Traditional Bases For Pay Practices

Each employee will be paid based on their capabilities rather than on the characteristics of their job. This will provide an incentive for employees to develop their skills and move into other roles.

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).

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

Merit pay is a short-term, pay-for-performance plan, with a typical life span of three to four years, in which employers provide rewards, usually in terms of a raise for past performance, for employees who perform their jobs effectively, which will lead to higher performing employees which will in turn lead to a better work environment and higher overall productivity. The concept of merit pay is most often mentioned in the context of educational and/or government civil service reform. With a merit-based pay system, the employer pays, with the idea that the employer will reward more productive employees with merit increases. This concept came about in an attempt to sustain high performance levels in the workplace linking merit increases, or increases in base pay, to employee performance ratings, which are taken at the end of a performance year, usually by a direct supervisor. Due to the ever increasing changes of supply and demand in business, in order to remain feasible, the merit pay system is expected to change consistently with the needs presented to the companies, whether it be foreign competition, consumer demands, producer limitations, etc.

Compensation could also be based in part on seniority with the company. This will show new employees that the company values workers who choose to remain with the company long-term. It also encourages new employees to make a commitment to build a career with the company and deters established employees from seeking other employment. Experienced workers will think twice about pursuing another opportunity if the new job also comes with a pay cut.

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.

At the end of each performance year, employees will be evaluated on their performance for the previous year. The performance ratings will go from 1 being the lowest to 5 being the highest. How they rank for the year will determine bonuses, if any, as well as any increase to their base pay. The following table illustrates how the performance rating is distributed.

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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.

Creating and implementing of incentive pay system supports to solve organizational problems to align the preferences of business and employees. In addition, the system serves as an organizing tool to identify and attract the most capable employees since companies need to deliver the product or