Call Center Management Featured Article
March 13, 2009
Study Shows Bias Enters into Manual Employee Assessments
Rating a contact center agent’s performance while on the job is a normal part of running an effective contact center. Ask any contact center manager and they are likely to argue that they accurately rate their agents according to actual performance and are stringent in keeping bias out of the process.
While these managers may believe this to be true, recent research has found that bias actually plays more of a role in these assessments than even managers know. This study was done by a professor at MIT’s (News - Alert) Sloan School of Management.
“Gender, Race and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers,” found that despite being in the same job with the same supervisor and even receiving the same performance ratings, white men tend to receive higher bonuses than minorities.
To complete this study, this professor examined 9,000 exempt and nonexempt nonmanagement employees at a U.S. company with a workforce of more than 20,000. The process included comparing white male and minority employees who were in the same job and work unit. These individuals also had the same supervisor and experience and education levels.
Even with these similarities, Asian-American employees received bonuses that were 2.9 percent lower than those of their white male counterparts. The study also found that African-Americans received bonuses that were 2.4 percent lower and women received bonuses that were 2.1 percent lower.
Unfortunately, the organization that was examined in this study had the training and environment in place to ensure that managers were fair and diligent about how they set performance ratings. When managers’ supervisors were determined compensation based on those ratings, bias appears to place a part.
The tendency for managers to take more than actual performance into evaluations – even when they don’t intend to – they put themselves and the company at risk for lawsuits. If this research is any example of what happens in the average company, a different process may be needed.
Workforce management solutions can help to take the bias out of evaluations and bonuses in the contact center. When these workforce management solutions are in place, actual contact center agent performance in captured for assessments that are based purely on job-related activities and bias can be left out.
Monet Software is one workforce management solutions provider that aims to deliver solutions that fit within the demands of the contact center and protect the organization from biased decisions and actions. Workforce management ensures that actions can be based on captured information within the system. In addition, agents can track their own performance and contribute to setting expected standards.
While there is no one solution that fits every environment, workforce management solutions can go a long way to help the contact center ensure biases are kept out of critical processes for driving productivity.
While these managers may believe this to be true, recent research has found that bias actually plays more of a role in these assessments than even managers know. This study was done by a professor at MIT’s (News - Alert) Sloan School of Management.
“Gender, Race and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers,” found that despite being in the same job with the same supervisor and even receiving the same performance ratings, white men tend to receive higher bonuses than minorities.
To complete this study, this professor examined 9,000 exempt and nonexempt nonmanagement employees at a U.S. company with a workforce of more than 20,000. The process included comparing white male and minority employees who were in the same job and work unit. These individuals also had the same supervisor and experience and education levels.
Even with these similarities, Asian-American employees received bonuses that were 2.9 percent lower than those of their white male counterparts. The study also found that African-Americans received bonuses that were 2.4 percent lower and women received bonuses that were 2.1 percent lower.
Unfortunately, the organization that was examined in this study had the training and environment in place to ensure that managers were fair and diligent about how they set performance ratings. When managers’ supervisors were determined compensation based on those ratings, bias appears to place a part.
The tendency for managers to take more than actual performance into evaluations – even when they don’t intend to – they put themselves and the company at risk for lawsuits. If this research is any example of what happens in the average company, a different process may be needed.
Workforce management solutions can help to take the bias out of evaluations and bonuses in the contact center. When these workforce management solutions are in place, actual contact center agent performance in captured for assessments that are based purely on job-related activities and bias can be left out.
Monet Software is one workforce management solutions provider that aims to deliver solutions that fit within the demands of the contact center and protect the organization from biased decisions and actions. Workforce management ensures that actions can be based on captured information within the system. In addition, agents can track their own performance and contribute to setting expected standards.
While there is no one solution that fits every environment, workforce management solutions can go a long way to help the contact center ensure biases are kept out of critical processes for driving productivity.