So is WF moving to a structure where your bonus is determined by your ranking? In the old days you were virtually guaranteed your bonus percentage unless you were on a PIP. With stepped rankings, your bonus is affected by where you fall in that ranking. If that’s the case, I see WF moving away from percentages and into dollar ranges.
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Can someone please explain this Calibration process and what the real reason for it is? Is this process in writing somewhere?
Post ID: @1kcq+17iWr9al
I agree with your post 100%. Wish we could have a couple martinis together😉.
Also want to add that we need a management team who is forward-thinking enough to figure out how to generate a profit in this fast-changing environment before we even start talking about bonuses.
At this time, I am not even sure direct managers are rating people on a whim, I think they are being told to downgrade. If you had a 3 or 4 in late July, and now two months later, and 3 months prior to end of year your rating suddenly drops, that could only be explained by criminal activity or a seriously massive screw up if it was based on actual facts of your performance.
Therefore, this is performance management theater and I just hope the backlash from employees is strong. I do not know why the management team at this company cannot be honest, clear, or ethical.
I for one am a supporter of "pay for performance" and basing a bonus or your pay on a ranking/scoring is very typical in many industries (based on my 40 years of experience). In order for this to work successfully, however, leaders must be able to delineate and explain the criteria used for rating people at the various levels. At this point in time management is unable to tell people what it takes to get to a 4 (if rated a 3 as an example) or a 5. I specifically asked my manager what criteria was used to support the ranking I received as well as what I need to do (i.e. assignement types, completion time-frames, customer survey info, etc.) to get to the next level.......he has no clue.
This is where the process breaks down and ratings become so utterly subjective that employees have no visible way forward and future rankings are at the "whim" of the manager based on what they feel at the time. This is the state that we are currently in at WF and upper management should be ashamed of themselves. I find this approach and behavior unethical at best and WF will pay the price long term with the inability for attracting good talent (once COVID is under control and people are not desperate). This situation WAS controllable and upper management has failed miserably.
I do find it ironic that WF touts "do what's right for the customer" but when it comes to "do what's right for employees", that objective is thrown in the trash. I am trying very hard not to be bitter here but it becomes increasingly challenging as the sh*t show continues.
I am not counting on it, that way I am not surprised. I was already told my rating will be lowered to be "in line" with my peers.
This is not a performance evaluation exercise, it's a cost savings one.
Ditto, on the below. My manager specifically asked me if I had read the HR email and performance reviews. That is a very unusual question, and I am guessing they are being told to do it.
We were also told there were higher standards now, setting us up for disappointment. Also told to make sure we read the email from HR. I smell a rat. Typical Chase like behavior.
My manager shared a few things about the “calibration” meetings that led me to believe they are being told to put ever higher numbers of people into the underperforming categories.
If my interpretation is correct, it’s going to be a mess with these late breaking and weird performance objectives, seriously bad communication about the whole effort, unearned bad ratings based on no facts, really upset and demotivated people, and no understanding by anyone of what the impact of the rating will be.
If they want people to quit, there are a lot of honest and clear things they could do. But leave it to this company to come up with a tortured, ham handed, and totally backward approach.
Let’s be honest. The forced % grouping across each ranking and it being 80% leaning towards 3 (meets), 2 (inconsistently meets), 1 ( NI), is all part off the plan to reduce the bonus payout. By way of that, it accelerates attrition. A level 4 of years past is a 3. A 3 is a 2, etc. this will be a big haircut for people in their bonus payout. And likewise will be a big savings for chainsaw. Comp piece is not opened up yet so we can’t see this in practice but it is coming
@fyg described the process perfectly. I'll add that after your manager submits their inputs, those inputs may be further adjusted as the bonus and raise proposals move up the chain.
Nice. I didn't get sh*t this year or last year.
Hasn’t seemed mysterious, but different groups may vary. You get an incentive Max- say 50% of your base pay. Each year the company funds your group at a certain percentage. So let’s say last year the company funds your group at 90% of max. Let’s also say your base pay is 100k. So for last year the max incentive pay out you could get is $45k.
Your manager tinkers around from that based on whatever criteria they have. That’s where the black box comes in. Most managers I know are doing a comparison against peers rather than a comparison against goals- they set a middle point somewhere lower than the max and in their head rank their team from highest to lowest and assign incentive payments against that.
It might differ between LOBs, but in WFA, bonuses are the greatest of all mysteries. No rhyme or reason or consistency. You can never pin management down as to what numbers our bonuses are based on, or how they are calculated and distributed. Moving targets always disadvantage the employees. Record profits in one year, but bonuses are lower because some undisclosed target was randomly raised from the previous year. Then one year, they kept telling us we were having a good year because we were beating the random raised target. And then that was the year they decided to stop basing bonuses on that target.