AtoZ Blogging Challenge – B for Bell Curve

The financial year just ended and it is the season of appraisals in India. No wonder then that B had to be Bell Curve. I was well into my third year in the corporate life when I learnt about the Bell Curve. The Dreaded Bell Curve. The bell curve is basically a gaussian distribution graph and is used extensively in organisations for providing performance rating of employees. That is how you get the hikes people!! This diagram explains it is the most simple way. It puts the bottom 5% to 10% in the low performer category and about the next 70% as the average performers. The rest are top performers. Even here, the top 5% would be the stars or best in class and these are the ones who walk away with the promotions. What happens to the bottom ones? Well, they could be coached, out on performance improvement plans, moved to other teams where they may be a better fit or even terminated. It depends on the organisation policy.

  Bell curves are often called a forced – fit grading system. You see, the bell curve is made not just for the organisation but also for every team. Managers face the dilemma of who to put in the extreme right and who to retain the middle, especially when the team has multiple deserving candidates. The bell curve grading system basically tells an employee that if you want to grow, you don’t have to be your best, you have to be better than the rest! And that is where the trouble begins. In my opinion, it hampers team bonding and promotes unhealthy competition. In recent years though, there has been a shift in the organisational way of thinking and many companies are moving away from the bell curve. I recently read an article that Cisco has decided to dump the bell curve methodology now. The article mentioned several large organisations across the world have moved on to other assessment processes and even went on to say that bell curve is one of the most hated processes in an organisation! If your organisation has not adopted the bell curve yet, here are some things about the bell curve you should know:

1. Most managers add employees to the top bracket by rotation. So hang in there and bide your time.
2. Nobody talks about the bell curve explicitly. It is almost a taboo word. So don’t go around asking for cut off percentages 🙂
3. The managers are given a lump sum, a figure to be distributed as hiked amounts to team members. This needs to be as per the bell curve. However, they can play with the figures. If you are expecting a high raise, do tell your boss. Then remind them. Then remind them again!
4. If you got an average rating or an average hike and were told it was due to the bell curve, accept it. Not much you can do about it. Continue your good work and focus towards a higher rating for the next cycle.