Staff appraisal and performance management

Performance appraisal is another area where employers are frequently in danger of discriminating against staff with protected characteristics, especially where the decision affects pay. The EHRC warns that devolving decisions on performance that directly affect pay to individual managers creates a “high risk” of discriminatory outcomes, especially when success criteria are vague and open to subjective interpretation.

Unions have fought several successful campaigns to challenge discriminatory pay and performance management practices. For example, in 2015-16, the civil service unions, working together, combined academic research into the civil service’s own diversity data with membership surveys to show that black, disabled, older and part-time workers were more likely to receive a “Must Improve” rating and less likely to receive the highest “Exceed” rating. The campaign resulted in positive change across the civil service.

Reasonable adjustments should be made to any performance management procedure (including the decision whether to invoke the procedure at all) to accommodate disability.