So out of curiosity, which major tech companies operate on a stack ranking system? It seems that Microsoft has gotten the most flack for it in the past, but it seems that many other companies also have it. Here's what I've heard, from different employees at different companies:
* Amazon - top 20%/70%/bottom 10% buckets
* Facebook - definite bucketed review system every six months
* Google - unsure if bucketed, but performance review every three months and again at end of the year.
* Yahoo - definite bucketed review system every three months and again at end of the year.
If anyone knows the performance review systems at any other company, please definitely feel free to call them out in the replies.
Valve has an annual peer view, it's described in the leaked Valve Employee Handbook.
Summary:
>There are no professional reviews by supervisors (because there are no supervisors). Instead, Valve uses a system of anonymous peer reviews, conducted once a year, where employees give their opinion of everyone they work with. Every Cabal is asked to rank the people they work with. No one ranks themselves. Results are delivered anonymously, and it’s up to the individual to decide what to do with the information. One concrete change that comes out of peer reviews is compensation adjustments. Valve goes out of its way to pay its people what they deserve, according to “who’s providing the most value at the company.”
Google's performance reviews are every 6 months. No bucketing.
Well, you get to know if you are "needs improvement", "meets expectations", or "exceeds expectations", and you can pretend those are buckets if you try hard enough.
Does it lead to employees/groups competing with each other to keep their job? I've experienced that at one of my gigs and it just kills my morale. I have a habit of helping co-workers. Then, I notice that I don't always get any acknowledgement in front of mgmt. At the end of the year, the people doing perf reviews don't seem to always know what role I had in some of the successes. At a previous employer where this stack ranking stuff was not prevalent, my coworkers were very generous with their sharing of credit (as was I). As time goes on, I feel I am being a naive person and have no one to blame but myself.
I think this is a key comment. It's not so much that the concept of a stack ranking system is bad in a vacuum. But nothing happens in a vacuum, and individuals will nececcesarily adapt their behaviour according to that which will keep them safe. In a nutshell, the effect of a stack ranking system is to discourage collaboration and hurt camaraderie.
* Amazon - top 20%/70%/bottom 10% buckets
* Facebook - definite bucketed review system every six months
* Google - unsure if bucketed, but performance review every three months and again at end of the year.
* Yahoo - definite bucketed review system every three months and again at end of the year.
If anyone knows the performance review systems at any other company, please definitely feel free to call them out in the replies.