Are you struggling to make performance evaluations more objective and fairer? To your rescue comes the Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) — a performance appraisal system designed to eliminate bias and ambiguity. BARS is a structured evaluation tool that combines quantitative ratings with qualitative behaviour examples, ensuring a fair assessment for employees across roles.
According to a study by SHRM, 58% of HR professionals believe that subjective performance appraisals harm workplace trust. The good news is that only 7 percent of companies are keeping employees in the dark about their performance, and 28 percent of organizations are conducting assessments quarterly, the Workhuman study found. Even a Gallup survey conducted last year found that 95 percent of managers are dissatisfied with their organization’s review system.
Tools like BARS help bridge this gap by offering transparency and consistency in evaluations. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into what BARS is, its benefits, components, examples, and how you can implement it effectively.
What is the Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)?
The Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) is an advanced performance evaluation method that uses specific behaviour examples to rate an employee’s performance on a numerical scale. Unlike traditional methods that show vague descriptors like “good” or “excellent,” BARS provides clear, behaviour-based criteria to assess performance objectively. These ratings are anchored to specific points on a rating scale, ranging from poor to excellent, every point represents a specific level of performance.
Why is BARS Important?
BARS ensures evaluations are free of personal bias, making it a preferred choice for organizations seeking fairness. BARS also provide a more accurate assessment of performance rather than subjective thoughts or personal biases. It better aligns with the organisational objectives. By linking ratings with observable behaviours, it eliminates guesswork and encourages productive feedback.
Example:
For a customer service role, a BARS rating may look like this:
- 1 (Poor): The employee consistently ignores customer complaints, avoids interaction, or displays a very intolerable attitude. This leads to some issues being completely unresolved or might even raise repeated complaints.
- 2 (Below Average): The employee responds to complaints but provides very lazy solutions or delays solving the problem. They lack follow-through, often requiring customers to raise more issues or seek help from others as well.
- 3 (Average): The employee resolves common customer complaints within an acceptable timeframe, maintaining polite and professional communication. However, they do it very standard, there is no personalisation.
- 4 (Above Average): The employee consistently solves customer complaints properly and takes extra steps to provide a satisfactory experience. They show empathy, follow up on issues, and ensure the customer feels valued.
- 5 (Excellent): The employee resolves customer issues very actively and makes sure there is satisfaction within the first interaction. The employee also does a little future check- up on potential issues that could arise and solves them before it could become a worse issue, ensuring customer satisfaction by going above and beyond
Benefits of Using Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales
1. Objectivity
BARS removes uncertainty by clearly defining behaviors associated with each performance level. This ensures employees are rated based on their actions, and not subjective opinions or personal biases. For example, in a sales role, clear behaviour anchors like "exceeds sales targets by 20%" versus "fails to meet targets" ensures consistent evaluations.
2. Improved Employee Feedback
With BARS, feedback becomes actionable. Employees can see precisely what they need to improve and what behaviours lead to high ratings and employers can use this scale as a framework for giving feedback. For example, a teacher receiving feedback tied to BARS knows whether their classroom management aligns with specific behavioural benchmarks like "engages 90% of students in activities."
3. Aligns with Organizational Goals
BARS gives space for organizations to align performance metrics with business objectives. Each behaviour range reflects the values and goals the company wants to promote, therefore driving the employees to also work towards the organisational goals. For example, a tech company which focuses on innovation and creation may include behaviours like "initiates three innovative projects per quarter" in its BARS framework.
4. Enhances Credibility and Validity
By documenting specific behaviours, BARS protects companies from claims of bias or unfair treatment during appraisals. Errors can be reduced and there would be more credibility to the employers in showing or giving correct appraisals.
5. Flexibility
BARS helps identify strengths and weaknesses and guiding training. It is very specific and can be tailor made according to the job role for a particular performance appraisal process.
Cons of Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)
1. Time-Consuming Process
Creating a BARS requires detailed job analysis, which is something that only subject matter experts could do, and then identify key tasks, and then create behavioural anchors for each rating level. This process demands significant time and effort.
2. Limited Flexibility
BARS is tailored to specific roles and may not adapt well to changes in job descriptions, organizational goals, or unexpected scenarios. Updating the scale is a difficult process and can delay the process. For example, if a company adopts new technologies, the behaviours previously defined for IT staff may no longer align with updated job responsibilities.
3. High Initial Costs
The expertise required to develop and implement a BARS can cause major costs. Organizations may need to hire consultants or dedicate internal resources to design the scales.
4. Subjectivity
Despite its structured nature, the creation of behavioural examples can introduce bias, as it heavily depends on the judgment of those defining the scales. For example, managers designing a BARS for a sales role might unintentionally prioritize behaviours they personally value, such as relationship-building over closing deals.
5. Complex Roles
For multi-dimensional roles requiring creativity or strategic thinking, defining specific observable behaviours for all aspects of the job can be challenging as the definition for such creative roles is subjective. For example, a creative designer’s role involves subjective judgments about aesthetics, making it hard to anchor behaviours that accurately reflect performance.
6. Risk of Over-Simplification
By focusing on observable behaviours, BARS may overlook important intangible qualities like creativity, adaptability, or initiative, which are harder to quantify. For example, a highly innovative employee who solves problems in unconventional ways might score lower because their actions don't align neatly with predefined behaviours.
7. Interpretation
Different raters may interpret behavioural anchors inconsistently, leading to variability in evaluations. This undermines the objectivity BARS aims to achieve. For example, one manager might rate an employee as "3 (Average)" for resolving issues by following company guidelines, while other rates the same behaviour as "4 (Above Average)."
How Does BARS Work?
To implement BARS effectively, organizations need to follow a systematic process.
1. Job Analysis
Identify the key responsibilities of a role through surveys, interviews, and observations. This helps in understanding the behaviours that are important for success. This would including hiring managers as well and those performing the roles as well.
2. Define Performance Dimensions
List the core tasks or skills required for the role. For a software developer, this might include coding efficiency, teamwork, and problem-solving. Could include both soft and hard skills.
3. Collect Critical Incidents
Gather examples of specific behaviours, both effective and ineffective, from employees, supervisors, or stakeholders. For example, effective behaviour in observation could be something like debugging complex issues within 24 hours. And ineffective behaviour would be ignoring the bug reports for over a week.
4. Develop Behaviour Anchors
Organize the collected incidents into performance levels, such as unsatisfactory, average, and exceptional. Once it is collected and developed it is also important to train the employees who will be using this scale and employers who will be over- looking as well, including the guidelines etc.
5. Test and Finalize the Scale
Test the BARS system across different teams or departments to ensure accuracy, fairness, and practicality. This can have comparison-based testing of ratings as well.
Examples of Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales across different industries
Customer Service Representative
- 1 (Poor): Frequently misunderstands customer needs and provides incorrect solutions.
- 3 (Average): Resolves common queries but struggles with complex issues.
- 5 (Excellent): Handles customer issues actively and achieves high satisfaction scores.
Software Developer
- 1 (Poor): Fails to meet deadlines and submits code with multiple errors.
- 3 (Average): Meets most deadlines but occasionally requires revisions.
- 5 (Excellent): Delivers error-free code ahead of deadlines consistently.
Sales Manager
- 1 (Poor): Misses sales targets by a significant margin.
- 3 (Average): Meets sales targets but rarely exceeds them.
- 5 (Excellent): Consistently exceeds sales targets by at least 20%.
Best Practices for Using BARS Effectively
1. Tailor the Scale
To ensure evaluations are meaningful, it’s important to design a BARS that aligns with the specific requirements of each role. Customizing the scale ensures that the behaviours being assessed accurately reflect the tasks and expectations of the job. For example, for a marketing role, the scale could include behaviours like coming up with the most creative or compelling campaigns or analysing audience data, whereas a BARS for a logistics manager would focus on inventory accuracy and timely deliveries. Tailoring the scale helps make the evaluation both precise and relevant.
2. Train Evaluators
Consistency is critical for fair performance appraisals. Training managers and evaluators on how to use BARS can reduce subjective bias and ensure everyone interprets and applies the scales in the same way.
3. Use Technology
Using AI and analytics tools can simplify the implementation and usage of BARS, making it more efficient and measurable. Tools can help automate data collection, provide behavioural insights, and highlight trends.
4. Communicate Benefits
Employees are more likely to engage with and support BARS when they understand its value. Open communication about how the system promotes fairness and development can help gain their buy-in. This could be done like during a team meeting, a manager explains how BARS identifies areas for skill improvement and links performance to rewards, emphasizing its role in employee growth.
5. Regularly Update
Job roles evolve, and so should the scales that evaluate them. Continuously refining behaviour anchors ensures that BARS remains relevant and reflects current organizational goals.
Conclusion
The Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) is not just a tool for fair performance evaluation but a strategy for driving organization. By linking employee performance to observable behaviours, it ensures clarity, transparency, and actionable feedback. As businesses aim for more equitable workplaces, implementing BARS can lead to a motivated workforce aligned with company goals.
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