HR professional Samantha Kiper suggests reevaluating the review process: “We tried to stop using a number rating system and have an open-ended documentation section for a review of general performance, strengths, improvements, and goal setting.” She notes that you can also be more clear about what ratings mean. “We had some managers who really did not want to give up a rating system, so we also offer just a 1-3 rating scale to try to get it a little more even, and then we focus on working with managers on the definition of those ratings. If we’ve defined it as the top 10% of the peer group, their whole group should not have threes.”