Monday, February 2, 2015

The Curse Of CEP

The template presentation of Shell's employee evaluation system defines Current Estimated Potential (CEP) as: "The current realistic estimate of the highest job that an individual will be able to perform in his or her future career within Shell". It also spells out what Shell had in mind.

CEP is intended to:
Identify potential leaders;
Assess the status of the current talent pool;
Support career planning and talent development;
Ensure a common basis for measurement across the organisation

CEP is not intended to:
Guarantee or limit individual career advancement or success;
Be the sole factor in promotion or selection decisions;
Remain constant throughout an individual’s career. CEP ratings can move up or down in future assessments.

It was thus a gross abuse of the Shell system to warp it - our variant has to be Current Economic Potential, with the emphasis on "why not collect more money" - into a living demonstration of the Peter Principle, a management theory in which the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate's performance in their current role rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role. Employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and "managers rise to the level of their incompetence." We were reminded of the anamolie when a naval officer was recently appointed to manage our life savings locked up in the Central Provident Fund (CPF). Shucks, does that mean all the funds invested are really underwater?

The system as it stands is that we have white horses guaranteed top paying jobs based on CEP solely, no other factors considered in the selection, and the evaluation rating remaining constant regardless of failings obvious in the public eye. One glaring example is that of a police commissioner ending up in a comfortable CEO chair. Worse to come, the world's higest paid political office is up for grabs. That could the hidden meaning when Goh Chok Tong said that Singapore is likely to become a 'garbage city'.

8 comments:

  1. It is Garbage City alright.
    Much of the Garbage are in the
    Cabinet.
    Hope that the Cabinet is not
    Home Of the Rats.

    patriot

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  2. Well it is CNY time. Time for spring cleaning and clear out the Cabinets of garbage that came in with the last GE

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  3. The moment they started calibrating their pay scales across the board to the top paying private sector jobs with no regards to their own productivity and contribution to society, we knew the rot has set in. Its hard to bring balance back now, its self-serving and in a vicious circle of you determine my CEP, I determine the next in line's CEP etc etc. The ship is already 3/4 capsized and every "top scholar" is waiting to bail out, might as well appoint the sailor to see it into the abyss.

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  4. It's easy to clean up the garbage in the city after a wild night, but not so the detritus of 50 years of one party rule. They say new broom sweeps clean, so……

    You can throw away all the management books and principles in the red dot, because there is only the hard truths of the old coot.

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  5. Garbage rulers get garbage image trying to make U-turn look like a straight one. Someone was just trying to be nice.

    It's more likely they are trying to make a crooked deal turn a straight one by telling some ancient chinese story.

    It is as if our Indians and Malay brothers and sisters are not existent in this country by telling chinese tales. Aren't are leaders garbage to treat them like as if they are not significant?

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  6. One of the main reasons of using military figures to manage scam companies is because they know nuts about the industry but are trained to say YES as command. No self-respect industry veterans want to work in scam companies exposing the the shortcoming ( remember Chip Goodyear ? ) as they will question the company's operation. By using military clowns, they will not ask question because they are idiot that know nothing about the companies and its industries, train to follow orders with no question asked in exchange for extraordinary salarys and perks. Puppets in making.

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  7. For the elite, it is Crony Economic Potential.
    For the hoi polloi, it is Career Ending Point.

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