Subjective vs. Objective Feedback: What's the Best Balance in Performance Reviews?

Performance management can be difficult to nail down for many business leaders. Many CEOs believe that their company’s employee review process isn’t helpful in identifying exceptional talent, and only 20% of employees agree that their performance is managed in a way that encourages them to do outstanding work.

While there may be a number of reasons for these sentiments among corporate leadership and employees, one thing is clear: everyone can benefit from better feedback. One way for managers to improve the employee review process is to master the balance between subjective and objective feedback.

Get ready to improve your employee performance reviews by learning what these types of feedback entail and how to provide them in a way that actually moves employees toward better performance.

Subjective vs. Objective Feedback

Objective and subjective both describe the perspective feedback or information is coming from. Objective feedback comes from a perspective based on facts. It’s impartial and can be backed up by verifiable evidence.

Subjective feedback is based on or influenced by personal opinions and feelings. Although it may incorporate facts, it’s shaped by individual thoughts and preferences.

How to Be Objective in a Performance Review

Managers and supervisors should remain objective when evaluating employee performance and delivering a performance review. Because objective performance reviews are based on facts instead of feelings, they’re much fairer to employees and ensure that everyone is evaluated according to the same standards.

Objective performance reviews also allow managers to help employees set concrete goals based on measurable performance. This is challenging to do with subjective feedback because feelings and opinions are constantly changing and difficult to measure.

Here are some tips for conducting an objective employee performance review

• Document the key points before the meeting starts and review them to ensure they’re unbiased and based on facts.
• Have HR managers or department leads develop uniform review criteria so that all employees in similar roles are being evaluated on the same metrics.
• Focus on quantitative and clearly observable data, such as sales targets or the number of missed deadlines.

Objective Language Examples

Objective language can always be backed up with provable facts:

• “I notice you missed 12 milestone deadlines in the last six months.”
• “You’ve exceeded your sales target this month by 15%. Congratulations!”
• “I see you haven’t been able to produce a structurally sound wireframe for any of our website projects. I’d like to send you to a training next week to help you learn that skill.”

Using professional, objective language helps ensure that employees walk away with valuable insight they can use to improve future performance.

When to Use Subjective Feedback in a Performance Review

While objective feedback is certainly useful, subjective feedback also has its place in a performance review. Not everything can be measured objectively. Some performance elements, such as communication skills, active listening skills, collaboration, and engagement, can’t be quantified and must be subjectively observed.

Ways to incorporate subjective feedback into your performance reviews include:

• Focus on observations. Simply offer concrete examples of your observations without providing an opinion. For example, you may have observed an employee help a colleague with a problem every day for the last two weeks, and that may constitute progress toward a teamwork goal.
• Cite specific examples. Refrain from offering criticism without a clear example to back it up, as this simply comes across as a negative opinion.
• Don't use absolutes. Avoid using the words “always” and “never.”
• Avoid making assumptions. Don’t speculate about an employee’s feelings or intentions. Instead, ask how they're feeling and create a safe environment for them to open up.
• Focus on the individual. Steer clear of personal biases in your performance reviews by not comparing employees to one another.

Subjective Language Examples

Subjective language should be backed up with examples instead of opinions:

• “I see you’re more collaborative with the team. Your colleagues have said that no email has gone unanswered, and I’ve seen you helping newer colleagues at least three times this week.”
• “I’ve noticed more engagement from you lately. You’ve raised your hand to participate in our last three meetings. We appreciate the creative ideas you share.”

Subjective language like this can make your performance reviews personal without sacrificing the professional, but it’s important to use it in a constructive manner.

Beware of Bias in Performance Reviews

We’re all human, which means we’re all prone to subjectivity—there’s no way around it. Even the most data-driven performance reviews are subject to bias. But subjectivity doesn’t have to be a problem when measuring and managing performance in your organization. You just have to understand how to work with it.

Open-Ended Questions

Instead of asking employees and managers to rate each other on a scale from one to 10, figure out simple, open-ended questions that get to the heart of the matter. Numbers should be reserved for those things you can measure objectively—phone calls made, reports completed, articles written, and the like.

Abstract qualities like an employee’s value to your company or their time management are more difficult to measure with precise numbers.

At BambooHR, we provide our managers with questions that require some self-reflection. For example, we don’t ask managers how valuable each employee is to the company. Instead, we ask them to finish this phrase: “If [Employee Name] got a job offer elsewhere, I would…”.

This open-ended question helps managers consider in real terms how they feel about different employees. And since people are much better at judging their own feelings rather than someone else’s performance, the information we get using this method is more valuable and accurate. Subjectivity works for us instead of against us.

By looking at responses to these types of subjective questions, you can get to the information that really matters, like employee engagement, performance strengths, and opportunities for improvement. After all, your performance management system isn’t about numbers—it’s about people. And when you focus on your people, success is sure to follow.

360-Degree Reviews

Also known as multi-source or multi-rater reviews, this type of feedback incorporates perspectives from everyone who works with an employee, including supervisors, teammates, vendors, customers, and direct reports.

While you may not use this method to determine an employee’s pay or give them a final performance score, having feedback from various sources can help you identify your biases regarding a particular employee and ensure your assessments are balanced and fair.