Last year I posted an entry in this blog that discussed the flaws of a stacked ranking performance management system. (See “Grading on a Curve: Does it Work?” posted o8/07/2012. ) Stacked ranking was popularized by Jack Welch of GE and was in use at Microsoft. With stacked ranking at Microsoft, employees were ranked from 1 to 5, with the person who ranked 5 in the group at risk for reassignment or dismissal. This tended to encourage competition, rather than collaboration, and did not address the issue of all five members of the group being top performers that Microsoft would like to retain.
In July Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a new corporate strategy “Microsoft One” to better align its products and services. In mid-November they announced to employees that they were eliminating stacked ranking in favor of a new performance management system to emphasize teamwork and collaboration, and better and more frequent performance feedback to employees. Supervisors will also have more flexibility with bonuses. This system is said to be more in line with “Microsoft One.”
The timing of this was interesting since one of my clients at Microsoft was at risk of a low ranking this year. She is a hard working, talented and committed employee and we are thrilled with the timing of this change.
NOV
About the Author:
Deborah Brown (Debbie) founded Atlanta based D&B Consulting, Inc. in 1993 to provide executive career and leadership coaching, and executive career transitions and outplacement services to organizations and individuals. She is a Master Practitioner of the MBTI personality assessment and a Certified Social + Emotional Intelligence Coach® through the Institute of Social + Emotional Intelligence® of Denver, Colorado. Debbie earned the SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification.