It does mean that management ranks the performance of others in the retention group higher. Change in retention group composition. Retention exercises occur about once each year. It sometimes happens that the people in a retention group can change from one exercise to another. Therefore, your work would be compared to that of different people than before, a change which may cause your retention rating to drop.
Layoffs cause a slightly different problem.
As a result, some of the higher-rated employees will notice their retention ratings drop during the next retention exercise. This is a result of the mandatory retention distribution and does not necessarily reflect a drop in performance. New group or supervisor. When you change groups or supervisors, it is possible that a retention exercise can occur before your new supervisor has the opportunity to fully appreciate your contributions. It is also possible that a new supervisor may evaluate your performance somewhat differently than was done in the past.