Fulfilling the “deservingness”

Organizations that aspire to grow and thrive need to create equitable environments.  Environments that provide truly equal opportunities for all. Employees can leverage the environment and the resources it provides to rise as far as their talents and hard work can take them. A system they can trust. A system where rewards, recognition and growth can be acquired in a fair and just manner. An environment where they can focus on what needs to be delivered and leave the rest to the “fair” organizational systems.

Many times, it is the inability of these merit systems to deliver to this basic sense of “deservingness” of the employees. The new generation of workers, I have been interacting with, clearly articulate their own principles of merit and the sense of “deservingness” for the hard work they are willing to invest. What they demand is a fair playing field. They demand that merit not be subject to discretionary whims of managers who are still evolving their own personal definition of talent and merit. They loathe to be led by managers who belong to an era where “merit” was judged by old norms for instance the number of hours an employee was seen “at work”. 

Performance, career growth and total reward systems in organizations are defined with the best intention of creating the desired equitable environment. They are designed with utmost care, articulated in the best way possible and communicated with the same spirit of justice and fairness. 

However, in the implementation of these systems, organizations struggle with maintaining the spirit of fairness. Sometimes, it is the capability existing in the organization to articulate the true spirit of merit and implement it exactly the way it is defined. Many times, it is the sum total of managerial and leadership capacity to truly appreciate the principles governing the system. Sometimes, it is a lack of clarity in the leaders themselves on their principles of merit and excellence and the perceptions resulting from their decision making. At times it is the exigencies of talent retention and the inability of the system to recognize “true merit” as it suits the business strategy at hand. In most situations, the decisions on merit are made centrally, maybe a couple of levels far above from where potential is truly realized. 

In the whole milieu, it hurts the organization immensely when the perception in the organization moves southwards. When people believe that managers play favorites, or that the holy grail of a certain framework (read bell curve) needs to be fulfilled. Many times, it is the mindless implementation of frameworks which neither the implementors nor the leaders challenge. It ends up being more meeting deadlines than the merit of the process or the resultant implications.

Unless individual employees have the drive and the grit to rise beyond the “imperfect” merit systems, they would adapt to a more cynical approach to effort. This robs the organization of all the discretionary power it could have otherwise wield. 

Bottom-line: organizations could work towards breaking down barriers that hold people back, to create upward mobility, to create a meritocratic environment that is open and respects the equal worth of each of its members. Design systems that are self correcting. Bake objectivity into the system, thereby, sucking ambiguity out of high discretionary decision making.

Does the organization fulfil the sense of “deservingness” of its employees? A key question to answer.