Expectations May Be Unrealistic

For employees to be satisfied with a pay for performance system, "they have to believe that their performance is fairly and accurately rated and that their supervisors and managers will treat them fairly in pay decisions. Unfortunately, employees may not be able to accurately assess their own performance, a fact that makes it difficult for them to accept lower, but perhaps more realistic performance ratings by their supervisors," the report said, noting that seven out of 10 employees rated their own performance more highly than that of their work unit and only 1 percent viewed their performance as below average. "These findings suggest that most employees have high expectations regarding the kind of performance ratings they deserve. This situation creates a challenge when there is a potential mismatch between supervisor ratings and employee expectations," MSPB said.