Rank and yank gets a bad press

REWARDING PERFORMANCE

Rank and yank gets a bad press

Hiring and retaining the right people is a lot more efficient than recruiting a large pool of staff to be laid off as the economy slows based on a ranking system, says a study by US human resources magazine Workforce.

Forced ranking is a controversial performance management tool whereby staff are rated best to worse as part of the process used to determine merit awards and manage workforce reductions.

Forced ranking forces evaluators to make determinations on a person-versus-person basis rather than a person-to-established-standards basis, says Brent M Longnecker, the author of the Workforce article. As you can imagine, this scenario results in intense internal conflict and destroy any resemblance of employee teamwork and co-operation.

Want to know more?

Title: Rank and yank: the problems with forced ranking , by Brent M Longnecker, Workforce, August 2001.

Availability: Workforce is published monthly by ACC Communications Inc, 245 Fischer Avenue B-2, Costa Mesa, California CA 92626, USA. For subscription services, tel: 001 303 604 1464 (USA 800 444 6485). Or email the online editor Todd Raphael for more information . . . raphaelt@workforce.com.

Take a look at the article online — see what you think . . .

www.workforce.com/feature/00/07/90

Posted 24 August 2001