What is the Private Manager Assessment (PMA)?

What is the Private Manager Assessment?

The Private Manager Assessment is part of manager reviews in 15Five. It uses five research-backed, future-focused questions, inspired by Deloitte research and highlighted in the Harvard Business Review article Reinventing Performance Management. These questions are designed to reduce bias and provide a fairer, more objective view of employee performance and promotion readiness over time.

By answering these questions, managers can ground their responses in observable behaviors and results, creating more consistent and reliable assessments that better support growth and decision-making.


Why it matters

Research shows that humans are naturally biased and often struggle to give fully objective performance ratings. Traditional assessments tend to reflect more about the rater than the actual performance of the person being rated β€” this is known as idiosyncratic rater bias.

The Private Manager Assessment reduces this bias by asking managers what actions they would take regarding an employee (e.g., promote, reward, retain), rather than what they think about that employee. Since managers are more consistent when rating their own intentions than another person’s traits, these questions provide a more accurate lens for performance and promotion decisions.

With the Private Manager Assessment, managers are encouraged to ground their answers in observable behaviors and results to ensure fair, evidence-based assessments over time.


The five Private Manager Assessment questions

When completing a manager review, you’ll see these five future-focused questions:

  • [Name] is ready for a promotion today. (Yes/No)

  • [Name] is at risk for low performance. (Yes/No)

  • Given what I know of [Name]’s current performance, and if it were my money, I would award them the highest possible increase and bonus. (Strongly disagree β†’ Strongly agree)

  • Given how well I know [Name] works with others, I would always want them on my team. (Strongly disagree β†’ Strongly agree)

  • Given what I know of [Name]’s performance, if [Name] got a job offer somewhere else, I would feel: (Relieved, Accepting, Neutral, Anxious, Distressed)


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