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Phil's Library

Microsoft's Approach to Performance & Development & Rewards

  1. Deliver results through teamwork
  2. Feedback that helps you learn, grow, and deliver results
  3. Rewards contributions to business impact

Rewards principles:

  1. One year, one reward: rewards are only based on impact for the past fiscal year
  2. No predefined distribution: we have a fixed budget, but no predetermined distribution for how many people should receive higher or lower rewards.
  3. No ratings: we don’t use performance ratings.
  4. Higher rewards for higher impact.

Performance is defined as impact on team, customer, or business results.

  • Successful performance is based on impact, not activity. It includes individual accomplishments, as well as building on and contributing to the success of others.
  • Expectations for successful impact grow year over year. Wea are all expected to embrace a growth mindset and develop new skills and capabilities to deliver even greater impact each year.
  • Successful impact includes not just what someone delivers for their core priorities, but how they’ve demonstrated Microsoft’s cultural expectations and values.

Determine impact & submit rewards justifications → people discussions to share examples and define impact benchmarks for the org → review and refine to align with org benchmarks → budget reconciliation → Rewards discussions to communicate final rewards.