In
his latest book "Winning", the legendary ex-CEO of General Electric
(GE), Jack Welch has asked to elevate the HR function to a position of power and
primacy in the organization. HR professionals around the world have been looking
for that coveted seat at the top, which has remained mostly elusive to them. HR
functions in most organizations are still considered as an overhead and non-value
adding backroom operation.
The
challenge for HR experts and professionals, thus, is to link the HR functions
to the company's bottom line expressing their value in hard facts and figures.
In facing up to this challenge, HR executives are refuting many age-old concepts
and techniques of People Management. To stay ahead in the competition for attracting,
retaining, developing, and rewarding talent, they are embracing the latest and
sometimes debatable methods. "Forced Ranking", a method of Performance
Management, is one of them.
Going
by one of the most acceptable definitions, Performance Management "is a strategic
and integrated approach to delivering sustained success to organizations by improving
the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities
of teams and individual contributors." The practice of Performance Management
is regarded as an improvement over the traditional performance appraisal system
followed in organizations as it adopts a more holistic, forward-looking and result-oriented
approach. Performance Management, much broader in scope, does not remain as a
duty of the HR department only, but becomes a shared duty across all levels and
functions of the organization. Organizations have followed different ways of Performance
Management, according to their needs, targets, available resources, and environment.
But no other approach has invoked as much debate, protests, legal actions and
ethical concerns as much as the "Forced Ranking" method has. |
