It is essential to measure performance in order to ensure continuous progress.
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No matter what stage of life we are at, we need to evaluate growth to guarantee future success.
It starts as early as kindergarten where we take simple tests of number and sight word recognition.
Then comes the Naplan and ICAS. In high school we appear for exams that gauge our potential.
Years down the line, in our professional life, these assessments turn in to performance reviews where we appraise KPIs - Key Performance Indicators.
I hear you say, "One day, one test, determines our worth. How shallow is that?"
My reply to this is, "What if there was no day, no test, to determine your worth. Would you ever know your true potential? Would you ever know the extent to which you could improve?"
There is a lot of criticism around quantitative measure of performance, whether that's school assessments, sports win-loss records or the number of sales closed.
Why do we need numerical measures? To counter prejudices.
It is a way of avoiding psychological biases in decision making - decisions regarding an individual's future.
We need to be diligent. We might make a competent student's, athlete's or an employee's future bleak based on prejudices.
In the book 'Judgement under uncertainty', psychologists Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky explained psychological bias or cognitive bias as a tendency to make illogical decisions.
It involves using selective data to make a subconscious decision or being influenced by a powerful colleague. We witness people falling victim to these scenarios in our day-to-day lives.
A student awarded at school because he was the teacher's favourite, an athlete chosen for a team because he satisfied the coach's biases, or an employee promoted because he shared commonalities with his boss.
Psychological bias trumps common sense and clear, measured judgement.
It leads to missed opportunities and poor decision making.
This is where the quantitative performance evaluation comes in.
It relies on numerical data rather than subjective standards. It may be written or oral assessments, record of events or scores during competitions or number of sales closed or units produced.
Yet, numerical measure of performance is not the only way to assess progress.
We need to set standards and specific goals, track weekly or monthly progress, be specific and honest with criticism, avoid comparisons, evaluate performance and not personality and have an open conversation.
However holistic the process may be, the presence of the numerical measure is still vital.
It is imperative that the individual in question has a clear understanding of performance indicators for any evaluation process to be successful.
Research shows that 90 per cent of performance reviews are painful and ineffective and 51 per cent of employees and 45 per cent of HR (human resource) leaders believe that annual reviews are inaccurate.
If we kept the process transparent and added open communication and employee feedback to the evaluation, then the stats will improve.
Regular feedback on top of quarterly, bi-annual or annual performance reviews resulted in better performance.
Gallup reports that managers who regularly communicated with their employees had them three times more engaged than the uncommunicative managers.
Imagine how that would reflect on a business's success.
The core of performance evaluation is to trigger improvement that leads to constant progress.
An answer to this is outcomes-based assessment methodology.
It is an assessment-driven system that operates through the setting up of standard.
The parameters inform learners about the qualities, values, attitudes, knowledge and skills that are expected of them as students or professionals.
According to Stanford University's Tomorrow's Professor Postings article 'Tomorrow's Research', a traditionally favoured type of research design that has influenced outcomes-based assessment methodology is quantitative assessment.
It comprises of data collection tools including structured interviews, questionnaires and tests.
An effective measure of progress is the key to future success. Validation and recognition of constant improvement not only helps build confidence but also sparks motivation.
Based on the above analysis we can safely determine that quantitative measure of performance is crucial to all sorts of evaluation.
Exclusion of personal bias leads to better outcomes and availed opportunities.
A transparent assessment process where the individuals are aware of the expectations results in satisfaction of both the assessor and the assessed.
The more conducive the process the better the rate of improvement and elevation of success.
Ayesha Umar is a career development consultant
