Increasingly the rigid framework of data-driven employee performance reviews are giving way to more fluid forms of feedback. Companies such as Microsoft, Accenture, and Deloitte are rethinking the way they perform annual employee reviews, and younger companies like Amazon are working to make the feedback process ubiquitous, with coaching available whenever an employee or a manager requests it. In a surprising move, GE recently moved away from its infamous “rank and yank” system, which called for managers to rate their employees and fire the bottom 10 percent. Now, the company is testing a process based on employee goals rather than manager’s grades. "It is really a shift from what we have historically done at GE," says Janice Semper, leader of GE culture. "The focus is much more on the people, developing them, and much less on rating and ranking people." Adobe, too, is working to shift the way it gives employees feedback, encouraging frequent, informal “check-ins” with managers, rather than scheduling high-stress annual reviews.