andydidyk.com

Let’s be honest, companies of every size struggle with managing people well. The groundbreaking book, “First Break All the Rules” surveyed 80,000 people to come to the same conclusion that most everyone knows already - one of the top reasons people leave a company is because of poor management.

Of course, in a capitalistic society no opportunity can be left unexploited. CNN Money just posted a very interesting article on an upcoming trend: employee management software. Now, I’m the first one to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to management software that takes every bit of data possible to give you a clear picture of business. SAP and SalesForce for example, and I love any project management software that does the same thing (Microsoft Project, Creative Manager Pro, etc.).

But what companies such as SuccessFactors are doing is creating software that provides the same services for the often murky and subjective realm of employee performance. The software is designed to let managers rate employees on a multitude of skills, attitudes, and the like, as well as to document specific instances of achievement and/or failure. The goal is twofold - first, to objectively evaluate an employee’s performance to determine what “value” they bring to the company, and second, to provide the employee with a real time picture of the company’s vision and goals for them.

It’s pretty difficult for me not to greet the arrival of this software with a bit of cynicism. If a manager isn’t effective enough to tell an employee how they are doing, it’s hard for me to believe that the arrival of new software could transform them into Super Manager. I know that the numbers are very hard to argue with, and that there are plenty of companies using the software “successfully”. However, I don’t know how I’d personally feel about working under such a system. Would I be motivated by why the company had in store for me on my 2-year plan, or would I despair when I saw that I was number #367 on a list of 1000 for a promotion?

I’m sure managers are trained on how to give the right data at the right time, and I know that proven metrics are the future of ALL business, not just advertising (who will be considerably affected by that shift over the next 10 years). But I’m not sure if I’m ready just yet to have my worth to the company generated by a composite score.

What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to get some different perspectives.