I was told that the highest a very well performing employee can get is a 4, with even exceptional managers regularly getting 3s the last couple years. Apparently there are only 10 spots for people to get a 5 rating, can anyone confirm that? Is our rating system artificially gatekeeping great employees from getting high ratings because they cap the number of people that can get a good rating? This sounds like a perfect way to only promote people that you want to promote, within a small circle.
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You have to move heaven and earth to get a 5 and most departments are not allowed to have any. Departments must always have a certain percentage of people with 2s. 1s are not mandatory and are reserved for people that are basically on the path to be let go. There are equal number of 4s available as there are mandatory 2s but leadership is fine if you don't give out any 4s.
The "logic" is that you can always cut the bottom 10% but it's shortsighted, and damaging because that entire mentality is based on the idea that you are REPLACING the people that are underperforming.
It really su-ks when your team is <6 people and even if you have all extremely high performers, one always has to be rated a 2. You also have to shift around who gets the 2 because if the same person keeps getting the 2, HR starts asking questions and trying to cut them.
It's a-s-backwards and demotivating for people and management alike.