QUESTION: The salary hike that my team members get is not as good as that of other teams; that’s because they have better managers.
FACT: A normalization process ensures consistency across teams.
Every organization has its own method of ranking and providing salary hikes to its employees. Though the methods might be different, the fundamental approach remains the same—to categorize people into various performance levels and compensate them accordingly. Some managers might be strict in the process, while some others might be lenient. To avoid such inconsistency, every organization carries out a formal or informal normalization process. This also helps in removing managerial bias, if any. The normalization, process is done at various levels, depending upon the size and composition of the company. It can take. place at the level of a team, a group or a division. Some organizations opt for multiple rounds of normalization. During this time, they go through the performance record of each employee or a group of employees when there is a lack of consensus on the performance level. Once it is normalized at the senior manager level, the senior managers do it at their peer level to ‘normalize’ a wider set of people.
People think a good manager will get the lion’s share of higher ratings and better increases for his team members. It is true that a manager’s skill gets tested when he justifies his team members’ ratings and when he has to reason it out with other managers on their own team ratings. A manager with a good set of data and presentation skill will have an edge over others. That is where the senior manager’s role comes into the picture for ascertaining the facts and making a judicious call.
A healthy organization provides only a guideline on how the normalization process should be carried out. It does not promote a quota tied at the team level, but at a larger entity, like that of a division. The problem occurs when people see that some teams have more employees with higher ratings. This reflects on the manager’s skill; that’s why some managers prefer a quota system. But this system is hardly healthy if one looks at it from an employee’s perspective. If an excellent employee is in a team with other excellent employees, then he will be denied a good rating due to the quota level. The other side of the argument—in favor of the quota system— is that even if some teams do not have excellent people, the organization still requires them and, therefore, better ratings are given to members in those teams also. The potential of an employee, scarce skills, flexibility at work, are other important factors that, play a role in deciding the rating. This entire process is not fully objective; it involves subjectivity. That is the reason. why even the best normalization process will leave a few managers and a few employees dissatisfied despite the managers’ doing their best.
Companies must figure out their philosophy on performance management before implementing the means to manage performance. They should use a large population, for example, a division or company level for the normalization process, in order to ensure consistency.
WHAT CAN YOU DO AS THE EMPLOYEE? There are two areas of concern. One, you are worried that your manager will not rate you well. (This is discussed in detail in other myths.) Two, you are worried that your manager won’t be able to present your case well during the normalization process. In this case, you should work on increasing your visibility among the peers of your manager and with your managers superior. You can do so by grabbing the opportunity to interact across teams and contributing well. You can extend your help to colleagues in their hour of need. You should volunteer to take on any task that is Important for the team and sought by your manager or his superior. In such a situation, when your manager presents your case, the normalization team members will have enough data to determine your rating correctly.
WHAT CAN YOU DO AS THE MANAGER? If your team does not feel that you represent it well at the rating meetings, this is good neither for you nor for your team. If you are aware of this feeling, then you should work hard towards resolving it. You should be well prepared on each members contribution and should be assertive in presenting it during the normalization meeting. You can be effective, provided you have challenged your team and brought out that ‘extra pound’, to bring visibility to it. Only a person who has earned respect by demonstrating superior managerial skills can extract a better output from his team. If you are not aware of this feeling of discontent, then It is even more important as a manager to know what your team members think about you, This could be done by asking for a direct feedback or taking HR help in conducting a 360 feedback, and then you could work towards improvement.
