彼得原理：最好的员工如何变成无能的人

2016 9月 07

The effect described above is known as the "Peter Principle": in any organization with a hierarchical structure, every employee tends to occupy the position in which he or she will turn out to be incompetent (i.e. unable to succeed and/or to achieve the desired results) and remain in this position. While an employee effectively performs the tasks of each position, he/she keeps being promoted until there is a position which is beyond this employee’s capabilities. It is impossible to return this employee to the previous position: the place is already taken and the reputation of the person in charge might be damaged because of it.

This situation puts a company in a difficult position. If you do not hire employees from outside the company, then after a while it will be full of incompetent employees. And the problem is not just in the lack of "fresh blood": incompetence begets and multiplies incompetence. For example, an incompetent manager assesses not the actual results of his or her subordinates, but the visible manifestation of their contribution to the company's performance: compliance with accepted rules and orders, loyalty and benignity, and absence of threat to manager’s career from them. As the situation unfolds and only incompetent employees and managers take over all levels of hierarchy, the company pays less attention to productive activities, such as achievement of its set goals, the increase of operational efficiency, and finding new opportunities for growth.

不足为奇的是，所有这些都会直接影响到企业的业绩。CEB SHL的研究表明，80%以上的业绩下滑不是由外部因素造成的，而是由员工的行为造成的。

无论企业的问题是什么：客户和他们的忠诚度的损失，毁坏的声誉和不明确的品牌定位，低质量的产品和供应链的不平衡，错误的定价和考虑不周的商业模式，无意义的投资，以及无利可图的联盟--在几乎所有的问题中，无能起了最大的作用。

还记得DEC和柯达是如何濒临破产的吗？在此之前的几年，这两家公司都依赖于众所周知、经过验证的流行产品。但他们忽略了后来成为新一代技术基础的发现和解决方案。原因是负责战略规划和分析长期行业趋势的工作人员和管理人员的无能。

外部招聘不是一种救赎

这个问题有两个解决方案。第一个是从公司外部招聘更多的员工。然而，困难的经济形势会迫使大多数组织减少其外部招聘计划。危机期间申请人之间的竞争可能会加倍。例如，在2015年初，由于俄罗斯的经济危机，俄罗斯求职网站hh.ru登记的每个职位空缺的简历从6份增加到12份。

然而，即使在经济不景气的情况下，公司也从未停止进一步发展业务的计划。相反，他们寻求保留和增长他们的市场份额，提高流程的效率，推出新的产品和服务。要做到这一点，他们需要人，所以在危机期间，改善和教育现有员工变得更有吸引力，这并不奇怪。但是，公司是否了解其员工的潜力？全球CEB SHL研究表明，在内部招聘中，公司很少使用客观的评估工具。

只有40%的受访机构使用技能和知识测试来评估其现有员工，而对于外部候选人，73%的公司将提供此类测试。

人格问卷的情况也是如此：只有34%的组织将其用于内部招聘和晋升，62%的组织将其用于外部招聘。认知能力和智力测试的情况更糟糕：分别为24%和59%。

事实证明，公司往往不太仔细地检查他们的内部候选人。关于这些人的主要信息来源，首先是他们的上级和同事的主观意见，其次是过去的工作成就和成功经验，最后是一些可以称为社会指标的东西：在公司或以前的职位上的经验，文凭和证书，关系和推荐，等等。

Of course, this information is relevant. Especially when it comes to strategically important positions: it allows selecting the candidates, who have already adapted to the culture and style of the company, acquired the necessary connections and reputation and have achieved some results. But this information says very little about the actual potential of an employee. Instead, the focus is primarily put on past successes, which in its turn is precisely why "Peter Principle" occurs, when the promotion of a successful employee can easily lead to completely incompetent company leader emerging.

当然，市场上有很多工具，可以让你监控你的员工，检查他们每一个人究竟有多专业。它们有很多形状和大小，从简单的时间跟踪器或屏幕截图器到先进的多方面程序，例如CleverControl。不可否认，这类程序对改善公司的业务流程很有帮助，但当涉及到员工评估时，防止一个不称职的员工获得重要职位总比后来发现某些晋升是个错误要好。

客观评价是最好的补救措施

哪些内部候选人信息能帮助公司为一个空缺职位选择最合适的人？哪些信息来源是可以信赖的？

一个员工在一个新的职位或新的环境中的结果主要取决于他或她是否具备必要的能力，这些能力是可持续的和明确表现出来的行为，在实际工作情况下是一致和有效的。直接评估能力水平并不容易，因为这需要大规模和组织良好的评估中心。在评估中心，候选人展示他们能力的真实水平，进行各种练习，详细模拟工作活动的最重要方面。但这个过程需要大量的时间和人力资源。

Therefore, successful organizations have resorted to the assessment of potential - those qualities that constitute the foundation of competencies. Firstly they are intellectual and cognitive abilities, personality traits and factors of motivation and only secondly - tried and tested skills, acquired knowledge and experience, including "survival experience" in the specific company environment.

If the "survival experience" information can be gathered from colleagues of a candidate, then objective assessment tools give an idea specifically about the abilities and personality traits which cannot be assessed subjectively.

最可靠的结果是通过专业的能力测试和个性问卷来体现的；能力面试和情景测试可能是有用的额外信息来源。为了从内部招聘中使用这些工具中获得最大利益，你需要遵循以下3个简单的规则。