Forced Ranking

Forced ranking is a performance evaluation system used by organizations to compare employees against each other. In this method, managers categorize their team members into a fixed distribution, often ranking them from highest to lowest performers. A certain percentage of employees must receive top ratings, while others are labeled as average or below average. This approach aims to identify high achievers and encourages competition, but it can also lead to negative effects, such as decreased morale, unhealthy competition, and collaboration issues among team members.