Dive Brief:
- A recent Clutch survey found differences among employees on what they think raises and promotions should be based. The B2B ratings and reviews firm found that women and millennials prefer to be evaluated on attitude and behavior more often than men, GenXers and baby boomers. Boomers are more likely than the other groups to prefer being evaluated on tenure and seniority.
- The survey also found gender differences in how raises and promotions should be determined. Women preferred to be evaluated on attitude and behavior more than men, who generally preferred that quantitative measures be used in raise and promotion decisions.
- HR has traditionally used quantitative measures to determine whether an employee merits a promotion or how much of a raise is warranted, says Clutch. But with stark differences between the genders and generations over evaluation criteria, HR is challenged to find a way to accommodate employees and avoid condensing their performance down to numbers.
Dive Insight:
With boomers being the oldest generation in the workplace, their preference for being evaluated for raises and promotions based on seniority or tenure is no surprise. They value experience and believe it should reflect job performance.
Attitude and behavior are acceptable criteria in deciding raises and promotions, but they don’t necessarily show how well employees are performing their job functions. A worker can be pleasant, agreeable and disciplined but not have the skills needed to move up in an organization or not met a goal that merits a raise. Attitude and behavior often are subjective criteria in evaluating performance, and many employers are actively trying to remove such biases from the review process.