UCU: Campaigning against 'Rank & Yank' Performance Management

Motion

Motion text: HESC notes:

staff appraisal schemes, essentially a formative developmental tool for the individual, are under threat from a new type of metric-based performance management widely used in the private sector: 'Rank and Yank' (RAY)
the quantification of qualitative performance in teaching, research and enabling on which RAY metrics are based is dubious, discredited and will lead to favouritism and discrimination.
HESC further notes that such schemes:

measure relative staff performance against norms, rather than fixed role profiles
provide redundancy selection criteria, e. g. Identifying the lowest scoring 10%, and as such pressure staff to increase their performance year on year
bias research towards economic impact and against freedom of enquiry
encourage staff competition and discourage collaboration.
HESC resolves to:

reaffirm support for formative appraisal schemes.
Campaign against the introduction of RAY schemes.
Fully support branches boycotting the introduction of RAY schemes.