‘Recruitment scam: Ex-Haryana cm Om Prakash Chautala convicted, arrested’ read the headlines a few days ago. Chautala got involved in deciding who should be selected for the job of a lowly Junior Basic Trained Teacher(jbt) in Haryana. Of course, Chautala’s criteria for selection were anything but merit. Teachers who made it to his list were either from his hometown, from his caste, or they had paid him money. What an indictment of our hiring process!
Now, imagine the effect this selection process would have on the performance of these teachers in the school. These teachers would know that they have got their jobs because of their right connections. They would believe, and rightly so, that their career progression will depend on keeping their political bosses happy by doing what they want, which is to help them stay in power. These teachers would hardly be concerned about teaching kids better.
Turns out that this is not an isolated instance! We have had documented recruitment scams in the defense, railways, police, and several other government departments. To the extent, that we now take it for granted that most government jobs are bought, be those jobs at the highest, or the lowest levels.
Is it any wonder then that today, even in villages, parents choose to send their kids to private schools, paying through their nose? It’s widely assumed that in private schools, performance would be demanded from the teachers by their management, and hence the results will be better. We choose to go to private schools, private colleges, private hospitals, and other private institutions, wherever possible, because of our fear that merit has been given the go-by in public sector, but not so in the private sector. This is only partially true on the ground.
We have seen the same culture of mediocrity percolate down to the private sector too, because slowly but surely, this is becoming the dna of our country. Hard to believe? Consider this: Most of our infrastructure firms, which do belong to the private sector, have delayed project completions and delivered poor quality work, be it roads, bridges, or even waste disposal. They privately accept that they land these projects based on many different considerations, and not necessarily on the quality of their performance. In such a scenario, they do not necessarily focus on hiring the best people. And the mediocre results follow.
We have fires occurring at a posh private hospital killing patients (remember amri, Calcutta 2010?); we constantly experience technical snags, delays, and cancellation of our flights, with private airlines like Jet and Kingfisher competing with our national carrier in a race to the bottom; even our much touted telecom operators still do not provide us a proper working 3G connection, with acceptable data download speeds, in most parts of our cities!
Clearly our private sector also has significant performance issues, and a lot of catching up to do, when it comes to delivering acceptable standards of service quality. A lot of this blame is attributable to the quality of people hired by them, and the direction that their leadership has given to them in this regard. Perhaps, the leadership knows that the company’s survival and growth depends more on cornering resources like licences, land, bank loans,what-have-you, rather than on delivering quality, and keeping customers happy.
There’s the disconnect — between what we understand as performance, and what their internal yardsticks are! I see this so often in my area of work, viz, leadership hiring. So much importance is given to right network, political connections, ability to schmooze the right people, etc and so very little to hard core skills and expertise needed to perform!
I am reminded here of a famous dialogue from Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged, where Francisco d’Anconia explains that the reason for his family’s multi-generational prosperity is due to the fact that each new member of the family isn’t truly considered to be a ‘d’Anconia’ until they prove themselves based on their own merits and abilities — a great way to ensure that the entire family is not put to risk because of a few bad apples.
I am convinced that this same principle should apply to a country, and society too. Meritocracy needs to be given the pride of place if we want to achieve any level of sustained prosperity and growth as a nation. When merit is the basic criteria for hiring, potential candidates work towards building their core skills required for the job. They learn, train and work hard, to achieve the benchmark that is set by the hiring manager for the role they want. So, when they get the job, they are in their comfort zone. They are good at what they have set out to do, and they take pride in their work. They put their heart into it, and their passion shows in the output.
Many a times this aspect of meritocracy also reflects in the career choices people make. For instance, if they feel that they don’t have it in them to become the best doctor but teaching is something they are better at, then they choose accordingly.
In India, somewhere along the way, we have distorted the entire system. Children get into medical and engineering colleges because their parents can afford to pay. The less fortunate ones buy a seat in a teacher’s training college or a pharma college. When these children graduate, they are not committed to professional excellence. They believe, thanks to their early experience, that they will get by if they have the financial resources. So, making enough money becomes the driving force. We have corrupted the hiring system at its base even before a professional begins his career.
The last nail in the coffin is now being put in place by the government, with its ‘Promotion Quota Bill’. Interestingly, this Bill goes all out to remove any semblance of performance-as-a-criterion, for career progression in public service roles. It seeks to amend Article 335 of the Indian Constitution, which states that the claims of the sc/st have to be balanced with maintaining efficiency in administration!
Just take a pause, and think — where are we headed to? A society, where your social tag will determine the level you reach, without any incentive for how well you do or don’t do in your job! Our forefathers, who wrote the Constitution, were smart to realise that well meaning affirmative actions should not derail performance, when they put in the right checks and balances.
Sixty-three years of the Republic have dulled us into a stupor — we are now okay with a scenario where the word ‘performance’ is being taken out of our very lexicon! I only hope that we are ready to bear the brunt when the proverbial chickens come home to roost.
