The backbone of any organization is the employee. It is important to understand their needs and provide them the results of their labor accordingly. Employees too are required to perform for the good of the company. The relationship goes both ways, as one depends on the other for mutual growth. Problems arise when the company grows, but the employees – not so much. This is why many organizations adopt the concept of meritocracy. In its simplest form, it is a healthy solution for any organization to sustain and enhance their growth, all the while ensuring that their employees are happy.
Why is Meritocracy Necessary?
Usually in an organization you will find three types of people. The first type are failing to meet their deadlines and expectations. The second type are at a stale career phase, where they come to office, do the bare minimum to meet their monthly performance ratings, but do nothing to achieve something more. The third type are the overachievers. These select few people have accomplished enough to consider their jobs less challenging. Have you noticed that in all three scenarios, the employees might feel encouraged to leave the company? The first type would obviously want to leave because they believe their failures will only pile up, so they look for another workplace where they can get settled successfully. The second type stays for a few basic reasons, but has more reasons to leave. The third type wants something new and exciting that their current job is not providing. This is where the concept of meritocracy comes in. If enacted properly, meritocracy can actually tackle the issues these employees are currently facing quite easily.
What is Meritocracy Then?
Simply put, meritocracy is a concept that companies use to recruit, groom, and reward employees based on merit. Therefore, employees with more meritorious performances receive further opportunities, benefits, incentives, promotions, increments, etc. Having a merit-based system solves a lot of issues that can potentially drive the company’s downfall. Let us start with the three types of employees we mentioned before.
The first type are the ones failing themselves and their respective teams. If the organization creates a system that rewards them for their little achievements, they are more likely to perform better and succeed. If they are low performers, they will not be able to sustain themselves in the workplace. The second type can also benefit from meritocracy. They will see that with some extra effort they can achieve more rewards, incentives, and opportunities. The overachievers, or the third type, will also enjoy meritocracy. They are already top performers, but the system will allow them to feel a boost of importance, respect, and pride when their efforts are recognized and rewarded among their peers and outside the company. In all three instances, meritocracy actually leads to employee satisfaction, which ultimately drives productivity and growth of the organization.
Can Meritocracy Solve Employee Issues?
In a merit-based system, employees are rewarded based on their merit. The merits of an employee are not limited strictly to their achievements and performance. It also includes their effort, commitment, passion to make something happen, and take accountability when required. This means everything else does not matter at all, and all employees get a fair shot at pursuing success. By everything else we mean:
- Nepotism: It does not matter whether you are a relative of the CEO or have close contacts and influence in the office. Without merit you have absolutely nothing to show for.
- Seniority: If you are a senior in the organization, you cannot expect extra perks than those ranking below you if you are not meritorious. Your junior colleagues may outdo you in performance and they will be rewarded better.
- Tenure: Working for a long time is certainly a merit, but if apart from that your performance is average, it can mean trouble in a merit-based system. Therefore, you need to have a meritorious portfolio of performances and skills whether you are working short or long-term.
- False pride: Many employees become arrogant because of their fancy educational degrees or previous work experience. They look down on others but do not show enough devotion to work. Meritocracy eliminates such practices and rewards those with more merit than those without.
- Politics: The best part about meritocracy is that there is no room for politics in the organization. This means that those with more merits have no means to vilify those with lesser merits. In fact, meritocracy encourages healthy competition between colleagues. Employees work together and encourage each other to perform better, resulting in more people achieving professional success. No stealthy conversations for extra perks will work!
Benefits for the Company
As mentioned earlier, meritocracy benefits the organization greatly. Since it is a merit-based system, the company will likely hire only those who meet certain criterias of merits to filter out undeserving candidates. Depending on the job, candidates may go through extensive skill assessments, integrity, and cognitive ability tests to determine their competency and merits. When all candidates go through tests where only merit determines outcome, it eliminates bias and any discrimination towards gender, religion, race, ethnicity, and other personal information. Hired candidates would be considered meritorious enough, and they would then go on to receive professional training. These candidates are more likely to be able to adapt to the system and adjust to their new environment. They are also more likely to take more responsible decisions and empower one another towards accomplishments. It also makes the company feel the need to develop and empower them further. Therefore, it is always worth investing in the employee for the company as long as the employee has enough merit worth retaining. Better performers equal a better company!
Rewarding employees based on their capabilities and efforts is by far the most ideal way to ensure that an organization is satisfied with its employees and vice versa. It not only encourages fair decisions and opportunities for each employee, but also sends them a message that no one will be given special treatment without merit. Therefore, new and experienced professionals work together to enhance each other’s merits, rather than share animosity. Meritocracy is a sustainable way to ensure the growth of an organization. It has been a tried and tested successful method in bti. Here, only the meritorious have persisted, which is why we believe that the employees are the second VIP of the company after the customers. Not everyone can work in bti, but those who are meritorious will enjoy it here.