UK: FT abandons staff ratings after mass criticism

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on February 22, 2007 at 9:52 AM

The Financial Times (FT) has abandoned its project to establish a staff rating system, after staff complaints, which had been picked up and heavily criticized by blogs, other news sources and its own management.

"The feeling was that categorizing people into bands simply doesn't work," said Peter Chapman, father of the chapel of the National Union of Journalists.

This is a good lesson for other newsrooms trying to implement an appraisal – rating – system for their staffers. It’s more important to provide an incentive for staffers to overperform, rather than establish a sometimes counterproductive appraisal system.

This is also a good sign that management can come back on its (mistaken) decisions, given staff cohesion and minimal coverage from outside.

"Critically, they are not an effective feedback mechanism to staff - often, team leaders and indeed senior management are not honest enough with those people who are not doing a good job," wrote FT managing editor Dan Bogler in an email.

Source: Media Guardian