The most common question we receive here at ClearGears is about gaming the system. Can employees undermine ClearGears by colluding to either inflate or deflate someone’s performance? We have a few answers to that:

• Yes, but that's also possible with traditional 360 forms.
• Effective collusion is less likely because it requires the entire team to collude (and not just two people). It requires a conspiracy.
• Effective collusion is less likely because it would have to continue every day for a year.
• Employers can eliminate incentive to game the system by not linking ClearGears results to compensation.

For best results, don’t incentivize people to game the system.

Don’t let an employee’s ClearGears score drive their compensation. The more closely ClearGears results are linked to pay, the greater the employee incentive to manipulate survey answers. Instead, use ClearGears as a way to encourage employees to improve their performance. Try to improve the whole company over time rather than focusing on the performance of an individual. Believe it or not, people want to be judged as performing well by their peers. They don't need a cash incentive. 

Company performance is just like a stock portfolio. What matters most is not the performance of individual stocks, but of the portfolio as a whole. Similarly, the success of an entire company depends more on a successful company culture than on the high performance of individual. In some cases, high performing individuals may have agendas separate from the company agenda, leading to lower overall performance. Think about the salesperson who steals his coworker’s leads, or the manager who takes all the credit for his team’s projects. Both create a false picture of excellence, and both prevent the company from reaching its fullest potential.