Editing Vitality curve (section)

==Companies using the system==
{{More citations needed section|date=November 2007}}

===IBM===
[[IBM]] has used a vitality curve program called Personal Business Commitments (PBC) since before 2006. For IBM, the main thrust of the strategy is to reduce workforce and shift personnel to lower-cost geographies by using a pseudo-objective rationale. The PBC process starts with a corporate distribution target, which is applied at the lowest levels of the hierarchy and then iteratively applied through the higher levels.  The process involves meetings where managers compete for a limited number of favorable rankings for their employees. An employee's rating is thus dependent not only on the manager's opinion but also on the ability of the manager at "selling" and how much influence the 1st line manager has on the second-line manager (for example, if the first-line manager is rated highly, that manager's employees are more likely to be ranked highly).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.endicottalliance.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816012112/http://www.endicottalliance.org/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=August 16, 2000|title=Endicott Alliance}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.unitetheunion.org/pdf/%28JN3144%29%20Performance%20Management%20Briefing.pdf|title=Forced Ranking in Performance Management|publisher=Unite|access-date=2013-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110193533/http://archive.unitetheunion.org/pdf/%28JN3144%29%20Performance%20Management%20Briefing.pdf|archive-date=2013-11-10|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://endicottalliance.org/jrm2006hrwebcast_030206.pdf|title=IBM Human Resources Webcast, March 2006|access-date=2013-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110195915/http://endicottalliance.org/jrm2006hrwebcast_030206.pdf|archive-date=2013-11-10|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

=== AIG ===
Under the leadership of [[Bob Benmosche]], [[American International Group]] (AIG) implemented a five-point system in 2010, with a split of 10%/20%/50%/10%/10%. The top 10% are deemed "1s" and receive the largest bonuses; the next 20% are "2s" and receive somewhat smaller bonuses; the bulk consists of "3s", which get the smallest bonuses. The "4s" receive no bonuses, and the "5s" are fired unless they improve. According to Jeffrey Hurd, AIG's senior vice president of human resources and communications, "Prior to this, everyone was above-average...You never really knew where you stood."<ref name="kwoh"/>

===Yahoo===
[[Yahoo]] CEO [[Marissa Mayer]] instituted its "QPR" (quarterly performance review) system in 2012, using the rankings: Greatly Exceeds (10%) Exceeds (25%), Achieves (the largest pool at 50%), Occasionally Misses (10%) and Misses (5%).

In a new version for the fourth quarter 2013, sources said the percentages are changing, but only at the discretion of leadership within the units: Greatly Exceeds (10%), Exceeds (35%), Achieves (50%), Occasionally Misses (5%) and Misses (0%). This new evaluation system resulted in 600 [[layoff]]s in the fourth quarter of 2013.<ref>{{cite web|last=Swisher|first=Kara|title=Because Marissa Said So — Yahoos Bristle at Mayer's QPR Ranking System and Silent Layoffs| url= http://allthingsd.com/20131108/because-marissa-said-so-yahoos-bristle-at-mayers-new-qpr-ranking-system-and-silent-layoffs| access-date=13 November 2013|publisher= All Things D|date=8 November 2013}}
</ref>

===Amazon===
Excerpt from ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="Kantor">{{cite news | last = Kantor | first = Jodi|author2=Streitfeld, David |
 title = Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = August 15, 2015 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html | access-date = 2015-08-17 }}</ref>
<blockquote>
Amazon holds a yearly Organization Level Review, where managers debate subordinates' rankings, assigning and reassigning names to boxes in a matrix projected on the wall. In recent years, other large companies, including Microsoft, General Electric and Accenture Consulting, have dropped the practice — often called stack ranking, or "rank and yank" — in part because it can force managers to get rid of valuable talent just to meet quotas.

The review meeting starts with a discussion of the lower-level employees, whose performance is debated in front of higher-level managers. As the hours pass, successive rounds of managers leave the room, knowing that those who remain will determine their fates.

Preparing is like getting ready for a court case, many supervisors say: To avoid losing good members of their teams — which could spell doom — they must come armed with paper trails to defend the wrongfully accused and incriminate members of competing groups. Or they adopt a strategy of choosing sacrificial lambs to protect more essential players. "You learn how to diplomatically throw people under the bus", said a marketer who spent six years in the retail division. "It's a horrible feeling."
[...]

Many women at Amazon attribute its gender gap — unlike Facebook, Google, or Walmart, it does not currently have a single woman on its top leadership team — to its competition-and-elimination system. 
[...]

The employees who stream from the Amazon exits are highly desirable because of their work ethic, local recruiters say. In recent years, companies like Facebook have opened large Seattle offices, and they benefit from the Amazon outflow.

Recruiters, though, also say that other businesses are sometimes cautious about bringing in Amazon workers, because they have been trained to be so combative. The derisive local nickname for Amazon employees is "Amholes" — pugnacious and work-obsessed.<ref name="Kantor"/>
</blockquote>

===Other companies===
Other companies that use the system include [[Dell]],<ref name="ovide"/> [[Cisco Systems]],<ref name="ovide"/> [[Conoco]],<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Susan M. Stewart |author2 =Melissa L. Gruys|author3=Maria Storm|title=Forced Distribution Performance Evaluation Systems: Advantages, Disadvantages and Keys to Implementation |journal=Journal of Management & Organization|date=March 2010|volume=16|issue=1|pages=168–179|doi= 10.1017/S1833367200002340 }}</ref> and [[Canva]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-03 |title=Atlassian and Canva turn screws on staff to survive the downturn |url=https://www.afr.com/technology/atlassian-and-canva-turn-screws-on-staff-to-survive-the-downturn-20230630-p5dkx0 |access-date=2024-08-26 |website=Australian Financial Review |language=en}}</ref>