Today, we understand these shortcuts in thinking more as intuition or common sense. However, intuition may not always be right, which is a fact we tend to forget. Darcy Jacobsen, Globoforce marketing manager, writes about this phenomenon in an interesting article on humancapitalleague.com. She pointed out five types of "cognitive biases", the psychological term for thinking in too simplified a way, in relation to HR management in companies.
1. Recruitment-related biases
A typical reason for high employee turnover. The human brain has a tendency to think that positive characteristics are clustered together. That is why, e.g., physically attractive job candidates look more talented, intelligent, and capable than less attractive candidates. Statistics clearly show that attractive candidates are hired more often. Should you really trust your first impression?
2. Change-related biases
We all know it. Employees tend not to change the status quo, even if facts demonstrate a need for change. We have a natural tendency to think that the way "things have always be done" is the best. How can you fight against this? By persistent communication.
3. Evaluation-related biases
Employees usually hate performance evaluations and often they have a good reason. Managers tend to evaluate only what they remember from the recent past. An employee who has just had a busy month with many failures is therefore at a significant disadvantage. Do you lead your managers to evaluate employees from a long-term perspective?
4. Group-related biases
Individual teams or even whole departments are often divided into "we and them", and of course "we" are better. What can you do about this? Choose building relationships and a company-wide culture.
5. Subordinates-related biases
We all tend to disregard information with which we disagree. On the contrary, we notice the information we believe in more. This can be dangerous, especially for managers who only tend to see the good in their employees. This is another good reason HR should provide them with as objective data as possible on employee performance.
-Kk-