bottom line Good supervisors are not only masters of the simple explanation but also skilled at breaking down job responsibilities into objective tasks. Take the time to work with your management staff to ensure that they aren’t using subjective labels that can lead to claims of discrimination and unfair treatment.
Subjective information or writing is based on personal opinions, interpretations, points of view, emotions and judgment. It is often considered ill-suited for scenarios like news reporting or decision making in business or politics. Objective information or analysis is fact-based, measurable and observable.
Here are some examples of objective and subjective statements:
A popular thought experiment asks this hypothetical question: if a tree falls in a forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? The objective reality in this scenario is that the tree did fall in the forest and made a sound. The objective view is not dependent upon there being an observer for the event. However, there is a school of thought in philosophy that believes that our perception of reality is governed by our senses, which are limited and flawed. Therefore, there is no objective reality that we can discern, and all reality is subjective. Reality is a social construct, a common denominator of the subjective experiences and perceptions of society forms our reality.
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Objective and subjective performance measures are used to classify the various different types of performance measures. Objective performance measures are independent of the observer. That means the measurement is done using something other than the person observing. This independent measure can include: a stop-watch, measuring tape or record of goals. The objectivity of the performance measure is increased through measures such as: time, checklists, or established criteria. In contrast subjective performance measures are dependent on the observer and based on opinions, feelings, and general impressions. Subjective measures rely more on the observer than independent measures. Sports such as dance and gymnastics are more subjective than objective in their measures. It is important to remember that these are not clear cut categories – objective and subjective performance measures. No, these measures sit at either end of a continuum. Objective and subjective performance measures continuum Sports such as high jump use completely objective performance measures of metres and centimetres, while diving tends to use more subject performance measures. Skills are often measured using both, such that a soccer player’s performance. It was good because it looked good, felt smooth, but also he covered 12Km in the game, made 30 tackles, had 98% success in passing and 85% success in shots, and scored 3 goals in the game. |