[rlonstein]

Yes, seen that. One variation I experienced was separating retention rank (how critical is this person to the team, dept., etc.) from performance rank (how effective and skilled is this person). That was a bit of a painful exercise as it was very clear to me that the organization was sifting for a reduction in force despite high performance after having culled the low performers.

[pc86]

It makes sense on the most basic level of "we have 5 high-performing individuals but we only have enough work to support 4."

If you have a group of people who all get 5's on a review but you are required to let one of them go, how do you do it in a way that isn't picking a name out of a hat, or the first person to get stuck in traffic and be late to a meeting?

[digikata]

But one knows what the numbers can be used for when assigning performance review numbers to people. So instead of picking a name out of a hat, the process is to pick a number out of a hat corresponding to a name?