Fairness of Rating People against each other in the Workplace? (1 Viewer)

[Pure Energy]

It's that time of the year where employee ratings are being determined. I work at a large financial instituion and our rating system is a forced distribution system 1 - 5 (5 being best). The curve is something roughly 1s and 2s - 20%; 3s - 50%; 4s and 5s - 30%.

So far okay...but the language in the rating is something like this:

1/2 - Generally met expectations, but contributions are less than that of other associates.

3 - Met/Exceeded expectations and contributions are comparable to that of other associates.

4/5 - Met/Exceeded expectations and contributions are greater than that of other associates.

This rating is across the board and it's impossible for any manager to truly understand the contributions of all the associates that are in the evaluation pool. Additionally, it's a very secretive process with minimal objectivity. Everyone is required to complete a summary of accomplishments for the year, but there is little or no quantiative scoring to feed into the eventual ranking.

Three questions:

• To be fair should every associate know what every other associate they are being rated accomplished for the year.

• Should every associate know the rating of the associates they were rated against for the year?

• Departments are allocated their bonus pool based on the rating of the Senior Manager. Should that ranking be known to the associates in order to know what department they should be looking to move to for a higher bonus pool?

I feel very uncomfortable with this process because I believe my people are doing much more work that that of associates working for other managers because of the challenging nature of the assignments.

Fair process? Ultimately, it doesn't matter if it is or isn't; as a newly appointed People Manager, I have to support the process. Can anyone that has more experience with the process help me put a positive spin on the process (the corporate materials on this process are inadequate)?

Thanks

 

[SharonT]

Could turn into a popularity contest. Or it could be useful for sending a message (see below). I wouldn't worry about trying to make everyone aware of the 'contributions' of particular employees. It looks like you're supposed to rank the person based on your dealings with them, not what you've heard they've accomplished. The sum of those should average out, theoretically, to give a true picture.

**When I was at Nicholls, I took this class in the auditorium where we were to present projects and everyone would give comments/scores on index cards. Big class - we were identified by seat number. After our presentations, we'd get a stack of index cards, and reading through them, we found a lot of useful feedback...and then this one card that was kinda nasty with a low score. Okay, can't please everybody. Except it didn't take much time for people to ask around, wondering if they got similar feedback. Yep. This one person was low-balling all the others. We figured out who it was, and as predicted, when she got her stack back..... All that bad karma came back to bite her you know where.

So, I would be surprised if these rankings were purely based on work ethic - too easy to use this to nail a person for some other 'wrong' that may not be enforceble through other legitimate means.

Oh, and the answer to all three of your questions would be "no" IMO.

 

[KCBagHead]

If you're thinking about evaluation when they are due, you are too late. You have to start the rating period with an idea of what you want and need and convey that to your people and then hold them accountable.

If someone doesn't get the job done, you need to let them know it and quick.

If some people perform better than others, reward them and don't worry about hurting people's feelings. If people want to know what they have to do to get on the top of the heap, they can ask and you can tell them. They may not think it is wirth the time and efort, but the choice is their to make.

The other way to make this better is to force people to quantify and it is very hard, but it can and must be done. There is no replacement for quantification.

 

[whiteshadowen]

Here's what really drives me crazy about the way my employer does it. The employee has to set their own goals and progressions, and then does their own performance evaluations semi-annual. Of course, they then tear down your evals to meet the "curves". That's screwed up.

 

[Eeyore]

Ours also does 1-5 with 5 being best.

We are told that it is not possible to get better than 3.

I asked why they bother putting 1 and 2 on the form and I was told that excellent perfomance was expected and the rating of 3 means "meets expectations."

Example... I have been there for 10 years. I have not missed a day or ever been late. I have never received better than a rating of 3 on the attendance portion. I have never met anybody who has ever received better than 3.

I'm guessing that they keep you low so that when they have an issue for which they need to review your past performance in order to determine which corrective action to take, you do not receive the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Pure Energy]

Could turn into a popularity contest. Or it could be useful for sending a message (see below). I wouldn't worry about trying to make everyone aware of the 'contributions' of particular employees. It looks like you're supposed to rank the person based on your dealings with them, not what you've heard they've accomplished. The sum of those should average out, theoretically, to give a true picture.

**When I was at Nicholls, I took this class in the auditorium where we were to present projects and everyone would give comments/scores on index cards. Big class - we were identified by seat number. After our presentations, we'd get a stack of index cards, and reading through them, we found a lot of useful feedback...and then this one card that was kinda nasty with a low score. Okay, can't please everybody. Except it didn't take much time for people to ask around, wondering if they got similar feedback. Yep. This one person was low-balling all the others. We figured out who it was, and as predicted, when she got her stack back..... All that bad karma came back to bite her you know where.

So, I would be surprised if these rankings were purely based on work ethic - too easy to use this to nail a person for some other 'wrong' that may not be enforceble through other legitimate means.

Oh, and the answer to all three of your questions would be "no" IMO.

Now imagine in your example there were 100 students...and for those 100 students there are 6 instructors. See the chart below....These instructors report to a Dean who wants a bell curve distribution of the speeches. Each instructor is to observe the delivery of his/her own students speeches. Other instructors are invited to watch, but since they have to watch their own students deliver speeches it's highly unlikley they'll have time to observe anyone except their own students.

Since each instructor has a requirmenet for the curve that includes lots of percentages (partial student)..the Dean wants all the instructors to meet to generate a bell curve in compliance with University objectives. Assume there are finanacial incentives for each instructor for all the Bs and As and a penalty for Ds and Fs. This ranking meeting moves many students from C to D and from B to C. Instructors that haven't' seen other students perform are lobbying for their students and potentially against the students of the other instructors. If they happen to have observed a student from another instructor and perhaps saw this student displaying some aggravating behavior (i.e. on a cell phone while in the hallway or running in a hallway, etc,) that instructor may vote to downgrade that student.

Now in our workplace this scenario would be futher compounded....imagine some of the students are rated on their speeches and some are rated on what they did in art class. Then you take the students in art class and compare them against the students in speech class and distribute the rankings.

Sharon, you're right it all averages out. Certainly it's not fair to the students who were downgraded from C to D or B to C based on the results of a closed door session. My boss explains it in staff meetings like this: It's the process we have; if you don't like it you are certainly entitled to find employment elsewhere.



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[SharonT]

Well, that's just messed up. Automatically assuming/forcing 20% of your workforce into a negative position(D/F)?!? And he's wrong about changing employers. There should be some way for the bozos up the food chain to understand that such a system will run away good employees....

But then, I come from an education background. It was my job to find a way to help each child to succeed. Set clear goals and teach them ways to meet (and exceed) those goals.

 

[Pure Energy]

Well, that's just messed up. Automatically assuming/forcing 20% of your workforce into a negative position(D/F)?!? And he's wrong about changing employers. There should be some way for the bozos up the food chain to understand that such a system will run away good employees....

But then, I come from an education background. It was my job to find a way to help each child to succeed. Set clear goals and teach them ways to meet (and exceed) those goals.

I agree with you....there's a rumor they're reducing the 20% down to 15% next year.