Chris
Mason
Senior Director, Talent
Patagonia

Compensation Innovation in a Ratingless World

The landscape of performance management has shifted dramatically in the last few years with new practices - once thought radical - now seen as the new normal. Rating-less reviews, dynamic goal setting, continuous performance conversations, and crowdsourced feedback are taking the place of traditional annual goal setting, mid-year reviews, and the now controversial annual performance rating. At the same time, companies who have found new ways to improve performance are now faced with the reinvention of related Human Resource programs, including how to approach pay for performance and compensation. This session will share our journey at Patagonia to reinvent both our performance management and compensation programs including our approach to base pay adjustments and annual bonuses. The result is a continuous – employee driven – performance program that motivates ongoing learning and performance contributions linked to annual rewards, but without the need for traditional performance ratings or the annual merit process.

You will learn:

  • The latest trends and new emerging practices in Performance Management.
  • The implementation of employee-driven “Regenerative Performance” at Patagonia built around quarterly goals, check-in conversations, and crowdsourced feedback.
  • How Patagonia links performance contributions to annual bonus awards without traditional performance review ratings.
  • How Patagonia eliminated the traditional annual merit process and moved to more frequent approach to evaluating the need for base pay adjustments.