Essay on Duckworth Industries - Incentive Compensation Programs Case

Henderson printing is a mid-level company. The company operates some compensation models for its personnel. Through these models, the employees receive rewards for the labour they render to the enterprise. Henderson printing pays its employees by giving them regular salaries for their services. These are direct payments for the work they do in this company. Secondly, the employees are given pay raises even though this depends on the employee’s initiative to ask for a pay rise from the owner (Davis, 2013). Lastly, the employees are also accorded some merit bonuses every Christmas time. The merit bonuses are based on their contribution to

In the case presented both AFLAC and L.L. Bean had their own distinctive ways of utilizing their products in order to enhance the total compensation for its employees. The factor that has deterred more employees away from their current employer is that of benefit packages, and reward systems. As stated by () “compensation affects a person economically, sociologically, and psychologically. For this reason, mishandling compensation issues is likely to have a strong negative impact on employees and, ultimately, on the firm’s performance” (p.313). Many felt just a bump in pay wasn’t enough to substantiate their hard work or the efforts that the performance efforts provided to their organization. As stated by () “the right total rewards system a blend of monetary and non-monetary

As mentioned, a key L.L. Bean response to their strengths and weaknesses was to provide a mixture of traditional and non-traditional rewards to the employees. In conjunction with base compensation, the organization provided performance-based bonuses, profit sharing, and healthcare benefits as forms of traditional rewards. These traditional awards are closely aligned to monetary awards since these benefits are commonly used and expected in today’s business environment. Although the effectiveness of monetary rewards is questionable, at minimum these rewards provide a direct reciprocity to the employee for their

Compensation systems can take on many forms, all of which have positives and negatives related to it. However, certain components are noted to be determinants of solid compensation plans. One agreement of a solid compensation system is the use of incentives. “Clearly a successful companies set objectives that will provide incentives to increase profitability” (Needles & Powers, 2011). Incentive bonuses should be measures that the company finds important to long-term growth. According to Needles & Powers (2011) the most successful companies long term focused on profitability measures. For large for-profit firms, compensation programs should offer stock options. The interweaving between the market value of a company’s stock and company’s performance both motivate and increase compensation to employees As the market value of the stock goes up, the difference between the option price and the market price grows, which increases the amount of compensation” (Needles & Powers, 2011). Conclusively, a compensation plan should serve all stakeholders, be simple, group employees properly, reflect company culture and values, and be flexible (Davis & Hardy, 1999; The Basics of a Compensation Program).

Production line workers are the employees who are usually doing their work by hand or in this day and age, running the machine or equipment to make the products. In this particular case, Canada Chemicals Corporation utilizes their production employees by producing industrial chemicals. These production worker’s jobs are a lot more complete then other production level workers employees as they usually have plenty of skill, knowledge and experience, and have high educational background. In order to reverse recent challenges with production and sales, I have composed a compensation package for these employees that will motivate them intrinsically, and focus on rewards that are extrinsic.

For the most part, a company’s compensation policy aims to ensure that employees are compensated in a fair and competitive manner. However, the compensation objectives employed by different companies can vary widely. This is especially true when taking into account wages vs. skills, competitor salaries, pay-for-performance, and other elements of compensation, like overtime, incentives, etc. (Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2015).

To start with, we must first understand what a managerial strategy means and how we can apply the appropriately.

A well-articulated compensation philosophy drives organizational success by aligning pay and other rewards with business strategy. It provides the foundation for plan design and administration and anchors current and future plans to the company's culture and values (Kaplan, 2006, p.32). Recognizing and rewarding achievement is the cornerstone of the company A’s compensation philosophy. The mission of the company is to attract, select, place and promote all individuals based on their qualifications. The company believes that performance-based compensation helps attract, develop and retain talented professionals. In addition to base pay which based upon local market conditions and targeted to be above market, the company provides the following types of potential compensation to reward performance:

Dunlap’s salary was just over $500k and he took no bonus. But he received a substantial stock option and award package. The restricted stock award component was to vest in two years, meaning that Dunlap’s compensation would be closely linked to the company’s stock performance for that time. Although the short term profits benefited shareholders, no incentives to create a long term, profitable company existed. Sunbeam’s performance-based incentives brought greater motivation to Dunlap to increase the firm’s stock value by any means necessary. He created remarkable shareholder value, in part by cutting half the company's 12,000 workers and closing many plants. Generally speaking, the first compensation package was excessive, but it linked the CEO’s and stockholders’ goals. It was not well designed, but it was congruent with Sunbeam’s business model of maximizing shareholder profits, but it drove an unhealthy behavior.

Having buy-in from key stakeholders is crucial for the success of an incentive pay system. For example, if top management does not support such a program, lower-level managers will place little importance on effectively administering the program. Hence, a lack of top management support often leads to a lack of accountability. (Gordon, Kaswin)

Therefore, it leads to the conclusion that in this case the main issue is appropriate employees motivation and satisfying job conditions, which could be achieved by choosing right incentives plan. However, sticking to the same incentives plan also might not be a good idea because people usually get used to such things very easily. As it can be seen from Engstrom Auto Mirror Company’s case employee’s motivation and morale can

* Frontline PR is a public relations firm with 150 full time employees, consists mainly of their staff plus some administrative and operations people. Frontline is currently struggling with the cost of health care insurance

Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R.I. (2007). Do Financial Incentives drive company performance? Harvard Business School

Recognizing and rewarding high-performance is a key recommendation for any approach when managing any merit pay program (HRIS 2012). Merit pay is a compensation system where base pay increases and is determined by an individual’s performance. Using a merit pay plan is a good way for an organization to reward high performance is one benefit when using merit pay programs. The first step in implementing or improving a merit pay program is to have a solid performance management program, and this is another way a merit pay program is beneficial. Merit pay is a way to be successful and effectively implement merit pay with a uplift in salaries, and this is a third way using a merit pay program is beneficial to an organization. There are some drawbacks when using merit pay programs, such as paying some employees more than others. If you pay high-performing workers more than low- performing employees, the high- performers may stay, causing the low- performers to complain or leave the organization. A second drawback in using merit pay program is that employees become less motivated if not paid to their satisfaction. For example, if employees feel they should be making more money for their performance, this causes them to have low self esteem, and want to find employment at other organization. The last drawback associated with

Although Braddock was a privately held company during this time, the long-term incentive plan involved a stock-based component (case Exhibit 4) and as well as an annual performance bonus based on the matrix illustrated in case Exhibit 6.