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Calibration and Alignment

Calibration is the process of aligning performance ratings across teams to ensure fairness and consistency. It prevents rating inflation or deflation and ensures similar performance is evaluated similarly.

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What calibration is

After managers write performance reviews, leadership meets to:

• Review ratings across teams
• Discuss whether ratings are consistent
• Adjust ratings to ensure fairness
• Identify high performers and those needing support

The goal is to prevent:

• Rating inflation: One manager rates everyone highly, creating unfair advantage
• Rating deflation: One manager rates harshly, penalizing their team
• Inconsistency: Similar performance receives different ratings on different teams

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Why calibration matters

Fairness Without calibration, your rating depends on your manager’s standards, not your actual performance. Consistency Calibration ensures “exceeds expectations” means the same thing across teams. Talent decisions Promotions, raises, and development opportunities should be based on consistent evaluation. Organizational visibility Calibration helps leadership see high performers and those needing support across the organization.

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How calibration works

Step 1: Managers write reviews Managers evaluate their direct reports and assign ratings. Step 2: Calibration meeting Leadership (managers and their managers) meet to review ratings:

• Present each person’s rating and justification
• Discuss whether ratings are consistent
• Compare performance across teams
• Adjust ratings if needed

Step 3: Finalize reviews After calibration, managers finalize reviews with adjusted ratings (if any). Step 4: Deliver reviews Managers share reviews with their direct reports.

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What gets discussed in calibration

Rating distribution

• Are too many people rated “exceeds expectations”?
• Are ratings normally distributed or skewed?

Consistency across teams

• Does “meets expectations” mean the same thing on different teams?
• Are managers applying standards consistently?

Justification for ratings

• What evidence supports this rating?
• Is the rating based on goals, feedback, and documented performance?

Outliers

• Why is this person rated much higher or lower than peers?
• Is the rating justified or should it be adjusted?

High performers

• Who are the strongest performers across the organization?
• Are they being recognized and developed appropriately?

Performance concerns

• Who is underperforming and needs support?
• Are performance issues being addressed?

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How Topicflow supports calibration

Comparative views Leadership can see:

• Rating distribution across teams
• Performance data for individuals
• Goals, feedback, and accomplishments side by side

Evidence-based discussions Calibration discussions reference:

• Documented goals and achievement
• Feedback from multiple sources
• Work activity from integrations
• Meeting notes and coaching history

Fair adjustments If a rating is adjusted during calibration, there’s documented context to justify it.

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Calibration challenges and solutions

Challenge: Manager defensiveness Managers may resist having ratings adjusted. Solution: Frame calibration as fairness, not criticism of the manager’s judgment. Challenge: Lack of context Calibration participants may not know everyone being discussed. Solution: Use Topicflow’s context (goals, feedback, work activity) to provide evidence. Challenge: Forced distribution Some organizations require a fixed percentage of each rating (e.g., 10% exceeds, 70% meets, 20% needs improvement). Solution: Calibration helps determine who falls into each category fairly. Challenge: Inconsistent standards Different managers have different definitions of “meets expectations.” Solution: Calibration creates alignment on what each rating means.

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Best practices for calibration

Use documented evidence Calibration should reference goals, feedback, and work activity, not impressions. Focus on consistency, not uniformity The goal isn’t to make everyone the same rating, but to ensure similar performance is rated similarly. Be willing to adjust If calibration reveals a rating is misaligned, adjust it. Explain adjustments If a rating changes after calibration, the manager should explain why to the employee. Calibrate regularly Calibration works best when done every review cycle, not just annually.

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What’s next