Better Reviews, Great Results - Well Done - performance appraisals - Brief Article

Workforce, Nov, 2001 by Janet Wiscombe

Ben Dowell reflects on the hassles of administering traditional performance appraisals. They took 13 days to complete. They weren't forward-looking. Nobody liked them. "We had a 360 (degree) paper-and-pencil nightmarish system," he says.

As vice president of leadership development at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Dowell is in charge of all the pharmaceutical giant's performance systems. With 44,000 employees located throughout the world, it is no simple task.

Until 1995, when the corporation hired Applied Psychological Techniques, Inc., an HR consulting firm headquartered in Darien, Connecticut, to help them develop a sophisticated approach to performance appraisals, Bristol-Myers wasn't giving its employees the kind of feedback they needed, Dowell says. The focus was on what an employee had already done, rather than on future expectations, goals, and growth.

"APT helped us create a major culture change," he says. "The system is very efficient, and it was designed to give every employee very specific feedback."

Dowell credits the system with helping the corporation make significant improvements. Rather than conducting annual performance marathons, Bristol-Myers' new program concentrates on ongoing appraisals. "We'd rather give immediate feedback and spend time coaching our employees," he says. "The new system has clarified our standards, and raised standards."

With the new APT system, involuntary terminations have gone up dramatically--about 25 percent in the past five years, he says--largely because standards are higher. "Instead of passively getting feedback, employees are accountable to ask for it, and to get it." And they are given the kind of ongoing support they need to achieve their maximum potential, he says. The new system is directly related to the company's business successes, he adds. "We're doing well in a tough environment. Our standards are high, and they are forward-looking."