Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale – Importance and Meaning - HRMantra HR Software

8-11 minutes

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales, or BARS, are a way to rate success that uses both emotional and numeric factors. It uses specific, visible examples of behavior to rate a person''s success on a number of different factors. BARS is different from other scoring scale mechanisms in providing definite behavioral examples at different performance levels. This feature of the technique very clearly helps to render the judgment objective and clear. The method connects vague characteristics of performance with actual actions that make appraisals fair and accurate. BARS is one of the most commonly used in assessing the employee''s performance since it makes the whole process objective and enables offering a lot of comments for being helpful based on the acts and outcome being visible. This makes the whole process of assessing to be open and consistent.

Table of content

• Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)
• Behaviorally anchored rating scale advantages
• Behaviorally anchored rating scale disadvantages
• Behaviorally anchored rating scale method of performance appraisal.
• BARS performance assessment
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Advantages of Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) are the following:

• Improved Feedback: BReceiving T is always easier, where reading B is the corrective feedback. BARS link levels of success toward anchored specific action. This will help guide the workers toward identifying where they have strength and weakness in skills, which will be for personal development.
• Fairness: It insists on the use of behavioral markers that ensure fairness and consistency of the ratings as different raters use the same sets of behaviors in rating success.
• Useful for teaching: BARS can be used as a teaching machine that can be instrumental in making workers quickly comprehend the actions that are necessary for different success levels, panning the way for skills enhancement.
• Less vagueness: Traditional ordering is vague, and that creates ambiguity. BARS minimizes the confusion of ambiguity by anchoring ratings of performance through real behaviorsthissees the appraisal procedure less leading on.
• Establishing goals and increasing motivation: BARS gives a very clear picture, and hence workers can formulate definite objectives to be achieved through improvement. This increases motivation and makes the workplace goal-aimed.
• Legal Defensibility: BARS can be more defensible in court compared to other appraisal methods since they rate performance in a more detailed and fact-based manner, which eliminates the possibility of arbitrary or capricious judgment.

Disadvantages of behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS)

In spite of the many benefits associated with BARS, there are dependency disadvantages:

• Subjectivity in Development: Even though BARS should be more objective, it is still based on the opinions of the people developing the behavioral bases.
• Rater Training: in the development, the raters must be trained on how to use BARS accordingly since learning and using the behavioral anchors correctly requires one to know the standards and guidelines for every level.
• Not very flexible: Once it is set up, BARS may not be as much adaptable as other ways of evaluating. If job roles or the goals of the organization change, the behavioral supports may need to be changed, and in most cases, this becomes a hassle.
• Experience: The application of BARS becomes difficult in vast organizations that house a large number of jobs. Thus, sometimes it becomes impossible to keep the behavioral supports similar for all the jobs.
• Change Adaption: The managers and the employees who have been working with standard rate scales may oppose the adoption of the BARS. This may thus prove more challenging for the individuals from being acceptable and may leave the people unsatisfied with the BARS system.
• Too Much Weight On Observed Behaviors: A BARS may weight the actions that can be seen too heavily. Not Enough Attention Paid to Context: Along similar lines, it may not pay enough attention to those things in the environment could impinge performance but not actually be directly treated on in the scale.

The approach to the performance review of Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) is a planned procedure that integrates emotional and numeric considerations during the rating of a person''s work. The steps involved in the BARS process are given below:

1. List the most important responsibilities and aspects of the position: List the most important responsibilities and performance standards for the part that is being reviewed. Find the most important behavioral indicators that go with each measure.
2. Query the experts in the field: Interview knowledgeable people in the subject, such as managers and people who do the work, to understand what habits are associated with high and low performance.
3. Develop Behavioral Anchors: For each level of performance, including inefficient and effective, create a list of behavioral anchors. Describe observable behaviors that illustrate each level of performance for each metric.
4. Develop the BARS Scale: Arrange the behavioral anchors in a manner such that they look like a grade scale in a grid or table. There ought to be rows for the performance indicators and columns for the performance values on the scale.
5. Train Reviewers: Train supervisors and managers on how to use the BARS scale. This involves knowledge of the behavioral anchors and considerable practice in observation of people.
6. Performance Monitoring: During the work period, the supervisors observe the subordinates in those behaviors that are identified as crucial to the defined dimensions and maintain descriptive records of the critical incidents.
7. Evaluation Meetings: Have frequent evaluation meetings where examples of good work done by employees could be discussed and documented. This means the feedback is progressive and not held back only for the stipulated time of evaluation.
8. COMPILING AND SEEING DATA: Obtain ratings on every employee from more than one individual and add up the ratings to measure their entire performance. After the demonstration of behaviors, examine the data to identify the acquired level of success for every measure.
9. Comment upon the success comments by BARS. Share habits, heights of achievement, and the ways the things had to be improvised on. Inspire all employees to speak among themselves and set goals regarding the future improvement process.
10. Base Decisions on the Data: Use the generated data on BARS to make decisions regarding promotions, pay raises, training needs, and other staff activities of interest.

BARS Performance Appraisal

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale, known as BARS, is a way of rating success with both emotional and numeric factors. This involves providing specific behavioral indicators to arrive at the various success levels, then engaging in creating a scale that will be in line with the fulfillment of the job''s duties. Expert advice and talks on the subject serve in the setting of the behavioral boundaries which in turn see to the accuracy of this method. The rater training in this case, teaches the managers to observe and note what the employee does, and has to write everything down. The constant review meeting facilitates constant feedback; thus the concept of constant touch is emphasized. To acquire the full explanation of success, more than one rater''s data is brought together. The data from the BARS come in handy during the selection of raises, awards, and training needs. The method stays useful because job roles and company goals change with regular reviewing and improvements. Therefore, in conclusion, BARS make performance appraisal more objective, open, and fair, which helps employees understand what is expected of them and grow.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) stands to be a robust performance assessment tool, combining specificity and objectiveness. By definition, since BARS is behavioral based, it reduces the level of subjectivity, increases transparency, and promotes the employee''s ability to develop. Due to its structure when it is implemented properly, it increases the level of performance appraisal accuracy, while decisions on promotion and training are made more informed. Due to constant reviews and its flexible nature, BARS is continually updated and is relevant so that an employee''s performance is in line with the organization''s set goals.

FAQs

1. Give two examples in rating scales that are behavior based.

   • For talking, ""effectively articulates ideas"" (High) and ""sometimes has difficulty expressing thoughts"" (Low) can be credible behavior markers
   • ""Identifies and resolves complex issues independently"" is the problem-solving subfactor. The low subfactor is ""Needs assistance in analyzing problems.""

2. How Do You Create a Behavioral Based Rating Scale?

   • Identify the most critical job dimensions and tasks.
   • Work with subject matter experts to pinpoint observable behaviors.
   • For each success level, define specific descriptors of the behaviors.
   • Create a scoring-scale grid that defines success levels and how it will be measured
   • Offer judges a way to consistently use the scale.

3. How do I use the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale(BARS) for appraising anything?

   • Gather the data by an observation of length
   • Combine the judgments of other raters to get an improved study
   • Describe the behaviors that observed to meet the criteria of what success level should look like.
   • Use the data to make decisions on issues such as hiring and rewards
   • Periodic review and updating of the BARS to ensure that the BARS remain current.

Popular Terms