I was a first-level manager at one. One year, HR decided to have ALL managers in the Division stack-rank ALL first-line employees in the Division.
I told my VP “this is silly — I don’t know those people, don’t know what they do, and don’t know how they perform.” He replied you know more about them than you think you do. Give it a try.” I was amazed at how close all the managers’ stack-ranked reviews of all employees in the Division came out.
We used that stack-rank as serious input to getting rid of the bottom 10% to 15% of performers every year. That stack-rank process was actually far more effective than I expected.
A couple of companies did 360s and I thought those were a complete waste of time.
I’ve worked remotely for the last few years. I literally don’t even know the names of several in my department. I couldn’t possibly rank them.