Hello all – disclaimer: I work for a large bank who is a competitor. We have a fairly bad performance evaluation system where we do stack ranking of employees (from needs-improvement to average to exceptional/exemplary). This system leads to toxic work culture and it’s bad for the worker. Anyhow, how do you do performance evaluation at Bank of America?
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@3ecg+1hsFdd9B - you actually work for Fleet now. Or didn't you notice the coup??
Look at who all the leaders are TODAY.
Coming in late, that bank that started in California was called the Bank of Italy. Then it was called BankAmerica. Here's what the Wiki writer says about what happened next: "After suffering a significant loss after the 1998 Russian bond default, BankAmerica, as it was then known, was acquired by the Charlotte-based NationsBank for US$62 billion. Following what was then the largest bank acquisition in history, the Bank of America Corporation was founded."
I read that as saying the core of the current BofA is NationsBank, not the descendant of Bank of Italy, which was an acquisition, but someone disagrees.
@2jqx describes it as it is in my org. Stack ranking in groups of about 100 people.
Great post @3wjg - I agree with you 1000%
great topic, been both an IC and mgr at BAC and a competitor. The stack-ranking at both, while explicitly or implicitly calling it that at times, is pretty similar.
From living it in both, the problem is that the stack-rank is the fine point, very tangible culmination to performance management programs that read as very sound, but are not at all or halfheartedly practiced across the enterprises. It starts at budget planning and goal setting, festers and rots during year-long "development" while all the other stuff that people posted that distracts along the way. The stack-rank/rating is simply the capper to the whole charade.
As others have stated, living a long life at these enterprises means embracing these processes and getting good at playing the game to the point where it's BAU for you every year. There's way too much inertia to push back against these cosmetically sound but practically useless routines. It's endemic to these large orgs and government bureaucracies so it's a portable "skill" to learn. After moving to startup-land however, have found there's no more use for it - meritocracy reigns supreme.
They all do it. BAC and my current bank. It’s really an exercise in who on the management team has the loudest voice, influence and will take the time to showcase the employees skills and accomplishments. Sadly, many leaders are not true leaders. Don’t know their team or the work and won’t put themselves out there to make the case for their people or team.
In our area, our teams of 8 to 10 are combined with other teams to make a pool of 80, then stacked with no more than 6-8 getting a high rating, regardless of overall performance of the remaining individuals or whether the team as a whole is built from high-skilled top performers. I heard it compared to managing a baseball team and having all three outfielders bat incredible averages of 375/385/386, then telling 375 that they are sub-par despite a division average of 250. It is a very demoralizing way to rank and reward people.
OP, so BofA also using stacked ranking and many have gotten M/M (meets meets) reviews and received no raise or bonus because of the ranking system. Mind you, they don't show you or tell you how you were actually ranked, just that despite doing your job, someone did it better so you get shafted. Basically raises and bonuses are predetermined and have nothing to do with actual reviews. The review process is a formality to mark a check box. I've had the highest numbers on my team and received M/Ms and basically nothing for raises and bonuses. I was told work isn't what is actually being evaluated, meaning, it's how well you are liked or known to others like senior leadership. If you know people you can be a m0ron and still get promotions/raises/bonuses. On the other hand you can be a rock star performer but if you don't dance, you're not getting dck.
P.S. and sorry to the OP - we have gotten way off topic, but could not let the false information proliferate.
To state that "Bank of America" was started in NC at all is ignorant and mo--nic. (and that's coming from a 12th generation North Carolinian!)
The Bank of America today carries forward the legacy of NUMEROUS institutions -- not only across the U.S. but several regions around the globe. The earliest dating back to 1784 in Boston.
Learn your f-ing history.
https://www.privatebank.bankofamerica.com/publish/heritage-timeline/index.html
Saying that BofA started in California is misleading, so I suppose the rest of the history story is also misleading. The current BofA started in NC with a different name, and acquired a lot of others including BofA. Of the various acquisitions, BofA had the best name, so they applied it to the whole thing.
"Friends and family get paid the highest. Then D&I, then women."
So true. Your commitment, talent and work ethic are not part of the evaluation process
- I really like my job and plan to work here for the rest of my career.
- It is exactly as you describe. They even call it "stacked ranking". I do not like it. At the same time I do not care. I'm good at what I do, I don't care about what I or you or anyone else gets rated. I'm here to work, and I go home at 5pm. Period. Who cares about the drama, I have a life.
Stack ranking is VERY much in use here.
Nice book report, however the data you present is stale.
BOA blows
“Paying them for their performance.” HAHA that’s a good one.
Friends and family get paid the highest. Then D&I, then women.
@xps+1hsFdd9B - curious, where is this from?
(Reads like some kid's college paper.)
Bank of America is considered to be the first national retail bank of the country. Its operations started in a small region of North California and after two decades it grew drastically, occupying place in the world’s biggest companies. The leaders or the management at Bank of America have to face several challenges while playing their difficult and challenging role. Bank of America has to take some major steps for the purpose of talent management as any failure in the executive marks can be costly for the bank.
Talent management to the Bank of America is its commitment to recruiting, retaining and developing the superior and talented employees available in the bank as well as in the overall job market. Talent management is considered to be a useful term as it takes into account the strategy of a business that should be fully integrated with the processes related to the employees of the organization. It is the job of every organization to attract and retain employees. An effective strategy of the organization includes sharing information regarding the talented employees and about their potential career paths across the network of the organization (Berger, 2004).
The talent management system of Bank of America gives its managers and leadership significant role and responsibility in the process of recruitment and also in the ongoing development of retaining talented employees. In the Bank of America only the top leadership of the bank is included in the talent management system (Scullion & Collings, 2011).
Talent management program of bank of America
The talent management program of Bank of America is designed to attract, develop and retain great leaders. The steps included in the talent management program proposed by the Bank are listed below:
- Getting the right people in significant roles
- Managing their performance
- Continually upgrading them
- Helping them to develop and grow
- Paying them for their performance
- Getting the right people in significant roles
Getting the right people to play the critical roles in the organization is half battle won. Bank of America considers it the most significant task to place the right person at the right job. If any organization fails to recruit the right people at the right time then it is certain that additional recruitment costs will incur. Recruitment and replacement can be costly processes for organizations as large as the Bank of America. Keeping in account these high cost, there is a need for the development of intervention that helps in placing emphasis on pre-empting failures in the senior management/leadership of the firm. There are specific interview guides that help the senior leadership to interview employees and clearly define the job specs.
Managing their performance
Bank of America ensures that the goals of the company are being met in the most efficient and effective manner. The performance management system of BOA takes into account the performance of the employees, department and the organization as a whole. Performance management is also a process that helps BOA to align its employees, system and resources. “360-degree feedback” is used by BOA, so that employees may plan and then map specific ways that would help them to develop and grow. There is a session conducted every now and then in BOA, where the business leaders discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the company, taking actions regarding the loops holes present in the system.
Continually upgrading them
BOA uses its performance management process for identifying the strong and talented employees of the organization. BOA also brings different strategic management process to recognize the hidden talent in the employees and accordingly increase their responsibility, upgrading them to a senior position based on their skills and performance.
Helping them to develop and grow
The new employees at BOA are coached by the training team according to their job specifications. There are a number of development programs introduced by the organization that help employees to develop their skills and become more competent in their specific jobs.
Paying them for their performance
BOA analyzes the present market and then accordingly develops the compensation strategies that would assist them in meeting the objectives of the organization. The compensation structure of BOA helps employees to grow in terms of their skills and support the mission of the organization.
Strengths of the talent management program
The talent management program implemented by BOA has been quite effective and has shown positive results. There are several aspects of the program that made that have it successful, however one of the most significant aspects of the program was that it allowed individual to recognize their inner strengths and weaknesses. Once the leadership was successful in identifying the strengths of the employees their next step was to create opportunities that would help employees to utilize their strengths.
Another important aspect that makes the talent management system of BOA so effective is that they know the importance of placing right person at the right job. It is an important aspect from the perspective of the organization as well as the employees. BOA believes in understanding the employees their strengths, weaknesses, career aspiration and need development.
Opportunities for improving the talent management program of BOA
BOA must ensure that the talent management program is in place in the entire life cycle of the employees. It must also ensure that the program is linked with the mission of the organization. BOA must make sure that they have all their means in place in order to deliver the strategy and to install human resource processes and HR technologies. BOA must resist from using dispersed network of the talent management tools as it decreases the quality of human data, negatively affects the analytical and reporting results and complicates the integration of the human resource processes (Oakes & Galagan, 2011).
BOA must also think about outsourcing or automating its day-to-day operations, enabling the HR team to devote all their efforts in implementing the talent management processes. BOA must ensure that their talent management strategy is not combined with its HR duties. They must hire experts dedicated for developing integrated strategies for talent management processes. This would help them to solve the problem of identifying and retaining talent present in the BOA.
Effective approaches to meet the talent management challenges in the future
Talent management is continuously becoming a critical task for the organization keeping in mind the organization’s future success. The economic slowdown is another factor that increases the importance of the talent management program in an organization.
Fully integrated approach
All the segments of the talent management program must be integrated such as recruitment, retention, development, transition, etc. Such integration in the talent management program makes it easier for organizations to hire, retain, develop and engage the top talents. The organization must also define the talent management goals more clearly and they should be directly aligned to the mission and strategies of the business (Cantrell & Smith, 2010).
Continuous updating of deployment strategies
Once the organization has put the right people on board, it is necessary for deploying them in a way that would develop their strengths, knowledge, skills and experience. It will also help in matching the competencies of the employees with their career interests, in order to meet the short term as well as the long term needs of any business. The deployment effort exerted by the organization must also be reevaluated on regular basis in the light of the changing needs and demands of the external environment and for achieving the long term goal of the business (Effron & Ort, 2010).
References
Berger. (2004). The Talent Management Handbook. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill .
Cantrell, S., & Smith, D. (2010). Workforce of One: Revolutionizing Talent Management Through Customization. Accenture.
Effron, M., & Ort, . (2010). One Page Talent Management: Eliminating Complexity, Adding Value. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Oakes, K., & Galagan, P. (2011). The Executive Guide to Integrated Talent Management. ASTD Press.
Scullion, H., & Collings, D. G. (2011). Global Talent Management. New York: Routledge.