Microsoft abandons its controversial employee evaluation system

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Until yesterday, Microsoft evaluated the performance of its employees through a system called stack ranking . According to this, each unit was obliged to declare a percentage of its employees as the best in performing their task, while declaring others as good, normal or below average, and so on, even pointing out those who they performed poorly. The system was used to evaluate performance and distribute compensation based on it among employees."

The problem is that the system has been highly criticized, both from abroad and by former employees of the company.Accused of being a destructive process, of fostering competition between colleagues and encouraging a cannibalistic culture within the company, for some it is one of the variables that explain the difficulties Microsoft has experienced in recent years.

Now, with the company undergoing internal restructuring and looking for a new CEO to replace Steve Ballmer, Redmonds have decided to do without this systemThis has been communicated through an internal memorandum to Microsoft employees. In it, Lisa Brummel, head of the Human Resources department, explains that there will be no more elements of the system under the new organization, leaving each unit more freedom to manage compensation and awards.

"Microsoft was not the only company using this system. Stack ranking, also called forced ranking or rank and yank, gained popularity after its introduction by Jack Welch at General Electric in the 1980s.Through it, it rewarded the 20% of its most valued managers, kept 70% and fired the 10% that did not exceed the evaluation of poor performance. Since then, some technology companies, such as Amazon, Facebook or the current Yahoo under the command of Marissa Mayer, have adopted their own version of the system over time."

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From now on Microsoft will not be among them. The Redmond company will opt for new methods of classifying its employees that will emphasize teamwork and collaboration that promotes the strategy of One Microsoft driven by the address in recent months."

Via | ZDNet | Wall Street Journal