Marcom HRsay

The sun washed over Jefferson as I passed. He faced the oncoming day centered in his memorial while the Washington Monument watched over all.

A moving and humbling moment.

Give me liberty. All are created equal. Inalienable rights. Justice for all.

It was a quick trip to Washington DC for the 2011 Mercer Analyst Forum (part of their Global Benefits Outsourcing Conference — I’ll write more about it on my Ventana Research blog) and I was fortunate enough to take in a few sights…

But in the world of capitalism, of which our democracy so whole-heartedly embraces, going in all equal and staying that way just doesn’t work in the world of work.

Take annual performance reviews. Many companies I’ve spoken with recently still only give annual performance reviews — all during the same time of year, not on the employees’ hire date anniversaries — and then any base salary increases and/or merit bumps are given as uniformly and fairly as possible based on archaic point systems from decades ago.

Because it’s easier from a data collection and processing perspective. Because it’s easier to treat everyone the same. Because it’s way we’ve always done it.

However, all things not being equal, employee development should be both formal, informal and frequent throughout the year as well as acknowledging annual progress and when the employees were hired, but the high performers and those who show potential to being a high performer (however you want to define that per your company’s performance metrics) should always be rewarded differently than those who are low performers and show no aptitude to improving.

And that should lead to letting go. No exceptions. Can I get an amen on pay for performance?

Recent business leadership surveys that I’ve seen (PwC and The Corporate Executive Board) reveal that CEOs are focused on:

• Business growth
• Talent acquisition and management
• Innovation

All of which are interconnected and interdependent, and that leads to a lot of recent attention being paid to internal talent mobility as companies worldwide struggle to find high performers in their own backyards, so they have to pick up the house and shake it to see who they can find.

The Mercer execs shared a statistic that startled even me: according to the customers they serve, only about 15% of an org’s employees are the high performers and innovators who drive business growth. Sounds like a purposely missing footnote from an annual report.

HR knows this, and although they (and me) are all about hiring the right folks and giving everyone an opportunity to perform to the best ability and beyond, not everyone will, so we need to channel our training and rewards resources to those who will.

America may be the land of freedom and opportunity, but business is a nation of contrarian commerce and cash.

Give me revenue, or give me death. God Bless America.

 MarcomHRsay.com is an HR and Recruiting B2B blog for the real world and companies small, midsize and the entire enterprise, focusing on what helps people thrive and businesses grow.