Abolish Performance Reviews

I recieved in my inbox an article on Adobe’s experience on abolishing their annual appraisal process. One reason was cost, they calculated it took the equivalent of 40 FTEs to run the process which illustrates the distraction of management time. The article quotes quality guru W. Edwards Deming who says,

It nourishes short-term performance, annihilates long-term planning, builds fear, demolishes teamwork, nourishes rivalry and politics.”

They replaced their previous stack ranking system with a more flexible and empowered system, divorcing formal performance from salary/bonus decisions.

It proved to be more popular with managers and staff, with one employee reporting

… that a feeling of relief has spread throughout the company because the old annual review system was “a soul-less and soul crushing exercise.”

One side effect was that involuntary terminations increased but voluntary terminations reduced, It ought to be a happier place to work. …

Recruit & Retain

The Register posts an article today “Nicer bosses retain more (female) staff”. Here…. Lucy Sheriff writes, “The astonishing news that women don’t like to work with horrible managers, … will undoubtedly send shock waves throughout the HR sector industry.”. I’m sure it will, HR are usually the last to catch up. Interesting that people are looking for this now; also I’m sure that not wanting to work with horrible managers isn’t restricted to women. …