An Algorithm May Decide Your Next Pay Raise

Just about everyone agrees that the traditional, annual-review-based way of evaluating employees simply doesn't work anymore, if it ever did. In fact, it's hard to think of anything businesses routinely do that's more universally unpopular. A recent global Mercer survey of HR leaders worldwide found that just 2% believe their current performance-management systems are very effective. No wonder McKinsey reported, in another recent study, that two-thirds of employers say they're making big changes, or trying to. "Managers and employees alike see the old annual-review approach as too subjective, too bureaucratic, and too backward-looking," notes Bryan Hancock, a McKinsey partner in Atlanta who has worked closely with companies where artificial intelligence is being applied to evaluating humans' performance.