Is Your Performance Management Software Rigged?
Introduction
If you’ve ever played poker or watched a movie about it, you know that the game is all about making “the right call.” But what if there was no right call? What if someone altered the deck of cards before your game started in order to ensure they would win? That’s called rigging.
In this article, we’ll look at how performance management software can be rigged and what you can do to protect yourself from this kind of manipulation. And although I’m obviously not advocating that employers should rig their employees’ results (and neither should any other company), I want to show why this issue is so important for business owners and managers who use performance management tools like Performance Edge by Salary.com or Salesforce’s new product called Salesforce Performnace Management (SPM).
There’s a term in the world of poker called “rigged.”
It’s a term you’ve probably heard before, but what does it mean? In the world of poker, “rigged” means that the game is not fair. Players who are creating the rules and setting up the game have an unfair advantage over other players.
Rigged games can happen in any number of ways:
- One player gets more cards than others (this is called card counting).
- A player has access to information about other players’ hands by spying on them or asking them questions during play. This is called “tells.”
- The dealer shuffles cards in such a way that they know where certain cards are located when they deal out new hands.
Rigged doesn’t always have the same meaning in the poker world as it does in performance management software.
You may be wondering, “What is rigging?” Well, it’s a term that means “to fix or manipulate.” In the poker world, this could mean that someone is cheating by changing the outcome of a game. For example, if you’re playing poker and your opponent suddenly has four kings when he only had one before–that would be considered rigging.
In performance management software (PMS), rigging can happen at all levels of an organization–even at senior levels! This includes promotions or salary increases based on false data entered into PMS by someone who wants their candidate to win out over others in order to advance their career goals. It’s important for organizations using PMS systems to make sure they have robust controls in place so people cannot manipulate data without permission from management; otherwise it will lead to distrust among employees who know something isn’t right about how things operate within their company
Poker is a game of chance and skill.
In poker, you can win big or lose big. It’s a game of chance and skill, but the better your knowledge of the game, the more likely you are to make good decisions based on that knowledge. For example: if I know my opponent is bluffing and he thinks I’m bluffing back at him when really I have an ace in my hand (a card with high value), then he will lose his money because he didn’t realize what was going on; meanwhile I made a smart move based on my own understanding of how things work in this situation.*
In performance management software, you don’t know if your results are truly based on performance or if they’re based on some other factor that is not performance.
Performance management software is effective at identifying high performers, but it can also be manipulated by the organization to favor certain people. In order for performance management software to be effective, it must be able to measure performance accurately and objectively. However, when an employee’s performance is measured by the organization using a flawed system that does not take into account all factors that influence their productivity and success (such as their manager or team), then this will result in inaccurate data about an individual’s performance level.
This leads us back to our original question: Is your company’s performance management system rigged? If so, what can you do about it?
Rigging can happen at all levels of an organization, even the most senior level.
Rigging can happen at all levels of an organization, even the most senior level.
Managers can rig the system to favor friends or employees they like. Managers can also rig it to punish employees they don’t like. And even more damagingly, managers often rig performance management software so that their own compensation is increased–either by giving themselves higher ratings than deserved or by making sure their own employees get higher ratings than deserved. The result is that the entire system becomes corrupted and no one knows who’s actually doing good work anymore!
When people think about rigging for performance management, they often think about managers who hold back good performers from moving forward or pay more attention to mediocre employees who may be friends with their superiors.
When people think about rigging for performance management, they often think about managers who hold back good performers from moving forward or pay more attention to mediocre employees who may be friends with their superiors. While this can happen, it’s not always the case–and even if it does happen, it’s not the only way managers can rig the system.
Managers can also use their influence over promotions to help or hinder colleagues:
- They might push for certain people (and teams) to get promoted based on factors other than performance; for example, if you’re working on a new project with an important client who’s paying your company millions of dollars each year and one of your coworkers happens to also work at that company in another department (or even just knows someone who works there), then their supervisor will probably want them around as much as possible so they don’t lose any business opportunities with that client down the road. That means they’ll likely try harder than usual during evaluations because they know how much hangs in the balance–even though nothing has changed objectively since last quarter! This is especially true at larger companies where there may be several layers between yourself and higher management levels; although top brass might have no idea what goes on within individual departments/teams without being told directly by those closest directly beneath them.”
Rigging could also take place in terms of promotions or salary increases.
Performance management software is supposed to be an objective way of measuring employee performance. But it can be rigged by managers, who may use their own subjective standards or criteria that favor certain employees over others.
- Rigging could also take place in terms of promotions or salary increases. If you have a manager who doesn’t like you because he thinks you’re too outspoken or critical, he might not promote your performance review score high enough for promotion even if other metrics show that you deserve it. Or he could give someone else the same score but give them better feedback (which would result in a higher overall rating) so they get promoted instead of you–even though both candidates had similar scores!
Performance management software can be rigged by someone at any level of an organization, but it’s especially problematic when top executives get involved in deciding how bonuses and raises are distributed — many times without any oversight or accountability.
Performance management software can be rigged by someone at any level of an organization, but it’s especially problematic when top executives get involved in deciding how bonuses and raises are distributed — many times without any oversight or accountability.
Top executives should not be involved in determining how bonuses and raises are distributed. They should have no say over these decisions because it creates a conflict of interest: if you’re a CEO with millions of dollars on the line every year, it’s hard not to feel like everyone else’s compensation should match yours (or exceed it). And even if you’re not interested in making sure everyone gets paid as much as possible, just having that kind of power could lead you into making bad decisions based on personal bias rather than data-driven analysis.
You want to be aware when you’re using performance-management tools like this to make sure nobody is using them against you or anyone else in your company
The best way to avoid being on the receiving end of a rigged performance management system is to be aware of how it works and how you can use it to your advantage. If you’re already using performance management software, here are some tips for making sure that no one is using it against you:
- Make sure your goals are realistic and achievable. If they’re not, then any negative feedback could feel unfair or unjustified because there’s no way that goal could have been achieved if everything had gone right with the project or task at hand.
- Make sure all aspects of a task have been completed before moving onto another one (i.e., don’t start new projects until old ones are done). This will help ensure consistency across projects so there aren’t any gaps where performance could suffer due entirely on factors outside of your control–like external factors like weather conditions affecting delivery times for materials needed for certain tasks within larger projects.*
Conclusion
If you’re using performance management software, it’s important to make sure that your results are based on actual performance rather than other factors that may not be related at all. If you suspect that this is happening in your organization, there are steps you can take to investigate for yourself or report it anonymously if necessary