Does It Make Sense To Grade Your IT Employees?
As the person in charge of the CIO position, it’s your obligation to stay in the know about the capabilities of your employees are employed within your department of IT. In many IT departments, this means that every year, at a minimum, everyone will participate in an appraisal process. Each employee will be evaluated according to their contribution to their team as well as to the organization. It sounds like a good idea; however, what happens if an employee of your department is given a position to which they don’t think they are entitled?
The Problem with Employee Grading
There is something irresistibly appealing when you assign one grade per year for every employee. There is an argument to say that “this is how is the way we’ve done things for years.” In case you’re confused as to what I’m talking about, in all companies in reviews that are conducted annually, a score is assigned to every employee. In general, this is an amount between 1 and 5 or a phrase, such as “meets the expectations.” The scales typically range from “outstanding” all the way to “improvement required.”
This method, though simple to set up and operate, is prone to causing grave problems for the IT sector. In particular, employees who are given an assessment as “successful” that is usually the second-lowest label, then get their morale slashed. This could be a severe issue when as much as 70 percent of the staff gets this rating.
Another challenge CIOs confront is that the method by which the rankings are distributed isn’t always consistent across the department. The person who manages you will play a significant impact on the rank you get. If a manager is concerned they will lose one or more employees could leave, they could award higher ranks to ensure that the employee gets an increase in their bonus and is more likely to stay. In addition, some managers give their staff members average rankings as this is the simplest way to go. If this happens, it is a high likelihood that employees are likely to voice their displeasure and claim that the ranking doesn’t present an accurate picture of your department.
Is There A Better Way?
With all the issues that this method of ranking employees can cause, you’d think there must be a better method to accomplish this. The positive side is that there’s an alternative. The downside is that it will require a change of outlook for the CIO for them to transition to it.
Companies like Microsoft, Gap, and Adobe have all gone from the system for grading employees after they concluded that it was doing much more harm than benefit. The companies decided that grading systems hindered collaboration and ultimately created anxiety for their employees. Businesses that have eliminated employee grading systems have reported gains. In particular, their IT staff are happier about their work and are often listening to what their bosses say to their employees during the performance review meetings instead of focusing on the numbers they’ll be awarded.
Businesses that remove employee ranks reap a range of benefits. The willingness of employees to collaborate with their colleagues is increased. Employees are also willing to take on more risks since they know it won’t affect their overall grades. The best way to assess employees is to schedule regular coaching sessions that are followed by increased opportunities for employees as well as their bosses to discuss issues. This method will provide managers with the data that they require regarding employees without damaging morale.
What Does This All Mean What Does This Mean For What Does This Mean For
As the CIO as the CIO, you have to be aware of the people who work for you in the IT department. Some of your employees may be skilled, while others aren’t so skilled. You’d like to know who your top and worst employees are. So you can strive to keep your top performers and not fret about the worst. Many companies rate their employees according to a 1-5 scale every year. This could not be an effective strategy.
The issue of an employee grading system is the effect it can have on your employees. The employees who are not the most highly ranked are likely to see their moral decline. They become less eager to cooperate with their colleagues. An effective way of achieving the objective of being able to get to know your employees is to hold monthly coaching sessions and the opportunity for bosses and employees to discuss issues.
As CIOs must be aware that while knowing who we are working with is vital, how we choose to determine who we have can have an impact on our organization. That’s why we need to be mindful not to implement processes that could make our employees refuse to cooperate. Instead, we must get rid of grade systems and look for alternatives that are more effective.
