Chapter 9. The Economic Value of Job Performance

Consider this single question: Where would a change in the availability or quality of talent have the greatest impact on the success of your organization? Talent pools that have great impact are known as pivotal talent pools. Alan Eustace, Google’s vice president of engineering, told The Wall Street Journal that one top-notch engineer is worth 300 times or more than the average and that he would rather lose an entire incoming class of engineering graduates than one exceptional technologist.1

This estimate was probably not based on precise numbers, but the insight it reveals regarding where Google puts its emphasis is significant. Recasting performance management to reflect where differences in ...

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