Dear friends,
The above mentioned article has been published in today's Economic Times. Though the article is not published in today's print edition of the Bangalore city, it could be published in day or two. The link of the article is as below:
IBM and Infosys reject bell curve,more companies to follow suit - The Economic Times
Main points of the Article: - If you read the article, you will find that the appraisal system is changed because of the following reasons:
a) Changes in job market scenario. Millennials. i.e. those who have joined workforce after 2000, quit job frequently. Bell Curve is not suitable for the current job market scenario.
b) The article says: "This group of people we manage today want fast, frequent, instant and more feedback," said Richard Lobo, senior vice-president at Infosys, where millennials form nearly 85% of the workforce. "These youngsters are driven and are comfortable being measured against something they understand unlike the earlier generations," he said.
My Comments on the Article or Bell Curve: - The news article does not mention the inherent flaws of the Bell Curve Appraisal method. In this method, people are rated as Excellent, Very good, Good, Average etc and for each rating the percentage is fixed. Now suppose, for "Excellent" category if the maximum percentage allotted is 10, and if the organisation has more than 10% "Excellent" performers, then some of the employees were required to downgraded to "Very Good" slab. Is this not injustice to them? Converse of this is also true. Suppose the organisation does not have 10% "Excellent" performers. Therefore, to fulfil the quota, Managers might upgrade few employees from "Very Good" rating to "Excellent".
Final comments: - When I provide consulting services to establish Performance Management System (PMS), I have eliminated the innate flaw of the Bell Curve Appraisal Method. Though I maintain the same grading structure while designing the PMS, the focus is more on accuracy of the measurement of the performance and understand actually how many employees are falling in each performance slab. Truthfulness of data emerged from the analysis of the performance cycle helps organisation to design their recruitment or training policies.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
The above mentioned article has been published in today's Economic Times. Though the article is not published in today's print edition of the Bangalore city, it could be published in day or two. The link of the article is as below:
IBM and Infosys reject bell curve,more companies to follow suit - The Economic Times
Main points of the Article: - If you read the article, you will find that the appraisal system is changed because of the following reasons:
a) Changes in job market scenario. Millennials. i.e. those who have joined workforce after 2000, quit job frequently. Bell Curve is not suitable for the current job market scenario.
b) The article says: "This group of people we manage today want fast, frequent, instant and more feedback," said Richard Lobo, senior vice-president at Infosys, where millennials form nearly 85% of the workforce. "These youngsters are driven and are comfortable being measured against something they understand unlike the earlier generations," he said.
My Comments on the Article or Bell Curve: - The news article does not mention the inherent flaws of the Bell Curve Appraisal method. In this method, people are rated as Excellent, Very good, Good, Average etc and for each rating the percentage is fixed. Now suppose, for "Excellent" category if the maximum percentage allotted is 10, and if the organisation has more than 10% "Excellent" performers, then some of the employees were required to downgraded to "Very Good" slab. Is this not injustice to them? Converse of this is also true. Suppose the organisation does not have 10% "Excellent" performers. Therefore, to fulfil the quota, Managers might upgrade few employees from "Very Good" rating to "Excellent".
Final comments: - When I provide consulting services to establish Performance Management System (PMS), I have eliminated the innate flaw of the Bell Curve Appraisal Method. Though I maintain the same grading structure while designing the PMS, the focus is more on accuracy of the measurement of the performance and understand actually how many employees are falling in each performance slab. Truthfulness of data emerged from the analysis of the performance cycle helps organisation to design their recruitment or training policies.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar