[Survey on Personnel Evaluation] About 80% Feel Stressed When Criteria Are 'Ambiguous'; The Trap of a Black Box System Leading to a Significant Drop in 'Satisfaction'
Professional Studio Inc. conducted a survey on personnel evaluations targeting SME employees. The results revealed that over half receive no explanation regarding their evaluations, and the ambiguity of criteria causes stress for about 80% of employees, severely impacting their satisfaction.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 14, 2026 at 19:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 14, 2026 at 10:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 19, 2026 at 18:05 (127h 33m after Collected)
Against the backdrop of severe labor shortages, employee retention and motivation have become critical challenges for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this context, the nature of 'personnel evaluation,' which directly links to daily job satisfaction and performance, is being questioned anew.
Therefore, Professional Studio Inc. (https://professional-studio.co.jp/) (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Ryutaro Ichikawa), which provides comprehensive HR support services for ventures and SMEs including the HR system design and operation IT tool 'FirstHR' (https://first-hr.jp/), conducted a survey. The survey targeted 267 regular employees aged 20 to 59 working in companies with 10 to less than 100 regular employees, to understand the operational status of evaluation systems in organizations and their impact on employee psychology.
The results of this survey showed that while an environment with opaque evaluation criteria causes stress and decreased motivation among employees, clear sharing of rules tends to greatly increase satisfaction with the evaluation.
[Main Results of This Survey]
- Over half received 'no explanation' regarding personnel evaluation; the implementation rate of dialogue via interviews remained at about 25%.
- When evaluation criteria are 'ambiguous,' about 80% experience some form of stress.
- Regarding the rate of satisfaction with their own evaluation, it is over 80% for the group that 'understands the criteria,' and only in the 10% range for the group with 'no criteria.'
*For details on the survey method and targets, please refer to the 'Survey Implementation Overview' below.
Main Survey Results
1. Over half (55.8%) receive 'no explanation' regarding personnel evaluation; interview implementation remains at 26.4%
Appropriate feedback based on personnel evaluation plays an important role in promoting employee motivation and growth. To what extent is such dialogue practiced in actual SME workplaces? We asked whether there was any communication or explanation from the company in the past year.
The highest percentage, 38.2%, answered, 'There was no communication whatsoever regarding the determination of salary and bonuses.' This result shows that about 40% are in a state of 'complete neglect,' with no communication about salary changes or evaluation results.
Also, 'The amount of salary or bonus was communicated, but there was no explanation or comment regarding the evaluation' accounted for 17.6%. Combined with the aforementioned 'no communication' group, it is 55.8%, indicating that over half of the people receive no explanation at all about their evaluation.
On the other hand, the percentage of those who received a more careful form of feedback, 'Received notification of evaluation results and had an interview (dialogue),' remained at 26.4%. This highlights the difficulty of properly operating an evaluation system and providing opportunities for dialogue with employees in SME workplaces.
2. Only 25.3% 'understand' their company's evaluation criteria; a large number of employees are in an 'ambiguous' situation
While we observed the current situation where evaluation feedback is inadequate, are the rules that form the basis of the evaluation well-known within the company? Next are the results of investigating the degree of employee understanding of their company's 'evaluation criteria' (what achievements or actions lead to a positive evaluation).
The percentage answering 'There are clear rules and I understand their content' remained at 25.3%. On the other hand, 'There seem to be rules, but I only vaguely understand the content' was 33.1%, 'There seem to be rules, but the contents are a black box (do not understand at all)' was 11.0%, and 'I think clear rules do not exist in the first place' was 23.9%.
Including those who believe rules do not exist, 68.0% of the respondents do not clearly understand the evaluation criteria. It is evident that in SMEs, a large majority of employees are placed in an 'ambiguous' situation regarding how they can be evaluated.
[Reference Data] The smaller the company size, the more 'ambiguous' the evaluation criteria tend to be
In the following graph, we aggregated the same question by the size of the affiliated company (number of regular employees) to analyze differences in the level of perception regarding the company's evaluation criteria.
The percentage answering 'There are clear rules and I understand their content' was 34.0% for companies with 50 to less than 100 regular employees, while it remained at 20.8% for companies with 10 to less than 50 employees. Also, regarding the percentage of 'I think clear rules do not exist in the first place,' it was about 10 points higher in companies with 10 to less than 50 employees. It can be said that the smaller the company, the more 'ambiguous' the evaluation criteria tend to be.
3. About 80% feel stressed when evaluation criteria are 'ambiguous'
Therefore, Professional Studio Inc. (https://professional-studio.co.jp/) (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Ryutaro Ichikawa), which provides comprehensive HR support services for ventures and SMEs including the HR system design and operation IT tool 'FirstHR' (https://first-hr.jp/), conducted a survey. The survey targeted 267 regular employees aged 20 to 59 working in companies with 10 to less than 100 regular employees, to understand the operational status of evaluation systems in organizations and their impact on employee psychology.
The results of this survey showed that while an environment with opaque evaluation criteria causes stress and decreased motivation among employees, clear sharing of rules tends to greatly increase satisfaction with the evaluation.
[Main Results of This Survey]
- Over half received 'no explanation' regarding personnel evaluation; the implementation rate of dialogue via interviews remained at about 25%.
- When evaluation criteria are 'ambiguous,' about 80% experience some form of stress.
- Regarding the rate of satisfaction with their own evaluation, it is over 80% for the group that 'understands the criteria,' and only in the 10% range for the group with 'no criteria.'
*For details on the survey method and targets, please refer to the 'Survey Implementation Overview' below.
Main Survey Results
1. Over half (55.8%) receive 'no explanation' regarding personnel evaluation; interview implementation remains at 26.4%
Appropriate feedback based on personnel evaluation plays an important role in promoting employee motivation and growth. To what extent is such dialogue practiced in actual SME workplaces? We asked whether there was any communication or explanation from the company in the past year.
The highest percentage, 38.2%, answered, 'There was no communication whatsoever regarding the determination of salary and bonuses.' This result shows that about 40% are in a state of 'complete neglect,' with no communication about salary changes or evaluation results.
Also, 'The amount of salary or bonus was communicated, but there was no explanation or comment regarding the evaluation' accounted for 17.6%. Combined with the aforementioned 'no communication' group, it is 55.8%, indicating that over half of the people receive no explanation at all about their evaluation.
On the other hand, the percentage of those who received a more careful form of feedback, 'Received notification of evaluation results and had an interview (dialogue),' remained at 26.4%. This highlights the difficulty of properly operating an evaluation system and providing opportunities for dialogue with employees in SME workplaces.
2. Only 25.3% 'understand' their company's evaluation criteria; a large number of employees are in an 'ambiguous' situation
While we observed the current situation where evaluation feedback is inadequate, are the rules that form the basis of the evaluation well-known within the company? Next are the results of investigating the degree of employee understanding of their company's 'evaluation criteria' (what achievements or actions lead to a positive evaluation).
The percentage answering 'There are clear rules and I understand their content' remained at 25.3%. On the other hand, 'There seem to be rules, but I only vaguely understand the content' was 33.1%, 'There seem to be rules, but the contents are a black box (do not understand at all)' was 11.0%, and 'I think clear rules do not exist in the first place' was 23.9%.
Including those who believe rules do not exist, 68.0% of the respondents do not clearly understand the evaluation criteria. It is evident that in SMEs, a large majority of employees are placed in an 'ambiguous' situation regarding how they can be evaluated.
[Reference Data] The smaller the company size, the more 'ambiguous' the evaluation criteria tend to be
In the following graph, we aggregated the same question by the size of the affiliated company (number of regular employees) to analyze differences in the level of perception regarding the company's evaluation criteria.
The percentage answering 'There are clear rules and I understand their content' was 34.0% for companies with 50 to less than 100 regular employees, while it remained at 20.8% for companies with 10 to less than 50 employees. Also, regarding the percentage of 'I think clear rules do not exist in the first place,' it was about 10 points higher in companies with 10 to less than 50 employees. It can be said that the smaller the company, the more 'ambiguous' the evaluation criteria tend to be.
3. About 80% feel stressed when evaluation criteria are 'ambiguous'