From Booz Allen’s strategy+business (and via recruiting.com) comes this article on “Rethinking the value of talent.” It’s a great article, but it’s a little boring, so I’m going to illustrate the point by telling a story that expounds on one in the article.

The tale of Barry and Leverne: Colliding Canapés
By Max Goldman

Barry and Leverne work together at Creative Canapés Internationale. There, they each craft delectable, treats that are a lot like hors d’oeuvres. They would call them hors d’oeuvres, but they found that because “canapés” sounds less familiar and more European, people pay more.

Anyway, the company, located in Mechanicsville, Virginia and run by one Colin Craftsbury (a gentle, witty sort of British fellow who moved to the US to be closer to his college sweetheart though sadly that didn’t work out as she was married by the time he got himself across the Atlantic), is doing fantastically well.  Their small, innovative crispy food is fit is for royalty and often delivered to people who consider themselves as such. They are widely regarded as the best premium-European-small-party-food company for miles around.

Barry and Leverne are close co-workers and are equally adept at constructing canapés. In fact, they share the title of “canapé chef.” Their craftsmanship is stunning and they are both lovely people. Really, they are. They work the same hours and do basically the same job. They both bake the small breads and cut up them up into little toasts. They both chop and julienne and dice and cube the ingredients. They both put the canapés together and arrange them appealingly on large, white plates with polka dot patterns. There’s only one small difference – only Leverne ever comes up with the new recipes.

Colin, the gentleman that he is, compensates Barry and Leverne exactly the same. They get the same salary and bonus, health and dental insurance (and vision, too!) and the same amount of PTO. He gives Barry a couple of unofficial sick days every year because he’s prone to cough due to cold – especially when the seasons change – but for all intents and purposes, they are treated exactly the same.

It sounds fair, right? They hold the same title. They do they same job. No one in their right mind could fault Colin for compensating them equally. Alas, this where Strategy+Business (S+B) has something to say. 

S+B says that even though Barry and Leverne have the same title and do the same job – their “value impact” on the company is vastly different. Leverne is the creative force who is the reason behind the company’s reputation. Though they may perform many of the same daily tasks, Leverne should be compensated differently to account for her increased contribution to the company’s success. She should also be reviewed differently, promoted differently and managed differently.

The idea of classifying employees by their fundamental contribution to the success of a business instead of by their role or band level or job title, etc. is an interesting one. The article concludes this way:

..in many cases, the very rules and procedures of an organization can be an obstacle to segmentation and a force for “averaging” the treatment of individuals’ roles. This tendency is a dangerous handicap that makes it impossible to measure the value of employees and, ultimately, to compete successfully in the global marketplace.

The article touches many of the often-heard sentiments, but arranges them slightly differently to arrive at a new conclusion. I’m curious to hear your thoughts.