Performance versus loyalty: how should employees be evaluated?

One of the toughest questions employers struggle with & there are various schools of thought around it, here's #AMatrixMoment where Avnish Bajaj & Rajinder Balaraman discuss a framework to help think through it. Tune in to know more.

Rajinder:

What are your views on letting people go on performance reasons? Shouldn’t loyalty be rewarded some way?

Avnish:

It should and it's one of the toughest things, you know there are various schools of thought.

But let’s start with the framework and the frameworks should be performance and values, it’s a 2 by 2. All of us sometimes go to our consulting roots. Somebody is great on performance and great on values, Rockstar, make sure you never lose them but if you only reward loyalty, if you reward, if it’s a socialist culture, these kind of people will leave. So that’s the reason to have some level of performance orientation, but easy quadrant, star, hug them, keep them in a bear hug, don’t let them go.

High performance no fit on valuesI think should get fired pretty much, because I think there is a word somewhere, I forget who said this, there is no room for assholes.

I think the Netflix culture guide talks about it, actually we should include a link to the Netflix culture guy. I think its outstanding.

I don’t care about performance if you don’t fit in the culture.

I think the hardest ones are the high on values and low on performance and I have a philosophy there which I have picked up over time from missionary founders, I didn't used to think like this.

But is it low on performance in that particular role? So I believe values count for a lot and I believe there is a wrong box for the right person, there is always a right box for that person. It is not that the person is wrong, because their values are high, they are working hard, they are smart, all of that stuff, right. I would say in that case, don’t just give them more and more time in the same job. Because remember we started off by saying, the first quardrant guy is going to look there and say, wait a minute this company doesn’t value performance. Ultimately your job, as a leader is to get this person in that quardrant. And the question is can you find the right role to get him into that quardrant. That other quardrant of low values, low performance we don’t need to discuss