It makes some shiver, burn it and salt the ground that it passed by. Others cry tears of joy, build pagodas and light incense in its honor. It’s bad, it’s ugly, and it’s beautiful! All hail MERITOCRACY, the SHIVA-OF-BUSINESS-PRACTICES, the three-faces-management-god of creation, protection and destruction!
There are about 1001 ways that you can recognize people. You can start by non differentiating. By differentiating by seniority. By how long you are in the organization. By race, by creed (it’s not legal but many insist on differentiating on that, pity).
THE HIGH IMPACT HR PROFESSIONAL DIFFERENTIATES BY MERIT!
Obvious? Not so much. How many individuals feel comfortable knowing that depends solely upon themselves? On his/her own account of merit, of how much $$$$ he/she put in the company’s pocket (by increasing sales and reducing costs?) How many feel at easy when you say that the guy that do a similar tasks as them, sitting besides them, is better than all of them and therefore deserve to receive much, but much more money?
Not many will like it. But hey, do you consider yourself good? Are you passionate? Are you willing to do an extra mile. If yes-to-all, where would you prefer to work?
(intermission) (have you ever read Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand? If not, buy it now. No amazon commission, I can assure you 
)
I have a nice 5-ingredient masala for a hyper-meritocratic movement:
- State clear (and all the time) that you are a meritocracy
- Define clearly how performance will be measured and what types of rewards one can expect
- Put together a broad range of compensation difference between the best and the worst professional (20% salary difference won’t do)
- Don’t discriminate by age, years of service, race, creed etc – but DISCRIMINATE EXTREMELY BY LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE
- Over communicate (your “meritocracy creed” and tools)
The thing is: putting a meritocracy in place takes some guts, because there will be always someone (generally a lot) not satisfied with
the results. But who the HIGH IMPACT HR PROFESSIONAL would prefer to have resentful – the top performer or the average, low performer? Higher turn-over? Stress? Why not, if focused on the right people???
However… Make sure to have a nice meritocracy-driven-environment set, a fair system that gives everyone equal opportunity to succeed (or as they say, Garbage in, Garbage out!)
And remember: you can’t run a meritocratic business if you don’t fire people!
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me” Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead)
For a High Impact HR World!
(liked? There is more)
1 step to make a killer mission statement
The three things a good HR should focus (HR Profit Machine!)
Say goodbye for the old HR era (but, if you like team building, don’t read this, please!)
