Behaviorally anchored rating scales for animal workers: Advancing inclusive assessment

In response to the focal article by Hernandez et al. (2025), which raises compelling ethical considerations for recognizing animals as workers, this commentary highlights a critical gap: the lack of standardized tools to measure animal performance in occupational roles.Unlike human workers, whose performance and well-being are assessed using structured assessments and surveys, animal labor remains largely unmeasured by job-specific behavioral tools.Research highlights persistent challenges in measuring animal behavior, particularly a lack of reliable and valid tools, as well as inconsistent terminology-issues that are especially evident in working dog evaluations but are applicable across species (Brady et al., 2018).To extend I-O psychology principles to animal workers, structured tools such as Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) can be adapted to measure performance in occupational roles objectively.BARS are performance-appraisal tools that associate each numerical rating with specific, observable examples of on-the-job behavior, representing different levels of effectiveness for the evaluated dimension (Smith & Kendall, 1963).They use job-specific behavioral anchors to depict observable actions that support feedback, reduce bias, and enhance objectivity by standardizing behavioral observations (Schwab et al., 1975). Potential advantages of BARS over existing animal evaluationsExpanding the principles of industrial-organizational psychology to address the demands of animal workers requires precise and standardized tools to measure job-specific behaviors.Currently, most animal evaluations rely on generalized temperament scales or anecdotal checklists, which capture traits such as aggression or fearfulness without directly linking them to specific occupational tasks (Tetley & O'Hara, 2012;Kaiser & Mller, 2021).As these tools remain overly generalized or anecdotal, they lack the precision, clarity, and standardization required to evaluate performance and welfare within discrete roles (Debnath et al., 2015).For instance, the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) effectively assesses aggression and fear in dogs.However, it does not provide explicit connections to job performance criteria (Serpell & Hsu, 2001).Similarly, the Horse Grimace Scale identifies pain responses in horses under stress but does not explicitly measure occupational task performance (Dalla Costa et al., 2014).BARS offer a meaningful advancement in performance measurement because they directly link observable, job-specific behaviors to clearly defined performance anchors.By anchoring ratings to explicit behavioral examples, BARS significantly reduce subjective interpretation and bias, thereby