Infosys scraps its appraisal system!

TechnoparkToday.com(Sept, 2015): Infosys scraps the bell curve as a performance assessment tool for its 1.76 lakh employees. Infosys is one of the latest companies globally to move away from bell curve, which is often criticized as a forced ranking system as managers have to mandatorily classify employees into three categories, and rank the performance of 70% as average, 20% as high and 10%, low.

The decision is already showing results.Attrition is estimated to be 13% this quarter, compared with more than 20% a year ago. On an annualized basis, the rate was 14.2% at the end of June.

The change in the performance assessment system has primarily been pushed by chief executive Vishal Sikka. Since taking over in August last year, he has made several employee initiatives, including relaxation in dress code.

The performance appraisal system is not implemented properly in many IT companies. that results employee pressure & attrition . The reasons may range from, the goals which are not aligned with what the employees are doing, forced buckets – x% percentage of the employees should give the least ranking – for a balanced financial matrix. Favourism – Those who are nice with the managers for various reasons will get a better appraisal & salary hike. Also people who are leaving one project and joining other one during the appraisal cycle may get the poor scores from the old project manager etc..

Hope that, such a bold step from Infosys may encourage other companies to follow it. A better appraisal process which shows justice to the employees.