Evolving Performance management

Performance appraisals form an essential part of career advancement and

consist of regular feedbacks of employee performance within the companies.
These appraisals are conducted at least annually in most organisations.
Many companies are choosing to embrace a new system called performance
preview instead of the "one-side-accountable, boss-administered/
subordinate-received performance reviews."
The performance previews provide a timely check and feedback to the
employees and facilitates immediate damage control rather than an annual
report.
Moreover, these previews are aimed at taking the focus away from the boss's
authority and target the team member's individual strengths.
The flaw in the current system
Performance reviews though aimed to increase productivity, have proven to be
rather "ineffective, unreliable and unsatisfactory", according to research on it.
The research highlighted that these reviews consume a lot of time and leave
most employees dissatisfied and disgruntled.
A once-a-year, backwards-looking conversation with the boss does not answer
the challenges that organisations face.
Though intended to be objective, it is anything but that.
Goodbye to employee rankings!
In the U.S., 6% of Fortune 500 companies have done away with these rankings.
It had been found out that companies such as Deloitte spend as many as 2
million combined hours in performance previews.

Infosys ahead of the Bell Curve

Infosys, India's second largest IT firm, rolled out a new appraisal system named
iCount for its employees in 2016. The system measures their performance
based on the targets given to them.
As part of iCount, workers will be given "feedback and subjected to reviews
throughout the year rather than just an annual appraisal."
The move comes months after it had abandoned the bell curve appraisal tool
to assess its employees' performance.
Under the new assessment system iCount, employees will get feedback on
their performance throughout the year. "Infosys has changed the way
performance management is done, with higher focus on individual
performance rather than relative performance. We have moved away from
forced ranking curve and given our managers more flexibility and
empowerment, while still retaining focus on maintaining a high performance
culture," an Infosys spokeswoman told The Economic Times.
In September last year, Bengaluru-based IT major had ceased using the bell
curve method. Under that system, the managers were compelled to separate
the employees into three categories and "rank the performance of 70 percent
as average, 20 percent as high and 10 percent as low."

Infosys' move to discontinue the bell curve tool was one of CEO Vishal Sikka's
initiatives to reduce attrition levels and improve employee productivity. After
taking charge as the chief of Infosys in August 2014, Sikka brought many
changes for 'Infoscions,' including doing away with the formal dress code. The
new system will reward the company's employees based on their performance
in short-term, taking into account annual targets set for them.
"The underlying message is that every Infoscion counts and contributes...It
allows for continuous feedback from peer, manager, stakeholder. This is much
better than the earlier point in time feedback," the company spokeswoman
told the daily.

Questions:
1) Why performance previews are replacing performance reviews?
2) List down the differences between the Bell Curve and newly established
iCount?
3) How are newer approaches to PA adding value to the organizations as
well as employees?