Adobe- Transformation of Performance

Viral- B44
Priyanka-B10
Apurva-B43
Vaibhav-B33
 Overview

1- Performance review and its downside

2- Trends in Performance review

3- Adobe- Need for transformation

4- Old way of doing Performance review at

Adobe

4- Transformed process- Check in Process

5- Old versus new

6- Check in toolkit for better conversation

7- Results

Note- Methodolgy: Literature Review, Call a friend, Understand the toolkit

 Performance Reviews
of performance reviews end up of companies surveyed think

30% decreasing employee performance

- Psychological Bulletin
6% performance reviews are worth their
time - Deloitte

of executives believe their current

58% program doesn’t result in performance
or engagement. – Deloitte
2% of HR executives say yearly
evaluations are useful. – Deloitte

70% of companies are now of workers are dissatisfied with their

70% reconsidering their performance 80% perfpormance reviews. – Deloitte
strategy. – Bersin

of employees with highest performance -5% improvement in performance is

2/3 scores aren’t actually the highest
performers - CEB
3% all managers believe will be
generated in the process. - CEB
Performance Appraisals

“Performance appraisals are perhaps the most

reviled standard practice in all of management”

Peter Cappelli
Wharton School of Management
“Why we love to hate HR” HBR
Acrisis of credibility

It’s time to blow up HR and build something new

Rethinking HR

Why we love to hate HR

What will it take to fix HR

It’s time to split HR

HR faces a crisis of credibility in the boardroom

HR is our “favorite corporate punching bag”

A LittleHistory
 Performance Problems
• Idiosyncratic rater effect
• Recency Bias
• Confirmation Bias
• Faulty memory syndrome
• We tend to let it stand for more than
it should
• Negative psychological impact
(defensive and demotivating)
• Too many variables
• Too often rater is unqualified
(doesn’t understand job)
• Shown to decrease morale
• Found to create infighting
• Leads to “gaming” and politics
• Too subjective
• Too infrequent
• Too much focus on past, not
enough on future
• Too costly
• Takes too much time
• Too despised
Recency effect
“When asked what would shake up the HR world most in
2016, 44% of companies said shifting from traditional
performance reviews in favor of real-time feedback”
—2016 BambooHR Comp Best Practices Report
The emerging face of
Performance review
Frequent Feedback
Increase communication touch points
 Motivating Employees
42% of millennials want feedback every week
Source: Ultimate Software & the Center for Generational Kinetics

• Stack ranking • Encourage ownership

thinking
• Annual review cycles
• Provide frequent
feedback
• Build skills
 Intended Direction Actual Direction

Don’t wait tillhere

Organizational
Waste

And here

Catch them here

 Adobe
Performance ReviewProcess
Something propelled Adobe to change in performance review

Transformation- Adobe moved from selling boxed software on an

18-to-24-month development cycle to a subscription model that
required much more frequent software updates. It t required a
new agility from all our employees, and it caused a lot of internal
turmoil.

Donna Morris, Senior VP ,HR felt that the annual performance

review process was an obvious candidate for reinvention. It was
stale and bureaucratic; it took valuable time away from our people
when they needed to be tackling tough business issues; and its
stack-rankings and performance labels led to anxiety and frustration
HEY, TIME TO SEE
THE
VIDEO……………
 The stale Performance review
People manager would solicit written feedback from stakeholders who had worked
with their employees.

Leaders in each organization would participate in a rating and ranking exercise, usually
several hours in length , where each employee was assigned a rating- high, strong, solid
or low and would be stack ranked relative to other employees across the organization.

People manager would then write a performance summary on each employee,

typically one or two pages , incorporating the feedback received, observations on
performance and the performance rating.

People manager would then deliver the performance review directly to the employee and
discuss it. Difficult conversations/surprise/ showdowns.

Salary raises and equity grants were prescribed as per the rating.

The review routed electronically and employees had the opportunity to provide
comments

Multiple cycles invested.

 Adobe
Performance ReviewProcess

80,000 hours
2,000 managers

The Result

Employees were:

Less inspired
Less motivated
Turnover Increased
Neuroscience research has shown that receiving feedback from manager can elicit the same
fight or flight pattern as being chased by a lion
Adobe wanted conversation that people don’t want to run from

But instead, look forward to

Adobe wanted conversation that people don’t want to run from

But instead, look forward to

 Check-in process
The process of the appraisal system starts when an employee is assigned a task/ tasks/
project.

The manager and the employee discuss the expectations together and comes up with the
expected result out of each task on the basis of mutual agreement.

The task and earlier set goals could be revisited by the employee or the manager if
there are any unexpected changes in the project. At the end of each task the manager
would provide feedback to the employee on his performance on the task

Providing on-going feedback focused on performance throughout the year and ideally as
real time as possible so the right behaviours can be reinforced.

Eliminating all mandates around timing, methods and written review ( flexibility leading
to order instead of imposed order)

Providing a budget for salary raises and equity grants which happen once annually in the
Rewards check in so people managers and senior leaders can adjust awards based on their
best judgement. There are no ratings, rankings or prescribed awards required.
 Check-in process
In this system the employee would be rated based only on his/her individual
performance and manager do not have force fit any particular percentage of employees
into any particular ratings. This would motivate the employee to focus more on the
parameters set during the initiation of task

The system also brings transparency in the whole process. The employee can
always track where he is positioned. All the feedback and the rating of the individual tasks
could always be seen in the online application, so there is always an opportunity for the
employee to evaluate himself and predict what could be his potential rating
 Support system

Intranet highlighting templates for goal-setting and planning a feedback conversation

Videos showing effective model check in conversations

Tips for both managers and subordinates to make check in more effective

Robust training program for both managers and non managers.

 Compensation

Based on our annual budgeting cycle, bonus plan administration, and compensation plan
programs, we have an annual Reward Check-in where merit raises, bonuses, and limited
equity are awarded.

Using a system Adobe designed internally, managers have a few weeks to provide their
recommendations for merit and bonuses, and those recommendations are sent to senior
leadership for review.

Managers are given a budget, the salary range for each employee based on the local
market, and which quartile of the salary range the employee is in. Managers then decide
how to allocate compensation based on available budget, performance, business impact,
and market placement.
Getting Creative
 Get Creative
• Passes to sporting events
• Catered lunches for winning teams
• Days off after big deadlines
• Choice of work assignment
• Development opportunities
• Lunch with the CEO
• Remote work
Old system versus new
Toolkit for
Adobe
Check in
Facilitating coaching based conversation
Expectation
toolkit
Expectation toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Expectation toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Expectation toolkit – Questions for manager to ask
Expectation toolkit – Questions for manager to ask
Feedback
toolkit
Feedback toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Feedback toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Feedback toolkit – Questions for manager to ask
Feedback toolkit – Questions for manager to ask
Feedback toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Development
toolkit
Development toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Development toolkit – Questions for employee to reflect
Development toolkit – Questions for managers to ask
Development toolkit – Questions for managers to ask
Results