Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

It would be wise of you to learn a little about forced ranking systems as a tool to measure the performance of your employees.

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Simply what is does is a group leader or manager makes a list of their people, then rank them according to their performance. If you are at the bottom of the list this many times will result in you being fired. The object of this is to supposedly weed out low performers.

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The major problem with this system, from a team building point-of-view is that it creates a culture that competes against one another rather than builds up a team. Information and problem solving is not shared because it could give others a competitive advantage over you at the review time.

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“An article in the January 9, 2006, issue of Business Week magazine seems to come to the same conclusion. The article, entitled The Struggle to Measure Performance, says that the practice of forced rankings is increasingly coming under fire.” 

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“The article talks at length about GE's culture that, under former CEO Jack Welch, used force ranking to rate its people. However, in moving toward a culture of innovation under its new CEO, the company is injecting more flexibility into the system. Innovation is one of the incredible byproducts of collaboration and teamwork, so removing barriers to them should help the company create the innovative culture it desires.” 

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I do believe that those of us, who have used these tools in the past or are thinking of ways to build better teams within their business, need to take a strong look at moving away from this type of system into less combative ways. This will be better for your business and your workers.