A few years ago, some of the large
consulting and technology organisations announced the discontinuation of the
bell curve system. This method, used during appraisals, forced managers to rate
their colleagues against each other. This was perceived to be creating a
discriminatory system to reward or punish employees. This 9-box method forced
employees who were in certain quadrants to leave as they were boxed into a
corner.
The ditching of the bell curve
sounded like a great idea. But what replaced them needs a closer evaluation. We
spoke to 15 large organisations who are undergoing this transition.
We picked organisations that had an
employee base of 10,000 to 2,00,000 and the observations are worth reflecting:
The new system: So, what is this new system? Though each of these
organisations has their own unique processes, we found that broadly they had
more or less the same philosophy. They all wanted to provide realtime feedback
to improvise over the once-a-year appraisal system of the past. Their intent
was to evaluate each unit or individual independently than a relative
comparison with other colleagues or departments.
First few steps: Organisations transitioning from bell curve had to
intensively communicate to their well spread out workforce through various
media. However, the most important step was to train their managers who had to
implement them. This was understandably a critical exercise as 90% of this
change was dependent on the manager’s buy-in and subsequent execution. A
user-friendly tech platform was the next key enabler.
The bottlenecks: Every organisation has a limited budget and the bell curve
fitted into it appropriately. Getting the managers to relate to the new system
and absorb the financial angle was a key step. The budgets with the new system
are still limited and only the distribution methodology changed. The new
distribution system prevented pushing some colleagues to poor ratings to
accommodate a few top performers. Another bottleneck was making the busy
managers available. In summary, these organisations were asking for a highly
communicative culture that was a huge shift from the earlier once-a-year
connect.
Bell curve to straight line
All organisations agreed that the
frequency of interacting with their colleagues increased with this process. The
benefits of real-time feedback and rewarding quarterly feedbacks meant faster
reach-outs to employees. Managers also felt their connection with reportees
improved due to the timely interactions. On the back of technology, a humungous
amount of data was now being gathered, which has become a delight for HR data
scientists.
Appraisals or increments?
Any change is difficult. The bell
curve overhauling was especially a massive one as it had a direct influence
over one of the most important outputs of appraisal — money. We have made
appraisals and increments synonymous. Yes, we no longer ask people if they got
a raise. We ask if appraisals are over to mean the same. This mindset change
will take time and the new system of frequent feedbacks and immediate rewards
may change this mindset. Overall, employees seem to be happy with the
high-touch communication channels that have come into play.
The writer is the co-founder of
specialist staffing company Xpheno
Source: TOI 27.03.2019
