Do you believe forced performance rankings are detrimental to employee engagement?

Would you rather work for Yahoo or Microsoft? 

Forced Rankings

 

Two articles written on the same day examine the road to forced rankings (Yahoo) and away from forced ranking (Microsoft).

At Yahoo:

Several months after the great work-at-home kerfuffle of 2013, Yahoo employees were up in arms about a new policy that forces managers to rank employees on a bell curve, then fire those at the low end. According to AllThingsD, Marissa Mayer reportedly told Yahoo workers that the rankings weren’t mandatory, but many people disagree. (Business Week November 12)

At Microsoft – Microsoft’s HR chief Lisa Brummel wrote a letter about the end of both ranking and ratings:

No more curve. We will continue to invest in a generous rewards budget, but there will no longer be a pre-determined targeted distribution.  Managers and leaders will have flexibility to allocate rewards in the manner that best reflects the performance of their teams and individuals, as long as they stay within their compensation budget. (The Verge November 12)

These are uncertain times for performance and engagement. It is interesting to see us go in both directions at once. Where do you stand on the role of ratings and rankings for performance management and what do you believe would be best for employee engagement? Would you rather work for Yahoo or Microsoft?

David Zinger Employee Engagement Speaker

David Zinger is an employee engagement speaker and expert who does not like to be forced to do anything but always tries to perform at his best!

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