In pursuit of ‘meritocracy’, KESC goes for ‘pay for performance’ policy

KARACHI – For creating performance-related accountability within the organisation and promoting meritocracy, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has recently concluded its ‘Performance Management System-2010’ which envisages a “performance only” work atmosphere in the utility.
According to a press statement, this system was based on two evaluation cycles: the first cycle ended June 30 and the second concluded on December 31.
For the first time in the history of the KESC, the performance of around 5,400 management employees was assessed on merit and predefined parameters. Their assessment was graded into four categories: below expectation (BE), met expectation (ME), exceeded expectation (EE) and outstanding (OS).
Notwithstanding the challenging financial position of the KESC and the adverse economic environment that the utility has been functioning in, the management awarded increments to about 55 percent deserving employees belonging to the cadres of manager and levels below, while six per cent have been promoted to higher levels.
Based on this, a total of 700 deserving employees have been promoted during the year and increments were given, to those who were rated ME or above, hence endorsing the objective of the new management of ‘pay for performance’.
As stated above, the key perspective of this entire exercise has been to establish a new, service and performance driven culture, where the employees who put in hard work and efforts, are recognised and motivated to go a step further. The KESC is a service-driven organisation which puts forth the interest of the customers as priority number one, and this customer driven philosophy can only be brought about by changing the culture within.
This system has awarded many of those who had been neglected before in spite of their good performance. On the other hand, the non-performers have been identified and they have been given specific tasks to improve their performance otherwise they would lose their place in the company. This initiative of creating performance based transparency will go a long way in changing the look and feel of the utility, and such positive changes internally will eventually reflect on its external operations.
KESC CEO Tabish Gauhar, in a message to the management employees on the occasion, appreciated the efforts of all those involved in the exercise and said: “I am confident that we will improve this system as we mature to become a true commercial, private sector, and performance-driven organization,” he said.