HR quietly gives raises to a small number of employees, most rated 1, most in low cost countries. What's really bad is most of the time the Managers are not even told, the raise just shows up. Very embarrassing, and makes the managers look bad. People bash middle management on this forum but most of the time they are in the dark. HR does not communicate. It's another symptom of a highly dysfunctional company. For some reason the executives are clueless about it, as well as why they continue the death spiral - no communication from leadership, and no strategy. No growth shouldn't be a surprise.
@4kho+1tlYxbxz makes an excellent point.