Lowe's Compensation Policy Analysis

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).

Employee compensation is critical for the satisfaction, motivation, and preservation of the workforce within an organization. HR managers plan, direct, and coordinate salaries, retirement plans, health insurance, and other employee benefits that an organization offers its employees. An organization should spend a great deal of time and resources to plan, create, and implement effective employee compensation strategies. Accordingly, in my opinion HR managers need to carefully examine these strategies that will ultimately effect and meet the organization’s targets and objectives. According to Gerade (2003), the implementation of reward and compensation within an organization will alter an employee’s thought toward organizations view of

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).

Clear compensation practices tied to identifiable markets and employee performance should be established to improve employee understanding of how their compensation is determined.

When making compensation decisions, whether it is internal or external, comparisons must be considered. However, employers must carefully balance pay structures, because internal and external comparisons may not converge. Therefore, employers may differ in the way they place priorities on internal and/or external comparison data when they are developing pay structures.

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:

This paper will examine setting the stage for strategic compensation and bases for pay. There are three main goals of compensation departments: internal consistency, market competitiveness, and recognition of individual contributions. Internally consistent compensation systems define the relative value of each job among all jobs within a company. (Martocchio, pg. 22, 2011) With this system companies want employees to be paid more based on their qualifications and responsibilities. They believe someone with less experience should be paid differently. To determine such evaluation companies use job analysis in order to provide job descriptions. The job evaluation is to determine pay according to a particular position. Market-competitive

Thus, the fair and equitable compensation practices at Wills Incorporated are maintained through consistent job evaluation, competitive wages, and performance-based salary increases. Furthermore, Wills Incorporated desire to possess a workplace environment that attracts, keeps, and rewards the most qualified staff members; provides internal equity through consistent job evaluation processes; pays salaries that are competitive with rates for similar jobs in the labor market; and rewards its staff members for contributing to Wills Incorporated’s goals. However, this policy applies to everyone, except for Chief Executive Officers, Vice Presidents on contract, contractors, and students. Because Human Resources handle compensation, the appropriate leadership within Wills Incorporated consults them when making decisions concerning this policy.

Management with metrics allows an organization to have a true measure of how it has reached its goals and objectives as well as act as an evaluation and analysis tool (Rees & Smith, 2014).

Organizations use pay strategies to assist in the administration of compensation plans. The use of a formal pay strategy allows the assessment and grouping of similar jobs together. Global employers follow different pay strategies because pay strategies are profoundly influenced by different factors such as culture, social contracts, labor relations and management practice. Compensation creates a link between reward and results. Meaning that organizations seek to achieve the return of investments made on employees by motivating and appropriately rewarding them to influence performance, making the design and implementation of effective performance management systems an extremely important aspect of global HRM.

Compensation plans are as varied as the companies that implement them. They reflect a company’s culture, financial strategy, organizational structure and goals. Compensation plans serve as the catalyst for employees to join a company and remain, which in turn enables the organization to fulfill its obligation to provide goods and services.

The Human Resource is one of the main departments in a business that was established to serve the rights of the employees and the policy of the organization. It is then divided into sub disciplines which consist of Compensation and Benefits as one of the essence in the structure of managing an entire workforce. As being mentioned in www.boundless.com, Compensation deals with the salary and wages of the employees. There are several definitions about Compensation, but generally, Compensation is the overall form of monetary or non-monetary pay that is given to the employees as a reward for their required services and relationship to the employer. (Susan M. Heathfield, n.d.) The importance of Compensation is relatively apparent to an organization as it affects the wellbeing and performance of an employee. Thus, it gives impacts to the operation of a fit organization. Therefore, compensation should be abided by the objectives of itself that focuses on the four main units which are efficiency, fairness, compliance and ethics.

One thing that I have learned is that an organization will maximize its efficiency when their employees themselves are maximizing their potential. One of the largest if not the deciding factors in how to maximize an employee’s performance, is the compensation strategy that is being implemented by the organization. Incentive pay and base pay are different methods in which a company may choose to operate while both methods come with their own advantages they also come with disadvantages. Author Richard Henderson defines a compensation strategy as when a company can identify forces that influence compensation practices and promote hiring and retention of a productive workforce (Henderson, 2006, p 25). The discussion around compensation is directly correlated to the motivation of the employee. During my employment I can say that the compensation strategy to implement both a base pay in conjunction with incentive pay was very

Compensation refers to a wide array of benefits and pay that a company uses to reward employees for performance. Strategic compensation refers to any type of compensation strategy that is aimed at rewarding good performance. Because the variety of companies and their internal structure varies wildly, compensation strategies can vary wildly. For example, many direct sales companies where employees are actually independent contractors use strategic compensation strategies, giving prizes for hitting certain sales goals and increasing compensation percentages with sales. On the other end of the spectrum, large corporations almost always include stock options in higher-level compensation strategies, which directly ties the

GC3 will use two platforms, or pay structures, for compensation of employees: First, market pay with bands and,