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Running head: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AT IBM

Professional Assignment 1 – CLO 2, CLO 3, CLO 4, CLO 5 
Explore from Internet sources at least two best practices of IBM in respect with recognizing their
employee performance and try to provide strategic direction how the Nepal-based community
development project organizations can apply these best practices to motivate and retain their young and
skilled workforce in the projects.

Performance Management at IBM

Sarthak Aryal

BUS 362 Performance Management

Professor Rajiv Sharma

Westcliff University

January 25, 2020

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Abstract

This paper lists down two of the main strategies implemented by IBM to manage the

performance of its employees. The company is well-known for selling computer hardware and

software. Besides that, the company has retained global success for over 100 years now. After

discussing two of the most efficient performance strategies implemented by IBM, this paper talks

about how Nepalese companies could implement the learnings from IBM to improve the

performance of its employees.

Keywords: employee performance, human resource management.

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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AT IBM

Performance Management at IBM

Introduction

Performance management is one of the important function of the human resource

department which is responsible for assessing the individual employee performance, and taking

measures the improve the performance of each and every employee[ CITATION Ulr97 \l 1033 ].

By measuring the performance level of every employee, the organization can reward employees

whose performance remains superior than others. Also, the action of reward and praises will

motivate other employees to perform better. On the contrary, HR managers can take necessary

steps to improve the performance of those employees who seem lacking by providing them

training and development programs, or by counselling[ CITATION Agu13 \l 1033 ]. Else, it would

be better to get rid of employees who is inconsistent when it comes to performance. There are

plenty of strategies which can be implemented by a business organization to improve the

performance level of its employees, as the performance of all the employees results in the

productivity of the organization as a whole[ CITATION Jay041 \l 1033 ].

Performance Management Strategies at IBM

IBM is renowned for producing and supplying computer hardware, and software. Also, it

is known for employing more than thirty thousand employees all across the globe. Managing

such a diverse workforce will be extremely difficult, it would require much of a systematic

approach towards catering the needs to the employees to ensure their performance remains

consistent. The company has successfully implemented an effective state-of-art technology to

ensure that the performance of individual employee can be tracked, measured, and evaluated in a
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single platform[ CITATION Har88 \l 1033 ]. Along with that, the company is very grateful towards

its employees, which is one of the main reason why top-performing employees seem to like

working for the company, and other potential job-seekers aspire to get placed in the company.

a) Checkpoint: Checkpoint is an app developed by IBM which can be accessed by any

employee working for IBM[ CITATION Wal07 \l 1033 ]. The app contains individual

database for each employees which can be viewed by everyone. Only the ranking officers

are allowed to provide feedback on the performance of the employee. Employee are

asked to set short-term goals, and its accomplishment is supervised by the ranking

officers who provides feedback assessing the employee’s performance level. This model

of performance appraisal is much more advanced than the traditional form. Prior to

Checkpoint, performance appraisals used to be a robust process within the HR

department. Many employees shared their feedbacks upon updating the performance

appraisal system which led towards the birth of Checkpoint. This application has created

an atmosphere for collaboration for employees which have not only improved the

employee performance management at IBM, but improved the working conditions at

IBM as well.

b) Employee-Centric: IBM is a very employee-centric company, and focuses on investing

properly for the growth of its employees[ CITATION Kol141 \l 1033 ]. Firstly, the company

has access to finest resources in the tech-industry which are made available to its

employees. As a result, the company is able to produce quality-products, where

employees are skilled and knowledgeable. Secondly, work environment is a crucial factor

which determines the performance level of an employee. The company have not

comprised to provide a safe, and healthy workplace environment, which have resulted in
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motivated employees only. Finally, the company dwells on providing ample amount of

career development, and training programs to its employees. This have enabled the

workforce to be constantly updated with respective learnings, improve decision making,

and become a better team-player.

Implementing Strategies for Nepalese Companies

Here are few of the learnings which can be implemented by Nepalese companies:

a) While performing the performance appraisals, IBM prioritizes on collecting

feedbacks based on observation rather than scale ratings. Many Nepalese company

under-perform when it comes to performance appraisals. Like IBM collects

feedbacks, if HR managers base their performance evaluation on the feedbacks

received from direct observation by co-workers, supervisors, or managers; the

measurement of employee performance level will be more accurate and reliable.

b) Integration of technology to measure, track, and evaluate performance of individual

employees like IBM did with Checkpoint can be done by Nepalese companies. They

might not have the right resource to build a system like Checkpoint, but they can at

least subscribe to a web-based HR application to reduce human effort.

c) Finally, companies in Nepal don’t investment in the development of their employees

which mostly causes the company to suffer through a series of turn-over incidents. As

a result, it would be beneficial for Nepalese organizations to invest in the

development of its employees.

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Conclusions

Hence, performance management involves reviewing the performance of individual

employees, and taking necessary actions to improve the performance level of individual

employees. From IBM’s PM strategies, it can be learnt that a company must invest towards the

development of its employees, and integration of IT to perform various HR activities improves

productivity.
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References

Aguinis, H. (2013). Performance management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Hartenstein, A. (1988). Building integrated HRM systems. Training & Development Journal,

42(5), 90-94.

Jayne, M. E., & Dipboye, R. L. (2004). Leveraging diversity to improve business performance:

Research findings and recommendations for organizations. Human Resource

Management: Published in Cooperation with the School of Business Administration, The

University of Michigan and in alliance with, 43(4), 409-424.

Kolachi, N., & Akan, O. H. (2014). The role of HR managers in developing intellectual capital:

A comparative case study and viewpoints on some selected companies. Journal of

Business Case Studies (JBCS), 10(2), 191-202.

Ulrich, D. (1997). Measuring human resources: an overview of practice and a prescription for

results. Human Resource Management: Published in Cooperation with the School of

Business Administration, The University of Michigan and in alliance with the Society of

Human Resourc, 36(3), 303-320.

Walker, L. (2007). IBM business transformation enabled by service-oriented architecture. IBM

Systems Journal, 46(4), 651-667.