GIC Re Unions question bell curve appraisal not used by consultant itself

Chennai, Sep 12 (IANS) The bell curve appraisal system, junked by many big organisations including consultancy firm KPMG is being proposed to be implemented in General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), the company unions said.

They also wondered as to how the bell curve appraisal system would be good for GIC Re when its own consultant - KPMG - was not in favour of it.

"The bell curve appraisal system that has already been defunct in many organisations is being proposed to be implemented in GIC Re very soon at the cost of Rs 4 crore approx," five unions of the national reinsurer have told their management.

Citing various news reports, the five GIC Re unions, in a letter to the Board of Directors and its Chairman and Managing Director Devesh Srivastava, listed names of several big companies that have scrapped the bell curve appraisal system.

"The most surprising part is that even our KPI (key performance indicator) consultant, KPMG has also scrapped the aforesaid appraisal system as it was toxic for the work environment," the letter notes.

"While removing this mode of appraisal, KPMG stated that 'We want to encourage a collaborative work culture and take away the internal competition between employees, thus encouraging qualitative discussions on performance'. The bell curve, the way it is understood and implemented, is wrong sometimes, making it a forced normalisation and forces rating. It cannot be a rigid curve. It could be a steep curve, flat curve depending on the business performance," the GIC Re unions said.

The GIC Re is the national reinsurer with about 470 employees.

In an earlier letter, the five unions had said if KPMG's recommendations are implemented, the work-life balance of employees will be adversely affected.

"KPMG has proposed a phone application which will be installed in every employee's handset which will inform one's performance 24/7, thus further deteriorating work life balance," the unions had told the GIC Re management.

"We also demanded the consultant's preliminary report with SWOT analysis and final pre-implementation report which has not been provided till date," the letter written by the unions notes.

"Be it known to all that the recent transfers, re-transfers and retro transfers fiasco and the various departments which have mushroomed overnight were based on KPMG's report which is not even approved by the management nor has our board's sanctity. Hence, it does not adhere to the current transfer policy. This is akin to clinical trials," the earlier letter added.

According to the unions, quality parameters are totally ignored, and all the employees will be judged on quantity and what the phone app reflects.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at [email protected])