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Criteria and Approaches: Traits, Behaviors, and Results
Human Resources Management · Chapter 6: Reviewing Employee Performance: Methods, Tools, and FeedbackSection 6.2 · lesson 37 of 9116 min · free with a free account
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In this lesson
Choose what matters for the job before choosing the appraisal instrument.
- Distinguish the 3 families of performance criteria
- Diagnose contamination, deficiency, and relevance
- Translate vague competencies into observable work
- Choose a role-specific mix and anticipate unwanted incentives
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Chapter 6
Traits, Behaviors, and Results
A performance criterion is the dimension along which work is judged, before choosing a rating instrument. It determines what employees are encouraged to do. Its influence goes beyond how the form describes them. Traits infer personal qualities, while behaviors describe actions and results describe the outputs of work. Each family has strengths and limitations, which must match the actual role being evaluated. Contamination captures unrelated influence in the measure. Deficiency misses contribution that matters to the job's requirements. Relevance is the part of the measure that genuinely captures the performance being judged. A competency framework can define behavior, or disguise vague traits beneath elaborate descriptions and levels. Mix results and behaviors according to individual control, shared work, delay, and safety in the role. Calder's fictional dispute illustrates why character labels are harder to resolve than specific work evidence. The final exercise examines technicians rewarded for completed jobs, even when their repairs remain unfinished.
3 Families
A Criterion Is the Dimension Being Judged
The criterion is what the rating concerns. The instrument is how that judgment is recorded. A five-point scale does not become job-related merely because managers recognize its familiar scoring format. Traits infer qualities such as dependable, proactive, professional, or a team player, from observed conduct. They appear across unrelated jobs, because a single inherited form seems convenient for administrative use. Behavior criteria identify actions, such as confirming load contents against an order before vehicle release. Other examples include acknowledging a complaint promptly, or documenting a design decision before its implementation. Results identify outputs, such as completed units, revenue, or closed cases. Error rate and the percentage of on-time deliveries are further examples. These families ask different questions, so their scores are not interchangeable accounts of an employee's contribution. Start with job requirements, then choose criteria representing the work and outcomes that actually matter. Only afterward select an instrument, preventing a template's vocabulary from deciding what performance means for everyone.
Trait Criteria
A Label Needs Evidence and an Actionable Meaning
Traits appeal because they are quick to write, broadly reusable, and familiar to managers describing employees. Nobody directly sees dependability; they observe arrival times and completed commitments, then infer that quality. Different raters can infer different qualities from identical conduct, particularly when the evidence is ambiguous. That gap can admit bias, including expectations formed before the current work is actually examined. An early impression of unprofessional conduct may persist, shaping the interpretation of later ambiguous events. Be more proactive provides no specific action. Raising a schedule risk before disruption gives an instruction. Three overdue orders not escalated, with dates, supplies evidence that can be examined and discussed. Lacks initiative does not provide the same clarity, unless the label is operationalized through relevant conduct. Fit and commitment can conceal irrelevant assumptions about people, including protected characteristics or their circumstances. Use job-related evidence and appropriate legal expertise; a trait label is not automatically unlawful by itself.
Behavior Criteria
Specify the Required Work Without Freezing Every Method
Behavior criteria name observable actions, making consistent judgments easier when trained raters assess the same work. They supply coachable content, because the employee can understand what to do differently next time. Raise the schedule risk during planning gives action and timing, missing from be more proactive. Derive the action from job analysis, rather than adopt a manager's unsupported preference about working methods. Performing listed activities may still miss contribution to the work. Prescribed methods can also suppress effective variation. Changed circumstances can make an activity less useful, even when the employee performs it faithfully. Experienced employees may achieve better results through an appropriate method that differs from the documented checklist. Specify what must be accomplished and why, instead of freezing an unnecessary sequence into the rating. Confirming contents against the order states a purpose; one particular checklist may unnecessarily restrict the method. Review criteria when work changes, allowing appropriate variation while maintaining safety and other applicable requirements.
Results Criteria
A Precise Count Can Still Misrepresent Contribution
Results connect directly to desired output, and different observers can read the same reported number consistently. Agreement about that number does not establish how much contribution belongs to the individual employee. Attribution is the first limitation of results criteria. Territory, stock, prices, and demand affect sales alongside individual skill and effort. Machine reliability and incoming material likewise affect production, even when employees perform equally well in different circumstances. Displacement is the second limitation, because uncounted work competes against activities earning visible output credit. Mentoring and fault documentation may lose priority, despite making useful contributions to the organization's overall performance. Means-blindness is the third limitation of results criteria. The count does not establish how the outcome was achieved. Skipping a safety step can earn the same throughput credit as careful work meeting the requirements. A closed sale may create service problems; a closed case may never have been genuinely resolved. Retain useful results, while addressing attribution, missing contribution, and unacceptable methods within the overall evaluation design.
2 Measurement Failures
Distinguish What Is Missing From What Does Not Belong
Consider a customer-service representative measured only by calls handled per hour, without other work evidence. Actual contribution includes coaching colleagues, detecting recurring faults, handling distressed callers, and leaving accurate case notes. When the count misses these contributions, the omitted portion is criterion deficiency relative to the job. The number also reflects call mix, system conditions, and whether teammates absorbed difficult calls that day. Those influences contaminate a judgment attributing every raw-volume difference to the individual representative's own performance. Relevance is the overlap, where the measure genuinely captures call-handling work belonging to that employee's contribution. The diagram separates the three conceptual regions. Their sizes do not represent measured amounts or precise proportions. Both failures can occur even when the reported number is accurate, because interpretation is the problem. Removing outside influence does not automatically capture mentoring, quality, or other contributions omitted from the measure. Ask both questions: what relevant work is missing, and what unrelated influence has entered this judgment?
Measurement Trade-Off
More Counting Does Not Automatically Repair Missing Quality
Contamination is influence in the measure that does not belong to the employee's relevant performance. Deficiency is relevant contribution left out, including useful work not counted by the instrument being used. Relevance is the genuine match, between performance being judged and the measure used to judge it. Precise definitions identify the needed measurement correction. They move beyond a general complaint that everything seems unfair. Another volume count does not automatically capture quality, collaboration, or a problem that was prevented. A different criterion may be needed, instead of repeatedly collecting more of the same narrow information. Restricting sales measurement to fully controlled activities can omit shared outcomes that still matter to the role. Broadening it to total revenue captures more outcomes, while also admitting territory and other outside influences. State the accepted limitation, explaining what contextual evidence or additional criteria keep the interpretation appropriately bounded. Seek a useful and transparent judgment, rather than promise perfect measurement with no omissions or outside influence.
A Balanced Mix
Use Outcomes and Work Evidence Together
A balanced approach combines outcomes with behaviors that make those outcomes acceptable and sustainable in practice. Results ask whether the outcome occurred in the period. Behaviors ask whether relevant process and conduct expectations were met. Behavioral evidence can explain what to do differently, when an outcome falls short of its target. Translate pure labels into observable meaning, rather than retain them merely because they sound administratively convenient. Weight results more where individual control is substantial, and the outcome is cleanly measured over an appropriate period. Weight behaviors more for shared, delayed, externally influenced, or safety-sensitive work, where methods particularly matter. This is a reasoning principle, rather than a universal percentage split for every job in every organization. Behavior measures can reward literal conformity to a list. Ask whether the action still serves its intended purpose. Results can omit important work; ask what an employee would sacrifice to improve the counted number. Document the mix, reviewing its role-specific risks as changing work makes criteria deficient or easier to distort.
Competency Frameworks
A Level Description Should Say What the Person Does
A competency framework organizes required capabilities, often describing what each looks like at several levels. Its measurement value depends on the descriptions, rather than the existence of tables and level numbers. Observable work definitions function as behavior criteria, inheriting their strengths and limitations in the appraisal process. Two managers can review shared evidence, asking whether the action at that level actually occurred. Resilience or strategic mindset remains a trait if the description only renames a personal quality. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced labels do not automatically make that quality observable or consistently assessable. Ask whether the description states what the employee does, specifically enough to support an evidence-based judgment. Then test its job relevance, using analysis of the role rather than an inherited organizational slogan. It supports development when it gives a concrete action, with evidence showing what change would look like. An elaborate label without an action is less useful. Formal appearance alone does not establish rigor in measurement.
4 Role Examples
Control, Delay, and Safety Determine the Mix
Warehouse work combines measurable output with safety risks, because speed can be gained by skipping steps. Use throughput and accuracy alongside safety behaviors, so increased volume does not excuse an unacceptable method. Field sales emphasizes results, but territory and stock complicate direct attribution of revenue to individual contribution. Add pipeline discipline and post-sale handover, capturing controllable work that a pure revenue measure can displace. Team software work emphasizes review participation, documentation, and risk escalation, because shared decisions shape overall output. Team results provide context, without automatically attributing the entire team's outcome to each individual's own contribution. Research can take years to produce meaningful results. Short-period measures may reward safe projects instead of worthwhile but uncertain work. Emphasize process and behavior, assessing meaningful results over an appropriately longer horizon for the actual work. These examples illustrate reasoning, rather than immutable rules for every warehouse, engineer, or scientist in every organization. Ask how someone could score well undesirably; decide which criterion closes that route and what risk remains.
Composite Case
Calder’s Attitude Rating Could Not Resolve the Work Dispute
At fictional Calder Instruments, Priya has four years' service. The form rates six qualities on a five-point scale. She receives two out of five for attitude and cooperation, blocking her eligibility for a merit increase. Her supervisor describes negativity and resistance, offering a general impression and two incidents he cannot date. Priya's written objections identified rework from two new procedures, raising a real concern about handling problems. The supervisor may also have a real concern, but a character label cannot resolve the work dispute. HR recommends withdrawing unsupported ratings, replacing them with relevant behaviors and evidence gathered throughout the year. Examples include raising technical objections through an agreed route, and confirming actions after a meeting. The trade-off removes convenient shorthand, requiring specific observations rather than accumulated impressions about the employee's character. Check safety or other protected activity, involving counsel when the objections raise potential retaliation issues. A reporting criterion must not suppress protected reports; redesign improves measurement without guaranteeing every legal issue is resolved.
Reverse Problem
Completed Jobs Do Not Necessarily Mean Resolved Problems
The reverse problem rates roadside-assistance technicians only on jobs completed per shift, at a fictional company. First-time fixes fall and repeat visits rise, while two technicians close jobs before the vehicle runs. The criterion is deficient relative to the actual job. Raw completions miss repair quality, truthful closure, and whether the problem was resolved. Job complexity, available resources, and other outside conditions can contaminate interpretation of the technician's raw volume. Premature closure shows means-blindness, earning counted credit through a method that defeats the company's intended outcome. Add quality evidence and resolution confirmation, rather than accept the completion entry as sufficient proof of success. Specify closing behaviors, while examining context and attribution when comparing technicians working on different assignments. Verification and better records cost time, potentially lowering counted throughput as incomplete jobs lose completion credit. That trade-off improves the judgment, rather than preserve a superficially impressive number at the expense of actual repair. The next section examines instruments carrying these criteria, after deciding what performance should mean for the role.
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Human Resources Management (Business 306) is a self-paced online course of 91 video lessons in 12 chapters, from what HR does and how jobs are designed to hiring, training, performance reviews, pay and benefits, safety, employment law, unions, global staffing and remote work. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.
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