← HR Metrics·Performance & Development
Average Performance Rating
Mean performance rating across all employees
How it’s computed
AVG(performance_rating)
What the evidence shows
Evidence (effect sizes, priors, validity) is syncing from Principia.
What this metric can show you
Average Performance Rating can tell roughly 23 pre-built stories — each a designed scene the data either confirms or it doesn’t. Bring your numbers and the Story Finder runs every one of these shapes against them.
specific to performance & development
It's two companies, split by manager
leadership-quality · T1
Most are fine — a tail is struggling
engagement · T1
The system isn't differentiating
measurement-health · T1
You've quietly stopped promoting from within
development-mobility · T1
Your ratings are compressing
performance · T1
universal shapes — any single metric can take these
A few large values are doing the talking
any focus · T1
A one-time event, not a trend
any focus · T1
It doesn't track — the premise is false
any focus · T1
It's concentrated — one group stands apart
any focus · T1
Scenes are pre-built; your data is the toggle. Browse the full deck or watch one play end-to-end in The Quiet Exodus.
Run it on your data
This metric is computed in the People Analytics Toolbox on your own numbers. See pricing — posted, no quotes.
sources: toolbox:metrics-catalog
What the literature says
The measurement literature behind this signal — sourced, so you can defend it.
“This means the rating isn’t reliable. And if she gets a 3.3 when she’s really a 3.2, then the rating also isn’t valid—it doesn’t reflect reality.” The ratings, therefore, really should have been, as Megan put it, “banded by error,” meaning that we should have told people, “Jim,…”
— Work Rules! (Laszlo Bock)match 57%
“Teams that are grossly out of alignment stand out, and the few major initiatives that touch everyone are easy enough to manage directly. So far, so good! Measuring performance Until 2013, every Googler received a performance rating score at the end of each quarter. The 41-point…”
— Work Rules! (Laszlo Bock)match 57%
“Many organizations today favor not only fewer performance rating levels, but also nonquantified ratings systems. Although it may be tempting to view performance management as an objective and precise process that can be weighted and scored, in most cases it is a subjective…”
— Worldatwork Handbook Compensationmatch 56%
Resources: Work Rules! (Laszlo Bock) · Worldatwork Handbook Compensation