I'm a supervisor in management and in my team's case it's now how much a supervisor "likes" you. For the most part, it's a merit based system. However, there are some major issues which I've voiced many times to senior Management (SVP) ...not that I'll expect they'll be fixed.
Primarily, there is a maximum percentage of employees that can be at "extraordinary impact" per year. Let's say it's 10%. Let's assume I have 20 people reporting to me. I would think that I could get at least 2 slots. However, the overall organizational number is set at the SVP level. So if my SVP has (for sake of argument) 1000 people, that org gets 100 slots for Extraordinary Impact.
But the slots are not distributed evenly. The SVP gets "first crack" at them. So if s/he has 10 direct reports, s/he "should" only get one of those, if you're going by raw numbers. But s/he will want to reward his/her direct reports, and will take, let's say, five of the slots. Then it works the way down. By the time it gets to my boss, who might have 100 people, s/he "should" get 10 slots total, but is only allocated six, because all those up the chain have taken their extra cut.
Now it gets s*itty. My boss basically lays it on the table with his direct reports (Let's say 5 of us). "Hey everyone, I have six slots, and there's five of you." And we're effectively told to pick between "us" getting a chance at a higher slot, or our teams. I've literally sat with my boss just before A&D and was told that I had an Extraordinary Impact (it was called something different at the time) and therefore there wasn't any left to allocate to my team.
That really s---ed because I had two people who had really stepped up to the plate and outperformed that year. Both absolutely deserved the highest rating, but I effectively would have had to lie and say they just "met expectations." I told my boss I couldn't in good conscience take the only slot, and I gave it up for one of my DRs. It was noted in the comments of my A&D that year, but of course that means absolutely nothing.
I really don't get that system. I've said repeatedly, I don't care how much BSMA and IPI money I have to give. I'll work with exactly the bucket I'm given. I just don't want to be forced into an artificial distribution on the team's ratings. Of course I've been saying that for 8+ years now. And HR keeps jacking around and tweaking percentages.
Not only that, but when it comes time for pay treatment, the software in eCorp does it all now. Eight years ago, if I had to give someone a lower rating than they deserved, I could at least tweak the IPI and BSMA so that they were right up there with a peer who happened to get a better rating out of sheer luck. Not anymore. Now it's a game of "winner take all." My top person might get $10,000 in IPI and the next in line, who performed at 99% of the level, gets little to nothing. Some organizations might let supervisors tweak, but I literally have no control. My boss actually punches in the ratings and I don't even have access to the editable fields. I see what is allocated and have to accept it.
It's so demoralizing not just for team members who outperform, but for supervisors who literally have no control over how they reward their teams. I don't know why they can't let managers manage.