Layoffs are happening in small numbers every quarter. This is because they only want to move 10,000 into the new campus. That is why we saw the change in evaluations. With the forced bell curve, it’ll be easy as can be for them to thin the herd. I expect in 10 years, perhaps a little less, they’ll change the eval policy again as they’ll have accomplished their task.
Do we know where they are with this number currently? How many more are left to be laid off at HO until 10,000 is reached?
They force managers to rank a percentage of their team badly because management is terrible at managing their teams. How many of us have worked along side someone wholly inept, yet they got the same scores as 90% of the rest of us? Because managers would rather keep ill suited associates than have a difficult conversation. Now, rather than saying “I personally chose to put you in the bottom bucket”, they can say “I had no choice”. And yes, it will be effective for a year or two because it’s true, we have some fat to trim. But my division is already feeling stretched. People are working 12+ hour days. They can’t keep the bell curve up indefinitely, unless they just enjoy 10% guaranteed turn over.
The bell curve plays out if the sample size is large enough, which it is since the HO has thousands of employees. So I don't get why leadership would force managers to force rank their team.
The bell curve means that they must have a certain number of people be role model, exceeds expectations, solid performer, needs improvement, and below expectations.
Even if they have an awesome team, they have to give out a certain percentage of bad evals.
Can you elaborate on this "bell curve?"
Well, the original poster's assertion that the new forced curve is to reduce how many they'd need to move into the new home office is partly correct. Yes, they want to dump 'resources'. Layoffs are expensive, and it just so happens that the forced eval curve does improve the associate departure rate. It's way up, and they like seeing that. But Walmart owns too many buildings in BTV just to think they'd cut for the sole reason of the capacity of a structure. The forced eval curve also gives leadership a method to start pushing "unwanted" associates out. If they don't like you, they start the process and you're eventually faced with having to make a decision.
https://youtu.be/VnDs3gohjlM. They only want part time associates because of the insurance