Every business has a different way of doing things.

And at Qvest.US, our way of doing things is a meritocracy.

We firmly believe that our culture of advancement in tech consulting is the best model not only for our business, but for our employees. As such, we’ve shaped our organizational culture in a way that rewards our employees and offers advancement opportunities based on merit—and based on merit alone.

But for those that aren’t familiar with the term, what, exactly, is a meritocracy—and how does it work? What are the benefits of a meritocracy—both from a talent and organizational standpoint? And how does meritocracy fit into the culture at Qvest.US?

What is meritocracy—and how does it fit into the workplace?

First things first. Before we jump into meritocracy at Qvest.US, let’s quickly cover what, exactly, meritocracy is—and how it fits in the workplace. 

As the name suggests, a meritocracy is an environment that rewards people based on merit—and merit alone. So, from a work perspective, a meritocratic work environment is one where team members are rewarded (whether that’s through being hired for a coveted position, larger monetary rewards, or career development and growth opportunities) based solely on employee performance—and not on other factors like the power of their network or being in the good graces of a particular senior manager or supervisor. Meritocracies use universal performance evaluation metrics to evaluate their employees, which removes bias from the advancement and promotion process.

Meritocracies offer a variety of benefits—including preventing discrimination in the workplace and creating equal opportunities for advancement for all employees. When employees are evaluated using the same set of performance metrics across the board, it allows the best employee to advance on their career path and advance through the organization—regardless of characteristics like race, gender, age, or sexual orientation. Meritocracy helps to level out the playing field for underrepresented groups, like women and minorities—and allows people to reach career success based on merit, hard work, and performance.

In addition to creating a more fair, equitable environment for employees, a meritocracy also delivers a host of benefits for the business. When rewards are based solely on performance, employees are incentivized to do their best work—which not only helps the employee advance on their career path, but also helps elevate the company and give it a competitive edge in the market.

Why Qvest.US chose a meritocracy model

Meritocracy has been part of our core values from the get-go. 

There are a variety of reasons that we at Qvest.US decided a meritocracy was the only choice for our business and our employees.

• It allows us to attract, retain, and foster top talent. Meritocracy plays a major role in both hiring and employee management initiatives at Qvest.US. Putting the focus on an employees’ achievements, accomplishments, and efforts from the start—and then keeping the focus on their achievements, accomplishments, and efforts as they work and advance in the company—allows us to attract, retain, and foster the best consulting talent in the labor market.
• It allows us to support diverse ideas… When people are rewarded for their contributions and merit (and not on things like seniority or tenure with the company), it creates an environment where people feel not only comfortable, but incentivized, to share their best ideas—whether they’ve been with the company a week or 10 years. This leads to a constant influx of new, creative ideas—which then, in turn, leads to innovation and better outcomes.
• …and diverse teams. Arguably the biggest and most important benefit of creating a true meritocracy at Qvest.US is that it allows us to reward, promote, and foster the careers of a diverse set of employees. Meritocracies support narrowing gaps in the consulting industry (for example, age gap and gender gap)—and allow consultants with the right skills, abilities, talent, and drive to succeed, regardless of who they are or where they are in their career.

Bottom line? When we thought about our values, our goals, and the kind of environment we wanted to create for our employees, there was only one model that we considered—and that was a meritocracy.

What meritocracy looks like at Qvest.US

Now that you understand what a meritocracy is (and why we decided to go the meritocracy route as we built our organization), let’s jump into what it looks like at Qvest.US.

Merit-based advancement

It wouldn’t be a meritocracy if it didn’t reward employees on merit. At Qvest.US, team members advance in the company based on merit—and merit alone. Using performance evaluation metrics, we provide opportunities for advancement based solely on an employee’s performance and contributions; things like age, seniority, or “likeability” don’t factor into the equation.

This merit-based model rewards employees that excel with the opportunities, projects, and career advancement they deserve. It also creates a fair, equitable environment where employees know their performance—and, as such, their advancement—will be evaluated using the same metrics, giving every single employee, regardless of who they are or how long they’ve been with the company, an equal opportunity to advance and succeed.

Mentorship

As mentioned, Qvest.US is a meritocracy, where employees are rewarded based on merit. But we want to give all of our new employees an equal opportunity to succeed within our organization—and we aim to set them up for success through our internal mentorship program.

Every new employee at Qvest.US is assigned a mentor that’s been trained to not only support the employee in navigating their projects, but also in navigating the Qvest.US culture and advancing in their careers. Mentors fill the role of sounding board, advisor, and support system throughout the employee’s journey at Qvest.US.

Internal pods

Whenever we move forward with a new initiative, we want it to be a reflection (and in the best interest) of all of our employees. And in order to make sure our employees have a hand in driving the policies, procedures, and services that impact them, we’ve created what we call an “internal pod” structure.

With internal pods, employees across the organization volunteer to lend their voice, input, and insight to new initiatives focused on culture, diversity, and employee experience. By assembling a wide, diverse group of employees from across the company, we create policies that better reflect the needs of our diverse workforce—creating a more supportive, positive working environment for our entire team.

Relationship-building opportunities

At Qvest.US, we believe that in order to empower our team to do their best work (and advance their careers as a result), they need to feel safe, seen, understood, and appreciated—and, as such, building trust and fostering relationships is a huge part of our culture.

We view our team members as human beings—not just employees. In addition to showing up for work, we encourage them to show up as their whole selves, sharing their goals, their dreams, their fears, their childhoods. This culture of authenticity helps to foster deeper connections and build strong support networks—both of which help our team to do their best work and excel in Qvest.US’s meritocratic environment.

Continual growth and evolution

We’ve strived to create a true meritocracy where people’s efforts and talents are directly linked to their success and career outcomes. But we also recognize that we’re not perfect. We don’t have all of the answers—and, as such, we’re on a constant path of growing and evolving the culture at Qvest.US to best serve our team.

That means our business leaders remain open for feedback on what we can do better—and, if we ever fall short of the meritocratic values we’ve worked so hard to build into our culture, we own it and change it. We also recognize that working in tech consulting presents a unique challenge in that the industry (and the decision makers within it) aren’t always as invested in the meritocracy model as we are; in many instances, there’s a lingering hierarchical model that values seniority or age. As such, we’re constantly working to change the industry and educate key stakeholders on the merits of a meritocracy with the purpose of creating more leadership opportunities for junior candidates or talent that doesn’t fit the “consulting mold”—opportunities they’ve earned and deserved.

Bottom line? We’re proud of the culture and meritocracy we’ve built at Qvest.US—but we also know that we need to remain flexible and open to continuing to grow and evolve that culture and meritocracy. 

If you want to advance your career based on your talent and achievements, build your career at Qvest.US

At Qvest.US, one of our main priorities is to create an environment where all employees have an equal chance at success and advancement—which is why we’ve created a company culture built around meritocracy. So, if you’re a tech consultant and want to work in an environment where your efforts and achievements are directly correlated to your success and career growth… Get in touch.