Top 10/Bottom 10

One of the items that managers in my division are required to produce each month is a list of the Top 10% and Bottom 10% performers in their group. The Top 10% is publicly praised and rewarded in some fashion. The Bottom 10% is privately informed and put on notice. If the same people keep showing up month after month on the Bottom 10% list, they are put into a process that could eventually end up getting them fired.

There are a lot of things that I liked about the idea. I like that top performers are recognized regaularly and publicly. I like that it puts in place a process under which the company can purge its ranks of slackers aside from the shotgun approach of massive layoffs. Done correctly it can assist in increasing the amount of talent in the organization by shedding the chaff and adding in fresh skilled people.

There are some downsides though. Every month 10% of your workers are depressed. If the same workers are being recognized every month there is less incentive to press forward. If the standard becomes who makes mistakes, it could stifle the impulse to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects.

In general, I'm in favor of the program if for no other reason then I think that I'm unlikely to qualify for the downside of the program. And while it isn't a nice thing to admit, we'd all perform better if we didn't have to deal with the incompetent or barely competent co-workers in our jobs.