Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Amazon’s Data Sharing Approach Is Not That Controversial For The Upcoming Business World



Over the weekend, New York Times article about Amazon’s work culture made a buzz in the internet market. In that article, Amazon was described as a place which worked on the ‘theory of Darwinism’. They also highly criticised Amazon’s ‘rank and yank’ philosophy which according to NYT have been a major reason of failure for many companies and have tarnished the lives of thousands of living souls.

But if we look back in the history, Amazon is not the lone company that was working on using data on its employees to increase their productivity. If believed the article, the work environment where the entire staff is under huge constant pressure to deliver progressive results on a various detailed metrics and which is monitored by the company is ‘bruising’. The company keeps tab on what gets isolated in employees shopping cards and which videos they steam. They even give motivation on report or heavy criticism about fellow colleagues to higher management, to addition more data on their performance. While on the other hand, Amazon leader Jeff Bezos explained to the staff that the following article doesn’t appropriately define their company’s culture.

Why Are Companies Adopting Data Driven Approach?

But according to experts, this kind of staff driven management that Amazon so skillfully uses is all set to come forth in a more profound form as technology seems to transform the world. Each and every company somewhere tries to process the employee data to get a more efficient handle on their top performers and their standings. Be it a large company or a small one, everyone is moving beyond traditional human resource reviews, that are used in annual performance evaluation chart. All are migrating towards more data driven approach, which comprises of check-ins, frequent feedback and other metrics. Adopting an approach that is more data driven includes more frequent ratings by managers and other interior feedback. This analyzed data is more better than a single rating of a person’s performance. This new approach transforms the technology from a smaller version to a bigger data version of the people.

Examples

Tech companies are acting speedier in applying this data analytical system to their staff.
  • For example Google, has been using data to know their optimal sized teams for individual projects, that in turn helps in knowing the effective leaders.
  • Another example came be taken of Glint Inc, a company based in Redwood city California, that mails its employees something called “pulses” or to be more precise short surveys regarding their feelings about their job. These surveys help in seeing the real fairing of the connection between the company and its employees. At the same time this data can be used to see the overall fairing of the employees in real time. The real beauty of this system is that you can link actions to efficient outcomes.

Drawbacks

  • This makes a kind of constant surveillance over the employees.
  • Relying solely on statistical data, misses the more important thing that a staff brings to the table like connectivity, personality and even intangible pieces.
  • Might create an atmosphere of dysfunctional workplace.

But if taken a balanced approach, this performance monitoring data is effective. Its important for a CEO of a company to know how his people are feeling and hence make few necessary call accordingly.


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