www.ongcreports.net/busimanage/Companies_Turn_to_Grades -
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Published on: 4/22/2007
Last Visited: 4/22/2007
"We want to give the highest compensation to the very top performers," said Deborah Willingham, senior vice president for human resources, adding that the system included checks and balances to ensure fair treatment.Employees can appeal their ratings, for example, and are largely responsible for developing the criteria by which they are evaluated.
Ms. Willingham also said the company did not ask its managers to give a fixed percentage of their employees any given score."We don't force that curve to look any certain way," she said.
Microsoft has no formal "stack rank" policy, she said.And when managers do have lifeboat discussions, they are a tool to consider which employees they would want to keep if they were starting again.
While the company would not comment on the lawsuits, Microsoft "expressly prohibits discrimination," Ms. Willingham said.