跟沒用的年度考覈說再見 A blast of common sense frees staff from appraisals

Last week I did the most unexpectedly uplifting thing I’d done in ages. I was in need of cheering as I’d just sat through a documentary in which the brilliant, bulimic Amy Winehouse drinks herself to death — but never did I think I’d find such solace in a video clip showing the head of Accenture talking about his latest management initiative.

最近，我遇到了一件大快人心的事，我對此完全沒有意料到。當時我剛耐着性子看完了一部關於艾米 楠橠斯(Amy Winehouse)的紀錄片，片中講述了才華橫溢，卻患有暴食症的艾米最後酒精中毒而死。就在我急需讓自己開心起來的時候，沒想到在看埃森哲(Accenture)掌門人談論最新管理措施的視頻時會讓人心情那麼舒暢。

In the space of a minute Pierre Nanterme said something wonderful: he is going to free all 330,000 of his staff from the charade of the annual job appraisal. “We are not sure that spending all that time in performance management has been yielding such a great outcome,” he told the Washington Post. “Once a year [I] share with you what I think of you. That doesn’t make any sense. People want to know...慍洀 I doing all right? Nobody’s going to wait for an annual cycle to get that feedback.”

皮埃爾圠泰姆(Pierre Nanterme)在一分鐘的片長裏講到了一個絕妙的主意：他準備將手下33萬名員工從年度工作考覈的形式主義中解放出來。南泰姆告訴《華盛頓郵報》(Washington Post)：“我們不確定花在績效管理上的那麼多時間是否產生了那麼大的效果。（我）一年一次告訴你我對你的看法，這毫無意義。人們想知道……我現在做得怎樣？沒人想等到一年以後再得到反饋。”

The most extraordinary thing about this blast of common sense is that it comes from Accenture, which over the years has delivered some world-class, paradigm-busting drivel. It was Accenture that brought us the embarrassing “Be greater than” hieroglyphic in its name.

這番常識性的長篇大論中最不同尋常的地方在於，它出自埃森哲。該公司多年來傳播了一些世界級的、標新立異的蠢話。正是埃森哲在其名稱裏嵌入了表示超越的象形符號“>”。

Not only does the company itself spout waffle, so too do its higher officers.

不僅這家公司本身愛說廢話，其高層也是如此。

It was Accenture that came up with the slogan: “High performance. Delivered” — that is so long on guff and so short on grammar.

正是埃森哲想出了這條口號：“高效能，實現”——真是廢話功力超強，語法水平超爛。

The fact that this company has now noticed what has been apparent to every office worker and every manager in the western world for a couple of decades, gives me great joy. This is very exciting indeed. Performance reviews will soon be over for all of us.

西方世界的每個上班族、每個經理早在幾十年前就知道了的事情，埃森哲現在終於注意到了，對此我感到非常開心。這確實令人興奮，我們所有人很快就可以告別績效評定了。

Accenture is not the first. Earlier this year Deloitte started to dismantle its extraordinarily cumbersome appraisal machinery, which takes 2m hours a year to churn out one appraisal for 65,000 people. If you think of that in terms of opportunity cost and assume that even the most junior Deloitte people hire themselves out for 100 an hour, the firm has been wasting at least 200m a year on a system that rewards the wrong people, demotivates almost everyone and spreads boredom and cynicism all around.

埃森哲不是第一家提出取消年度工作考覈的公司。今年早些時候德勤(Deloitte)開始廢除極其繁瑣的考覈機制，該公司每年要耗時200萬小時爲6.5萬名員工炮製一份評價。如果你考慮到機會成本，並假定德勤就連最初級的員工的時薪都能達到100英鎊，那麼這家公司每年至少浪費了2億英鎊在這一評價體系上，它獎勵了錯的人，讓幾乎所有員工失去工作動力，而且到處傳播厭倦和悲觀情緒。

Do you notice something strange in this? Both of these companies have large consultancy divisions that sell “human capital solutions”. Over the past few decades both have been charging fat fees in return for stuffing their clients with dreadful appraisal systems. Just like their own.

你有沒有注意到其中弔詭之處？上述兩家公司都有大型諮詢部門專門兜售“人力資本解決方案”。過去幾十年這兩家公司向客戶兜售了一套套可怕的考覈制度，從中賺取大筆收入。他們自己也在採用這些制度。

High performance. Delivered, Accenture claims. But what happens if it hasn’t been delivering high performance at all? What if it has been delivering clunky performance management “solutions” that turn reasonable people into alienated cynics? What then?

高效能。實現了，埃森哲如是宣稱。但如果它壓根從未實現過高效能，結果會怎樣？如果它一直以來提供的是拙劣的績效管理“解決方案”，使本來合適的人選變成了懷才不遇的憤世嫉俗者，結果會怎樣呢？

Should the current management of Deloitte and Accenture say sorry for all those useless annual appraisal systems they have prescribed in the past? Should they go further and repay fees, and compensate for the damage?

德勤和埃森哲現任管理層應就過去它們設計的那些沒用的年度考覈制度說抱歉嗎？它們應不應該更進一步，償還費用，並賠償損失？

It would be nice; only it isn’t going to happen. The way in which both firms admitted that their own internal systems were rubbish was very clever. Instead of saying that they were a terrible idea in the first place because they are based on an elementary misunderstanding of what it is to be human, they argued that the problem with them is that they no longer fit the new I-want-it-now world. “It’s all about instant performance management,” said the Accenture boss.

能這樣當然好，但它們必然不會。這兩家公司以一種非常聰明的方式，承認了自己內部考覈制度是垃圾。它們沒說因爲這些考覈機制建立在對人類本性的根本誤解之上，所以從一開始就是一個糟糕的主意，而是辯稱問題在於它們不再適應這個“我現在就要”的世界。埃森哲的老闆說：“當今社會需要的是即時績效管理。”

This is doubly clever. Not only does it mean apologies are not called for, it means a new stream of revenue as they advise clients to replace the old systems with new speedier ones.

這一招非常高明。這不僅意味着它們不需要道歉，還意味着新的收入來源，它們可以建議客戶用更快速的新系統替代舊系統。

It is not yet clear how the new appraisals will work, though I fear they will involve vast amounts of data. Accenture has said appraisals in future will be “all about you”, which sounds superficially promising, but I’m not holding my breath.

目前尚不清楚新的評估體系將如何運行，但我擔心它們會涉及到大量數據。埃森哲曾表示今後的評估將“全部關於你”，乍一聽彷彿大有前途，但我不會屏息以待。

Deloitte has come up with four things which its own managers are asked every quarter about each member of their teams. The questions (which I have rather improved by paraphrasing) go like this: does this person deserve lots more money? Do I like having them on my team? Do I think they are likely to screw up big time? Would I promote them today?

德勤已經提出了四個要點，其管理人員每個季度都要就這四點回答自己團隊內每個成員的情況。這些問題大致如下（我倒願意換一種更好的表述）：這個人是否值得更高的薪水？我是否喜歡我團隊裏的這些人？我是否認爲他們很可能把事情徹底搞砸？我今天願不願意提升他們？

The beauty of these questions is that they are simple and they don’t cost 100m. Better still, Deloitte will insist that all its managers check in with the people they manage once a week. This is so sensible, that one wonders why they have only just thought of it.

這些問題的美妙之處在於它們非常簡單，而且不會花掉1億英鎊。更妙的是，德勤將讓所有管理人員每週都與手下員工覈對一次。這一招實在是太高明瞭，以至於人們不禁要問爲什麼它們纔想到這一點。

My suggestion is even simpler — to replace annual appraisals with nothing at all. Hire only managers who are able to manage, and who are good at telling people how they are doing, not once a week but all the time. If they aren’t up for this, they should not be made managers. If they are up to it, they don’t need an appraisal system as a crutch. They are better off without one.

我對新的年度考覈制度的建議更簡單——什麼都不用做。僱傭經理時，只僱傭那些能夠管理，且善於隨時（而不是一週一次）告訴人們表現如何的人。如果他們做不到這些，他們就不該成爲管理者。如果他們能做到，他們就不需要一個評估系統作爲支撐。沒有評估系統，他們會做得更棒。