CMI’s ABC process

So many aspects of business are uncontrollable – the stock market, consumer demand, new competition – so what can businesses do to minimize their risks? One way to gain control is to build a work team that you can count on who perform. CMI’s ABC Process is designed to give your company both a people and a performance edge. Let me preface this by saying that I do not endorse management’s system of ranking employees. What I do endorse is only having outstanding employees.

Here are some suggestions for managers from CMI’s ABC process:

1. Educate your managers: Help them understand the definitions of A, B, and C players by reading some of the following: 
• The ABC’s chapter from Front Line Heroes: Battling the Business Tsunami While Developing Performance Oriented Cultures by Bruce Hodes 
• “A New Game Plan for C Players” by Beth Axelrod, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Ed Michaels 
2. Jointly gauge employee performance: Specifically, managers should jointly assess employee performance. Only those who interact directly with the employee should state their opinions. This allows the employee’s manager to get candid feedback. Avoid the grey - no plus and no minuses – managers must make a choice. 
3. Take action: 
• Ditch the D & F’s: D & F employees will drag your company down. If you have more than a few D and F employees, sell the firm and do something to save yourself. 
• Decide what to do with your C players: give them a new role, develop them in their current role, or let them go. 
• Distinguish between A vs. B: The difference between A and B players is their ability to be promoted. B players are great and loyal employees. They are valuable and skilled at what they do. A employees have the drive and the focus to take all the great aspect that B employees have and bring them to the next level. 
4. Follow up: check on the status of the manager’s decision and actions 

Good luck! Let us know how the process went for you.