SYNAPSE - 2014
SYNAPSE - 2014
‘Check-In’ Out of the Bell Curve
- Somnath Baishya
Somnath Baishya is an alumnus of
XLRI (PM&IR 1995-97). He joined this
prestigious institute straight after his
engineering from IIT Kharagpur. His
professional career started with Tata
Motors and then evolved with Infosys
and Nokia. Currently he is with Adobe
as Director & Head HR–India.
Last summer when my current organization
approached me to discuss possible interest for a job switch, in all
the crisscross of exchanges there
was one bit which intrigued me
most. This organization claimed
to be transforming its performance management approach –
moving on from the traditional
tool based, ranking oriented and
normalization driven charter.
How bad a job we do
while setting goals –
extremely amateurish,
too generic,
ambiguous success
metrics etc.
In my working career it has been
interesting to see how many
managers and leaders across
cultures dread performance management as the most demanding
people process. That annual year
end discussion comes along with a few restless
days trying to create a pitch which in most
cases even the creator does not quite believe in
and is delivered with unconvincing choice of
words and expressions. So much so, some such
managers and leaders suddenly turn technology enthusiasts – preferring calls and emails
over any kind of face to face interaction. The
demand of this year end activity has such a
tortuous effect that performance management
turns into a taboo topic for the next few
months. The result being that a quarter, or
actually more of the new cycle passes before new
goals are discussed. Given these realities one
might question this annual ritual then, as it results
in management burnout, disengagement and
attrition. Are we in HR setting up the system for
failure by not helping keep the focus on the basics and the core? Are we over-engineering too
much where the output is compliant but not relevant.
Holes in Goals
In early 2012, while running a R&D Summit
with a set of very competent and matured R&D
leaders at Helsinki, I witnessed a very candid
observation by one of them. This gentleman
shared with his peers that once while working
with an employee on a performance improvement plan he realized how bad a job we do while
setting goals – extremely amateurish, too generic,
ambiguous success metrics etc.
Setting goals and