In the past few decades, several countries have passed laws prohibiting discrimination based on several factors such as race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.

Taken together, these laws aim at forcing organizations to implement performance management systems that are applied consistently to all employees, regardless of demographic characteristics. Although these laws are not enforced to the same degree throughout the world, their collective goal is that performance management systems focus on measuring performance by assessing job-related factors.

It is important to allow employees to participate in the design and implementation of the system because it leads to the design of systems viewed as fair. Fairness and lawfulness do not necessarily go hand in hand, but systems that are fair are less likely to be challenged on legal grounds.