Steps For More Effective Pay For Performance

In order for an organization to achieve long term success, it must consistently evaluate those plans and consider all of the organization’s entities and how they link together. By appraising the existing performance management process, it forces deeper analysis of the process, as well as its intended and unintended influences towards employees and the organization.

Performance management system makes a clear link between the performance and compensation, and allows the employees to understand the areas which need to be improved and directs them to appropriate training opportunities to enable improvement in performance to take place. Joseph Martocchio says, “Work with line managers to design the performance appraisal plan which best fits the specific duties and responsibilities of particular roles” (Martocchio, 2011). Compensation and reward decisions are likely to be arbitrary in the absence of a good performance management system. In short, performance management is a key component of talent management in organizations. It allows assessing the current talent and making predictions

Performance management relates to an organization’s ability to implement a system to evaluate and advance employee performance. Achieving peak performance requires consistency, clear objectives, and constructive employee evaluation. According to Mithas, Ramasubbu, & Sambamurthy (2011), an organization must design the performance management system based on extensive research about the organization’s mission, and then properly communicate the purpose of the system to employees, stakeholders, and decision makers. After the performing the research, the information should be used to establish the appropriate performance management specialized for the organization. In addition, an effective performance management system should align

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:

The company’s compensation programs are result oriented market focused and flexible. Pay for Performance is one of the key compensation program, which includes various pay, benefits and special programs offered by the company.

Incentive pay, also known as "pay for performance" is generally given for specific performance results rather than simply for time worked. While incentives are not the answer to all personnel challenges, they can do much to increase worker performance. (Billikopf) Performance pay has various names: merit pay, pay for performance, knowledge-and-skill- based pay, or individual or group incentive pay. (Delisio)

As stated by Peter F. Drucker, “Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.” Performance management is essential to achieving an organization 's mission statement and business goals, and also in attracting, retaining, and motivating qualified employees. There are many benefits and reasons why an organization should execute a performance management system. Performance appraisals establish the basis for qualifying, recognizing, and rewarding employee contributions. In this paper, I will discuss what performance management is, the problems with the current performance management system at my organization, how other organizations have succeeded in their performance management system and how I would advise management at my current organization to improve our performance management system.

The success of any performance improvement plan depends on how well thought out and implemented it is. Failure to recognize and correct performance issues can result in undesirable outcomes for the organization, particularly with finance. A large number of resources go into recruiting, hiring and training new employees. Additionally, there are financial implications when employees leave such as, off-boarding, paying out benefits, etc. According to the Centers for American Progress (2012), “the average cost to replace an employee is 21.4% of their annual salary.” (Boushey & Glynn, 2012). High turnover rates can put a strain on an organization’s finances at a time when payment models are shifting and reimbursement is decreasing.

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

Although Performance Management evolved from performance appraisals few decades ago, most literature still intensely focuses on performance appraisals when addressing performance management.

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 research generally confirms that pay-for-performance plans can influence greater outcomes, it is unclear how effective different pay plans are relative to each other (Park, 2012). Like most things in business, compensation is something that requires evaluation, study, assessment, strategy, modeling and integration.  Achieving a pay for performance culture does not happen without paying attention to the behaviors, activities, rewards and motivations that have to be linked and reinforced through a well engineered and successfully executed process.  Actually if that process does not tie rewards to shareholder financial objectives, employ the proper mix of compensation elements, result in meaningful dollars, embrace performance that employees can impact and are effectively communicated and reinforced, then the results it produces will likely fall short (Vision Link Advisory Group, 2013).

The definition of the term ‘performance management’ varies in different literatures. As Hutchinson(2013) summed up, combined with Den Harton’s theory(2004), it is a continuous process which links individual and team objectives with organizational goals by measure and improve employee’s skill and performance. According to Armstrong (2012), human resource management aims at making sure the organization has the most talented, skilled and engaged people in order to attain its goals. In this context, performance management is one staple practice helping managers identifying and retaining most competent employees as well as correcting poor performance.

The main reason for this report is to exhibit an understanding of Performance management. These days, organisations take diverse ways to deal with competitive advantage. Thus, there are a mixed bag of definitions for Performance Management. Performance management is a vital issue. It is based upon the human side of administration, and focuses on representatives as essential resources inside their organizations. As indicated by Price "Performance management is aimed at recruiting capable, flexible and committed people, managing and rewarding their performance and developing key competencies" (2007: 31).

Pay for performance is to link employees’ salary or salary increase to his or her performance. It seems to be a reasonable or attractive idea but it often does not work well in organizations. Please use at least 4 motivation theories or models to explain why pay for performance may not work as expected—particularly in government and nonprofit organizations.