Salary and Merit Pay Essay

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).

Weyerhaeuser uses a pay for performance system and utilizes a performance management process (PMP) to evaluate employee’s annual performance and that performance rating is used in calculating the individual’s merit pay increase. Over the years, Weyerhaeuser’s pay for performance compensation strategy has undergone several changes and improvements. The company utilizes merit increases where an individual’s yearly increase is based on how well they have performed against objectives. Performance management is directly tied to compensation in a pay for performance system and is based on how well an individual performs during the year against specific, measurable goals is tied to how much they will receive in a merit pay system. According to Milkovich, Newman and Gerhart (2014, p. 337), ‘a merit pay system links increases in base pay (called merit increases) to how highly employees are rated on a performance evaluation.” How well your merit pay system works and is seen by the employees as effective, fair, and a tool to increase motivation and retention is based on how well performance is actually measured and the ability to quantify performance. Though there are challenges with the merit pay system, Heathfield (n.d., par. 9) shares, “even with the limitations that exist in the awarding of merit pay, merit pay is your best opportunity to ensure that your outstanding performers remain with your company and continue to make their

By questionnaire asked to IT managers we understood the per month expense of the company on internet, which we could reduce by 10-15% depending on what they are paying, and retention of previous customers through special cost cutting offers.

You have been hired by a medium size (approximately 200 employees) widget manufacturing company to do a complete evaluation of their computer needs and make recommendations to them about an information system to support their business. Currently several of their support departments are using manual processes and they wish to automate their accounting and human resources business processes. They also want to harness the power of the Internet in their business.

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:

To foster competitiveness and deliver better results, there is a program called STACK where employees are ranked based on the work done and their incentive is decided based on it. Better the rank, better the incentives.

Merit pay is a compensation program also known as pay for performance that is widely used to determine the compensation given to an employee. Merit pay is based on a set of criteria or benchmarks used to give permanent pay increases for work performance. The merit pay is usually given to an employee after a review and evaluation

Pay for performance systems have further been proven to have two advantages for organizations: attracting more high-quality employees and motivating employees to exert more effort at their jobs. (Gordon, Kaswin) This paper will show the positive benefits of performance pay as

O’Neil (1998) suggests six minimal criteria for the design of a performance based pay system. The first of these criteria is that the reward system should be self-funding, that is, the performance increases should as a minimum offset the cost of the rewards provided. The second criterion is that the distribution of the rewards must be consistent, fair and justifiable. In addition reward plans must be transparent and clearly communicated. The third criterion

This is a screenshot showing the number of hours if an individual worked and how long their break would be.

Compensation strategy is attracting lots of attention from new hire employees or current employees. Employees know that, properly engaged and managed compensation program can expand the reach of organization goal and the future career of individual’s goal. Compensation strategy provides an opportunity to reward eligible employees based on company and individual performance. They are designed to support the company’s total compensational goal and assist in attraction, motivating and retaining talented employees. Also, it provides eligible employees with a competitive variable benefit earning opportunity based on mission and goal achievement. Management has responsibility to develop and implement the processes and programs required to administer the compensation system at the same time. Management is also responsible for ensuring that compensation strategy is consistent with the policy and guidelines.

The primary determinant of rate of pay is the kind of job an employee performs. Different job require different kinds and level of skills and these skills have varying levels of value to the organization. Typically, the higher the skill levels the higher the pay. Because, employees’ levels of skills tend to affect work efficiency and effectiveness. Many organizations have implemented skill-based pay systems which reward employees for their job skills and competencies they can demonstrate. In skill based pay system, an employee’s job title doesn’t define his or her pay category, skills do. The more skills a worker has, the higher the wage. Skill-based pay systems seems to mean nicely with the changing nature of jobs and the new world of work, Henderson (2004).

Premier Conferencing basis for compensation is based on individual, team/organizational efforts. Premier’s associates are their greatest assets and they work collaboratively to achieve a rare degree of success to satisfy their client’s unique needs. In doing this, Premier’s employees work hard at their jobs to provide outstanding service to their customers, therefore received above average pay, both individual, team players, and organizational.

Pay for performance is a quite rational theory. According to the U.S. Merit System Protection Board (2006), “Pay for Performance refers to a pay strategy where evaluations of individual and/or organizational performance have significant influence on the amount of pay increases or bonuses given to each employee” (p.1). This theory hope to use different salary to motivate and punish the employees according to the evaluation of their working performance. However, in the real world, it is very hard to implement in every organization, particularly in government and nonprofit organizations.

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.