IBM co-creates a radical new approach to performance management

For this in-depth case study, E-reward interviewed Michelle Rzepnicki, Director IBM Performance Management, and Carrie Altieri, VP IBM Communications – People and Culture. Here’s a summary of our final report which runs to more than 7,000 words, available as a part of our subscription service [£]: www.e-reward.co.uk/research/case-studies

IBM has reinvented its approach to performance management. The previous, 20-year old programme – with its ‘traditional’ model of annual, top-down goals and a single numeric rating for all employees at year-end – no longer matched the dynamic and agile way that the company now operates. So, IBM worked hand-in-hand with its employees to ‘co-create’ a brand new approach through an online social dialogue. The result was Checkpoint – a performance management programme with

  • quarterly formal feedback conversations
  • continuous informal feedback
  • an end-of-year assessment process that rates employees along five separate dimensions
Goals

Goals are now set for much shorter time frames – typically between three and five months. And employees can make changes to their goals at any time, without getting prior approval from their managers. The Checkpoint guidelines suggest that employees should aim to have between three and five active goals at any one time – but there are no hard and fast limits.

Multiple performance ratings

The new programme still has an end-of-year assessment. However, whereas under the PBC (Personal Business Commitments) programme employees’ performance was boiled down into one single numeric rating, under Checkpoint employees are assessed against five separate dimensions.

The year-end assessment and rating

At year-end, managers assess each of these five dimensions on a three-point scale – although this is descriptive rather than numeric. The three ratings are: Exceeds; Achieves; Expect More.

Continuous feedback

Managers are encouraged to give formal feedback to employees at least quarterly – but also to have regular informal conversations with their teams.

More information is here: www.e-reward.co.uk/research/case-studies