Human resource allocation

Is it the responsibility of society to recognise the skills and abilities of its members, and to treat them accordingly? Or is it the responsibility of individuals to promote themselves to ensure their skills and abilities are appropriately employed?

I suspect western society leans too heavily on the latter, with rampant self-promotion, and human resource allocation decisions that are too dependent on, and too swayed by, the quality of the self promotion rather than the underlying skills and abilities.

I also see that a system oriented to the other extreme would be similarly inefficient at human resource allocation. It would be overly dependent on the ability of incumbents to accurately identify the skills and abilities of the people they encounter.

However, given that efficient human resource allocation is virtuous, and self-promotion undesirable, it is imperative that we make strides in the ability of society to accurately identify the skills and abilities of its people, negating any need for for self-promotion.