Workplace Performance Ratings Make a Major Change

Workplace Performance Ratings Make a Major Change

Performance ratings have been the norm in corporate practice for decades. But now there’s a move to shift from numeric rankings and grading labels toward a more nuanced conversation to evaluate work.

Numerous companies are dropping simplified categories in favor of richer conversations to enhance performance by employees and employers alike. Exhibit A: GE, long looked to as an example of corporate management, introduced ratings-free reviews for 30,000 of its 310,000 employees over the past couple of years, according to the Wall Street Journal. And the results have been positive: an internal report concluded that pay and promotions were awarded effectively, and that both managers and employees preferred the new approach.

This method replaces GE’s well-known system of the last 40 years, in which employees were given one of five labels, ranging from “role model” to “unsatisfactory. The changes will now apply to GE’s 200,000 salaried employees.

I’m John Howell for 3BL Media.

Image credits:

Flickr Creative Commons / Chuck Miller

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