Employee Ranking Systems LO16606

Robert Bacal (rbacal@escape.ca)
Sat, 17 Jan 1998 19:13:48 +0000

Replying to LO16572 --

On 15 Jan 98 at 10:45, JAMES_H_CARRINGTON@HP-Chelmsf wrote:

> Are we talking about Performance Reviews, or Performance Ranking?
> These are two very difference things albeit related.
>
> I agree that _ranking_ an employees' performance is a practice of
> dubious benefit. Although it is a component of the performance review
> structure here at HP, it is not a metric that we find of any value at
> this site in particular.

James, I think we even need to define the meaning of performance reviews.
In my little book on the subject we talk about "Performance Management
Systems" applied across the board uniformly, and often creating large
paper trails, etc.

The usually fail to add value, while giving people some sense of
usefulness, (usually personnel folks) while at the same time creating a
perception of waste of time for everyone else.

That isn't to say that dialogue, feedback and measurement are a waste of
time--only that traditional ways of doing it are generally resource
sucking.

I talk about something called Effectiveness Enhancement Systems, whose
sole and only purpose is to develop employees' abilities and performance.
I think that would be consistent with some of what you have said.

One of the tenets of EEF is that the way it is done must be created
individually between employee and supervisor, and that employees may
choose different ways -- ways that help them develop.

> Properly administrated, a performance review system is a valuable tool
> that can be used to benefit the employee and the organization.

I almost never see it properly administered...the use of most techniques
including ranking, rating and so on are worse than useless, since they
give an impression of quanitative and objective data without it being so.

Robert Bacal, Inst.For Cooperative Communication, rbacal@escape.ca
Visit our Resource Centre for articles on mgmt.,training,communication, and defusing hostility
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"Robert Bacal" <rbacal@escape.ca>

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