Vive
la Différence
By
Tim Rutledge
Performance
differentiation has been a staple of our lives since
our childhood days of picking teams for a game of softball
at the local sandlot. All the kids knew who the better
hitters and base runners were, and they were the ones
who were scooped up first by the team captains.
These
practices have naturally segued into the workplace,
where there's a push for smart companies to identify
their top employees in an effort to retain and engage
them. But managers are shying away from identifying
and separating their key players from those whose play
is not up to par. While it's their responsibility to
call a spade a spade, there are still forces in every
organization that steer these managers towards rating
different performances the same.
At
first blush, it seems preposterous that managers will
refuse to properly differentiate employee performance
simply to avoid raising red flags in the workplace.
So, why do managers take the low road when it comes
to performance differentiation? Here are four possible
reasons:
1.
Failure of nerve
No
one likes to be the bearer of bad news. It takes a lot
of courage to provide accurate ratings and honest feedback
to employees, especially if the end result is unfavourable
and runs the risk of reflecting badly on you and your
own management of a given employee. And what happens
if your poor rating of an employee isn't supported by
your own supervisor or HR department? You're left holding
the bag with no recourse to justify your evaluation.
Therefore, it makes sense that some managers won't differentiate
between good and bad performers - they will only rate
them all "satisfactory" to preserve the status
quo and not rock the boat.
2.
Fear of being challenged
Some
employees won't take a poor rating lying down, even
if the rating is warranted, so managers can
expect to be challenged. As a result, managers must
be able to back up their performance differentiation
processes with proper evidence and documentation supporting
their decisions. Some managers, however, fail to keep
files on all their employees, and this makes it difficult
for them to justify poor ratings to employees who deserve
them. Instead, they'll give all their employees "good"
or "satisfactory" ratings to stay under the
radar.
3.
Fear of playing favourites
A
positive employee rating can also send shockwaves through
a workplace, especially if other employees and your
peers perceive the rating as being unwarranted. As manager,
it's your prerogative to differentiate performance as
you see fit, but a good rating leaves you open to accusations
of favouritism and unfairness - something most managers
know they can avoid by rating all their employees the
same.
4.
Inability to properly reward superior performances
The
possibility also exists that there's no appropriate
way for managers to reward superior performance in the
workplace, thereby eliminating any incentive for managers
to differentiate performances at all. Employees will
expect to be compensated for a high rating, but the
fact remains that most tangible rewards can already
be had for a "satisfactory" performance. As
a result, managers will defer to the middle because
there's no meaningful way to reward a good and a mediocre
performance differently.
Still,
this is something all managers need to deal with, especially
from the point of view of employee engagement. Good
employees want to know where they stand in relation
to their peers, and must have faith that their managers
will call out those who aren't performing up to par.
If they don't trust this will happen, they will disengage
and lack the appropriate motivation to try their best
at work. These top performers will leave your firm because
they're not being rewarded for what they're putting
out.
-
Dr. Tim Rutledge, Partner, Retention Services, is a
veteran Human Resources Development practitioner with
a background in financial services, manufacturing, and
health care. He will be the keynote speaker on employee
retention and engagement at AstraZeneca's general meeting
for managers on April 6, 2006. [full
bio...]
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