Human Resource : Pay And Reward Strategies

An appraisal is one of the most commonly used methods of formal assessment and is used to evaluate and assess the performance of an employee against agreed targets and objectives, with the aim of improving employee performance. Where an employee has been able to achieve their targets, the appraisal can be used to recognise successes. This often helps to increase an employee’s confidence and motivation and can lead to better organisational performance. Many organisations will use the outcomes of an appraisal to identify potential candidates for promotions or even an increase in pay. At the same time, an appraisal meeting may include discussions on underperformance, identifying why this has occurred and how this can be avoided in the future.

Performance appraisal is a method which is increasingly used to evaluate employees to determine the degree to which they are performing effectively and encourage them to direct their energies towards organizational performance. Although the appraisal is being practiced, there are criticisms made against the system which generally arise from within the Orthodox and radical management frame work.

Formal employee appraisals provide a strong reinforcement of the corporate aims and values. It gives managers an opportunity to show employees how their individual roles contribute to the company goals and give feedback to the impact that the employee has on those goals. It also provides management with a solid forum for

carefully planned out and considered, the total closure or failure of the organization could be at hand in the near future. In our modern age, employers know that salary is not the only factor that should be considered and that salary alone will not lead to better or more highly profitable workers alone. This is why compensation planning is important and why pay should have some connection between performance and compensation. This is why the human resources department should consider many monetary and non-monetary factors when considering how to properly compensate and motivate employees (Dessler, 2013).

A performance appraisal is one of the most important factors in any organization and can be one of the greatest tools used to record employee production. Every organization has to have goals and objectives established and the employee has to be involved in this process. By conducting performance appraisal will improve productivity and also the morale of the employees.

Pay and reward systems exist in the form of pay, bonuses and benefits, financial and non-financial and designed to improve performance, increase motivation, staff retention and increase profitability. Appreciation and gratitude is widely received as reward and the opportunity for training and development for career progression.

The purpose of a performance appraisal is to be used to improve employee performance. It should be used as a guide for recognizing outstanding behavior that is in line with departmental policies and work objectives, but should also be used as a tool for feedback to improve observed employee deficiencies. Performance appraisals should never be a surprise when it is presented to the employee. It is important for subordinates to understand what they are being evaluated on and what it takes to be successful.

The intent of this assignment is to develop a user-friendly tool that may be applied in the workplace to document Compensation processes and to guide a practitioner in completing the critical steps of each process. The purpose of this assignment is to assist in describing each component of a compensation management system, to develop a practitioner's guide for several of the key compensation management tasks covered in HR511 Total Rewards.

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:

Appraisals are carried out on an annual basis and actively involve employees understanding of what is expected of them. By setting agreed objectives with your line manager and then reviewing the results at an agreed later time, the staff member is made responsible for their own performance. Appraisal is an opportunity to review strengths and weaknesses, to take an overall assessment of work content, loads and volume and to look back on what has been achieved already and to set realistic goals and objectives for the following period.

The key components to developing effective Reward Strategy is to ensure that there are clearly defined goals to meet business objectives, that the reward programme meets the needs of both the organisation and its employees, and to ensure that this is then supported by effective HR policies. In order to ensure these criteria are met there are a number of factors which influence how reward strategy is developed which include both internal factors within the organisation itself, as well as external factors outside the organisation.

“Performance appraisal is the process through which employee performance is assessed, feedback is provided to the employee, and corrective action plans are designed.” (Youssef, 2012). Performance appraisals can be very effective, by doing them carefully it will improve employee performance. Consistency with the evaluations is an important part of the process. During the evaluation express positive and negative accomplishments from the employee by using examples. Use goals, job related data that support ratings and focus on outcomes the employee can control and work towards. List specific areas the employee can improve on. Also it is important to compliment and show your appreciation to the employee.

Reward Management (RM) has been defined as the distribution of monetary and non-monetary rewards to employees in an effort to align the interests of the employees, the organisation, and its shareholders (O’Neil, 1998). In addition O’Neil (1998) also suggests that a RM system can serve the purpose of attracting prospective job applicants, retaining valuable employees, motivating employees, ensuring legal requirements relating to direct and indirect rewards are not violated, assisting the company in achieving human resource and business objectives, and ultimately assisting the organisation in obtaining a competitive advantage.

“Performance appraisals can enhance employee performance as well as advance the mission and goals of an organization. There are many advantages of performance appraisals if they are applied fairly, consistently and objectively. Performance appraisals not applied fairly can be counterproductive and even destructive to

As cited in Zhou, Zhang & Montoro-Sa ́nchez (2011) reward management is a key function in HRM systems in modern enterprises, playing an important role in attracting, retaining and motivating employees (Milkovich and Newman, 2004). Furthermore, Schuler and Jackson (as cited in Esteves & Caetano, 2010) state that the focal point of success of companies today is centered on the effective use of human resources.