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How Forced Grading Curves Ruin Employee Reviews
When you were in school, there was at least one time when a teacher graded on a curve. Everyone was excited, because it meant they received a higher mark on the assignment. But in the workplace, grading on a curve isn’t such a good thing. In fact, it can have a very harmful effect on employee 360 reviews. Read on to learn why forced grading curves lead to bad employee reviews.
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Read on to learn why forced grading curves lead to bad employee reviews.
What Is a Forced Grading Curve?
A forced grading curve is based on a statistical concept called a
“normal distribution.” A normal distribution assumes that you have an equivalent number of people above and below average. There will also be a very small number of people highly above average and deeply below average.
Rating employees on a Bell Curve forces managers to make a list that divides employees into percentages: a certain percentage will be at the top, a certain percentage will be in the middle and a certain percentage will be at the bottom.
The Effect of Forced Grading Curves on Employee Reviews
As Forbes contributor
Josh Bersin points out, forced grading curves aren’t a realistic model for evaluating employee performance.
Even if you have a whole
team of high performers, a certain percentage of them will automatically be considered poor performers, because that’s the way the Bell Curve works. As a result, they will be fired or warned that their jobs are in jeopardy.
Examples of Forced Grading Curves in Real Companies
For years, Microsoft rated its employees on a forced grading curve. The results were disastrous.
Every unit had to rank its employees according to a percentage of how many were top, above average, average and poor performers. Employees became so focused on competing with each other that they weren’t developing innovative solutions to drive Microsoft forward. For a very long time, Microsoft was seen as a laggard when it came to innovation.
Software and services provider Infosys abandoned its forced grading curve evaluation system in September 2015. Company leaders realized that instead of retaining their best talent, they were simply getting rid of more and more employees. The forced grading curve system wasn’t making the company a more innovative or competitive organization.
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