Why stack ranking at Microsoft still exists

Stack ranking will be around awhile

Microsoft does away with Stack Ranking

As an HR Hack, I think that the change of heart at Microsoft on the stack ranking management review and compensation system is great for their culture and as well as for all of HR.  Stack ranking at MSFT gives all HR practitioners a bad name, regardless of where they work. The HR side of me is glad MSFT pulled the trigger and the recruiter side of me is a little pissed. Working in a startup, I don’t have the fancy benefits program, I don’t have the fancy cafeteria, and I don’t have the world-class brand to help me recruit passive candidates. (Candidates not actively looking for a job)  The one thing I knew I could count on was using the stack ranking management practice as a tool to recruit “A” players out of Microsoft. 

Bill Gates is the Bomb

I live in the shadow of the Microsoft campus and work on the West Syeeeeddd, AKA Seattle. I am a HUGE fan of what Bill Gates has done for the world, specifically the culture of philanthropy in the Pacific Northwest.  MSFT has created more gazillionaires and millionaires with a sense of philanthropy than most companies. Bill Gates, I thank you for that.  In an age where most have an attitude of “me – me – me,” your sense of giving is fresh air. The scale at which you execute this attitude toward giving is ludicrous, and I say that in a good way.  

As a recruiter and an HR person, I never cared for the stack ranking system.  

I have always been a proponent of the following hiring theory: 

If you have a single opening and Leonardo Da Vinci and Einstein are interested in the position, you pick em’ both up.  You find a way, you make room, and you do not let one of them go to the competition.  

Look to your left and your right. One of you will be gone

What if you have DaVinci, Einstein, Malcolm Gladwell, and Stephen Hawking on your team? How do you stack rank these guys? It’s an outlier case, to be sure, but you see where I am coming from. Forced ranking is a tough way to build a team atmosphere and a culture of long-term relationships. No one wants to send a comrade to the short bus. Chasing an “A” player to the competition can be easy. 

The day the news that MSFT was abandoning the stack ranking practice, I received several emails from employee friends who work at MSFT. These are senior employees.  All are stupid smart and making crazy money, employees.  Some of these employees are making professional ballplayer money. One email rang loud and clear, and I quote:  

“I should probably start drinking champagne now.  This is the best news in the world. 🙂 

We are too nice

It was not so much that this employee was worried about her position or her ranking. She was at the top of her heap.  Stack ranking doesn’t build a culture conducive to the Pacific Northwest. Here, pedestrians wave at cars to cross an intersection ahead of us. We volunteer our directions when we see lost tourists trying to decipher maps of the local area.    

My initial reaction was that MSFT made my job as a recruiter much harder. My initial thought was that the stack ranking was exactly one of the things that most of the folks I recruited were trying to escape. MSFT eliminated this “best practice”; one of my most potent weapons was off the table. I was coming to a gunfight with the proverbial knife.  

Old habits die hard

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t have to worry. The practice of stack ranking may no longer be used at MSFT. For many senior managers, stack ranking is ingrained and subconscious. These individuals don’t know any other way to view their teams. To be promoted to a senior position, you will have been with the company for many years. The practice of stack ranking is now ingrained into the company’s culture. This mentality won’t disappear overnight. I don’t see managers changing their view toward middle- and bottom-tier players.  They may not say it out loud, and they may not have to write their names down at the bottom of the list, but the mentality will still exist. You don’t kill something like this overnight.     

Will it be easy?

Maybe it takes a minority to see this. I wonder what kind of training MSFT may implement to de-program its managers’ mindset around stack ranking. Just because an idea becomes a law doesn’t mean anything will change. Just because someone sends out an email doesn’t mean everyone will play nice. My gut tells me there will still be a glass ceiling that A-players in a pool of A-players must bust through. It won’t be easy.      

I applaud MSFT for updating its review process. All change takes time, and we need to start somewhere. The journey of 100 miles begins with a single step. This is MSFT’s first single step. That being said, I believe it will be a while before the idea of stack ranking disappears from the culture.  

In the meantime, I will continue to look for A players from MSFT who are tired of seeing other A players get overlooked. 

See you at the after party,
HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

If you feel this post is valuable, please subscribe here. I promise no spam,