Ride the Bell Curve
The Question
You are responsible for performance evaluations for your staff. Your department has quotas for ratings: Employees are rated on a scale from one to 10, but there can be only a certain number of 10s, nines, and so on. When you present your finished evaluations to your boss for approval, he asks you to change the rating for one of your best employees to a seven from a nine because there are too many nines. You argue against it, but the boss is emphatic. You know this hard-working employee will be devastated, and you don't agree, but have no choice. When you give the evaluation, you are tempted to tell the employee what happened. Do you?
The Answer
The best policy is to tell the truth. Performance evaluations are based upon statistical curves, and in this system someone has to be average. Before explaining the bell-curve approach to my employee, I would inquire of my boss who rode the curve up and who rode it down. Often this information will ease the pain of informing the employee. Too frequently, in my experience, decisions of who rides the curve up are influenced by factors beyond performance, such as impending retirements, peaking too early or too late, where employees are on their pay scales and location.
You are responsible for performance evaluations for your staff. Your department has quotas for ratings: Employees are rated on a scale from one to 10, but there can be only a certain number of 10s, nines, and so on. When you present your finished evaluations to your boss for approval, he asks you to change the rating for one of your best employees to a seven from a nine because there are too many nines. You argue against it, but the boss is emphatic. You know this hard-working employee will be devastated, and you don't agree, but have no choice. When you give the evaluation, you are tempted to tell the employee what happened. Do you?
The Answer
The best policy is to tell the truth. Performance evaluations are based upon statistical curves, and in this system someone has to be average. Before explaining the bell-curve approach to my employee, I would inquire of my boss who rode the curve up and who rode it down. Often this information will ease the pain of informing the employee. Too frequently, in my experience, decisions of who rides the curve up are influenced by factors beyond performance, such as impending retirements, peaking too early or too late, where employees are on their pay scales and location.
posted by Pete at 3:00 PM
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