January is the month of performance appraisals' discussion & finalization at work.

There is a lot of pressure on industry 'giants' to force rank their people i.e. only 10% of the company's population should be rated 'exceptionaly'.  This forced ranking technique is one of the many methods used to lower costs; lower rankings = postponement of promotions or none at all, & people who are forced ranked to very low rankings may be faced with termination.

It irritates me to see several company managements - freezing the rankings prior to management discussions with direct reports of the various departments.  The whole process is as follows:- a) employee ranks himself/herself & forwards the same to his/her respective manager (b) manager reviews & ranks employee (c) discussion between the two takes place & the ranking is confirmed or may change [to the better - it is possible that the employee convinces the manager that he/she deserve a better ranking] (d) final ranking is submitted to HR (e) if in the case where there is a disagreement with the ranking, HR intervenes and discussions take place [documented process].

This process cannot simply be ignored.
Rankings cannot be forced.
Doing so, is a clear breach of the policy.

What is the point of having an appraisal process in place, if you're going to force rank staff?!

My response to HR & the CFO, was the above - I was never one to be quiet simply due to the fact that an issue doesn't affect me personally.  It had to be said.

{The way I feel about the issue above takes me back to 2004, when an article I had submitted [under the name: Concerned UAE National] to an HR-related site's forum was found to be interesting by the editor of Human Assets Middle East magazine - & my article was published =}...I've never shared this fact with anyone before.  I've also not shared the article with you - my blog readers.  Maybe I should?}

boomp3.com

Until I blog again {v soon, I promise =)} - I hope you enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend, just as much as I will.