Hopefully yearly goal setting and then regular checkups will help reduce the amount of deadwood they accumulate. I believe that most people have great potential if properly motivated. A few years of growth associated with being thoughtfully mentored might not be enough to bring deadwood back to life, but it could save a lot of employees from heading down that path.

Also, having regular checkins makes it a lot more obvious when someone isn't performing, which means the deadwood is more likely to be let go.

I realize this is overly optimistic, due to faults in the managers themselves. For example, kingdom builders will keep deadwood since it increases their headcount.

The yearly performance reviews at a previous job were a waste of time. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had good experiences with them either as a manager or as an employee.

"Dead wood" is a myth. Few employees are useless and it's always obvious if it is the case.

In what way is it a myth? I've definitely worked with people who where without a doubt dead wood, but I agree that it's absolutely obvious to everyone who they are.

I don't agree that it's obvious. Smart people who aren't motivated can be pretty good at pretending to be productive. I've worked with a guy who hand waves everything even slightly technical, doesn't know what version control is, and generally has no real insights.

But it seems I'm in minority. He has a phd and is presented as the brains of the company. Due to historical chance he's also held important sounding titles. He acts friendly, too.

Someone who is really bad is fairly easy to spot and deal with you don't need to stack rank everyone to do that.

FTFA:

"marked increase in what Morris calls “involuntary, non-regrettable attrition, because team leaders are no longer putting off having tough conversations with people who aren’t cutting it"