Some netizens asked Liu not:
According to reports, last year, Ali Taotian Group launched organizational manpower reforms, and one of the important issues was to try to keep the performance score only three grades, namely 3.75, 3.5, and 3.25, and cancel the two grades of 3.5+ and 3.5-. Coincidentally, in 2022, Tencent was also rumored to have launched a reform plan to simplify performance grades. In the plan, Tencent simplified the original five-star evaluation system into three grades: prominent, good, and poor. At the same time, the original twice-a-year "peer feedback/subordinate feedback" was reduced to once a year to simplify the performance management process.
It is generally believed that the higher the level of performance, the finer the granularity of management. The performance evaluation of the fifth grade is better than the third grade, and the third grade is more accurate than the performance evaluation of the second grade. So why do these giants do the opposite and simplify the performance evaluation grades?
Performance management, made simple
Alibaba, Tencent and other large giants have simplified performance appraisal levels, although sacrificing a certain degree of management granularity, but in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, only through change can we quickly adapt to the needs of organizational manpower management within the enterprise.
After all, management depends on people, people stop for the "enterprise", if even the people are not good, talking about the strategic vision is empty words, employee performance management has become a key factor restricting the development of enterprises, simplifying, in order to improve the efficiency and satisfaction of employees on the right road.
First, simplify the complex and improve efficiency
Reducing performance levels can significantly reduce the complexity and time cost of the performance appraisal process. The simplified segmentation of employees, which required a detailed distinction between levels, speeds up evaluations and frees up managers' time for strategic thinking and mentoring of subordinates.
Ali Taotian Group launched the organizational manpower reform, and the performance score only retained three grades, namely 3.75, 3.5, and 3.25, and cancelled the two grades of 3.5+ and 3.5-. This is necessary to reduce disputes, and too many hierarchies can lead to inconsistent understanding and application of boundary hierarchies such as 3.5+ and 3.5-, leading to disagreements and disputes between employees and superiors.
Coincidentally, Tencent has simplified the original five-star evaluation system into three grades: outstanding, good, and poor. This reduces the subjectivity of evaluations and allows employees to focus more on actual work results. In addition, Tencent has also adjusted the performance evaluation from the original biannual to once a year to reduce the workload of employees and allow them to devote more time and energy to actual work.
Second, red tape is shackled, and it is difficult to lock performance
Overly strict appraisal standards, such as setting excessively high or unrealistic performance targets, can lead to frustration and frustration that no matter how hard they try, they will not be able to meet the standards. In addition, excessively frequent appraisal cycles, such as OKRs advocating daily regressive work, similar to frequent performance appraisals, keep employees under constant pressure and unable to focus on long-term projects and in-depth work, affecting the potential development.
The performance management of large factories is more like a "shackle", over-reliance on quantitative indicators, and even rigid goal setting, ignoring contributions that are difficult to quantify, such as innovative thinking, teamwork, customer service, etc., may lead employees to focus too much on short-term quantifiable results, and ignore the mining and cultivation of long-term potential, and it is easy to cause tension in team relations.
Excessive punitive culture can also easily lead to conflicts between labor and management, and employees face severe punishments for poor performance, such as salary cuts, demotion, dismissal, etc., resulting in employees being afraid of failure, not daring to take risks to try new methods and new ideas, inhibiting innovation and potential development.
Third, simplify the assessment and gather incentives
To stimulate the potential of employees, performance management needs to be guided and supported, but performance management should be "shackled", build a fair, transparent and simple-oriented performance management system, and return to the real incentives of human resource management is the right way, such as career development, training, corporate culture construction, etc., to jointly create a working environment conducive to the release of employees' kinetic energy.
By streamlining grades, companies are able to more clearly identify excellent, qualified, and improving, prompting employees to pay more attention to key performance indicators (KPIs) and core contributions, and fewer grades are often accompanied by more pronounced performance gaps and corresponding treatment differences, so that it is easier for good employees to stand out and get greater opportunities for rewards and promotions.
In a rapidly changing market environment, companies need to quickly adjust their strategic direction and priorities. Simplifying the performance evaluation system helps management make personnel decisions faster, such as allocating resources and adjusting team structure, and through concise performance feedback, employees can position their coordinates more clearly, which is conducive to the formation of a culture of continuous learning and rapid iteration.
In summary
Simplifying the performance level may sacrifice a certain degree of evaluation accuracy, but it is more likely to increase the effectiveness of management.
To improve management efficiency, we should start from simplifying performance appraisal to create an agile organization and rapid response, and some performance appraisal processes still need to be shortened, and complex performance appraisal may lead to employees paying too much attention to the appraisal itself, resulting in the phenomenon of "involution".