This concept is not new - see [0].

There's ample research that Welchian stack ranking, and assuming a Gaussian distribution of employee performance, is not well-founded. Even its original pioneers (General Electric) have abandoned the practice (see [1]).

Not sure why there are so many commenters here defending the Gaussian model. Most researchers at this point agree that a pareto distribution is more realistic.

[0]: https://hbr.org/2022/01/we-need-to-let-go-of-the-bell-curve

[1]: https://qz.com/428813/ge-performance-review-strategy-shift