#Nextchat: The Ratings Game

A players, B players... green, yellow, and red.   Every organization has a system for rating their employees.  Right or wrong, these systems can affect employee engagement, productivity and retention. 

Most employees instinctually know their category or rating.  For example, B players generally know that they’re B players and are often invisible as management focuses on the care and feeding of the As and the never-ending PIP documentation of the Cs.

Are ratings systems fair?  Do they encourage organizations to operate in a "survival of the fittest" kind of culture? Or are they necessary for talent management and succession planning?

Sometimes B players are A players stuck in the wrong role -- or with a horrible boss.  “A” players can encounter stressful life experiences that spiral them into a C position.  Some C players can bloom into successful professionals with the right mentoring and coaching.  Is it a manager’s responsibility to figure it out? Where does HR fit into all of this?   

Ben Eubanks asks an interesting question in his blog post titled A, B, or C Player? What Are You?  “Think about your own team or company. Can you stick a label on each person to identify them as an A, B, or C? More importantly, should you?” 

Join @weknownext at 3 p.m. ET on April 10 for #Nextchat with Ben Eubanks (@BenEubanks).  We’ll chat about how employee ratings affect organizations and their talent management strategies.

Q1. Should organizations rate employees based on their performance and make them aware of it?  Why or why not?

Q2. Do employee ratings discourage and limit the growth of all employees? Why or why not?

Q3. Are employee ratings systems necessary for talent management and employee development? Why or why not?

Q4. How can employee ratings positively or negatively impact an organization’s culture?  

Q5. Should employees be treated equally even if there are marked differences in performance? Why or why not? 

Q6. If an organization uses a rating system for succession planning, who should decide the rating -- HR or the manager?   

Q7. How do bad people managers discourage the growth, engagement and retention of all employees?