Compensation is key to organisational strategy. It has an impact on attracting and retaining employees and ensuring optimal performance in meeting the organisation’s objectives. The economic importance of compensation is that it should allow the organization to maintain a cost structure that enables it to compete effectively and efficiently in its markets. Adams equity theory suggests that once an individual has chosen an action that is expected to satisfy his or her needs, the individual assesses the equity or fairness of the outcome. Three attitudes are possible; an individual may feel equitably rewarded, under rewarded, or over rewarded. When individuals feel under rewarded or over rewarded, they will do something to reduce the inequity. A further development ‘Fairness theory’ takes into account the notion of accountability and blame. When people identify an instance of unfair treatment, they are holding someone accountable for an action that threatens another person’s material or Continue reading
Compensation Management
Wage Differentials – Types and Implications
If we take various contingent factors into account, we find that there may be differences in wage and salary structures. These differentials may be industrial and occupational, regional, organisational and personal. Industrial and Occupational Differentials : Industrial and occupational differentials exist because of requirement of different skill set and imbalance in demand and supply of personnel having such skills. Wages and salaries are usually fixed on the basis of skills required to perform a job. Thus, highly specialized jobs requiring higher level of skills are linked with higher pay too. Coupled with this, shortage of supply of such personnel also induces the payment of higher pay. Regional Differentials : Apart from industrial arid occupational differentials, there may be differences in wages and salaries region-wise also within the same industry and occupation group. Such differences are visible in different countries of the world as well as different regions within a country. Continue reading
Concepts of Minimum Wage, Fair Wage and Living Wage
According to economic theory, wages are defined broadly as any economic compensation paid by the employer to his laborers under some contract for the services rendered by them. In its actual sense which is prevalent in the practice, wages are paid to workers which include basic wages and other allowances which are linked with the wages like dearness allowances, etc. Traditionally, in the absence of any bargaining power possessed by laborers, they did not have any say in the determination of wages paid to them. In the Indian context, soon after the independence, Government of India set up a Committee on Fair Wages in 1948 which has defined various concepts of wages which govern the wage structure in the country specially in those sectors which can be termed as underpaid and where workers do not have bargaining power through unions. These concepts are: minimum wage, living wage, and fair wage. Continue reading
Global Compensation Practices
For many companies, maintaining a domestic compensation program that supports the strategic goals of the organization and meets the needs of employees is a difficult challenge. This challenge is intensified when a similar program must be designed to operate in multiple countries with different cultures. For organizations competing in a global marketplace, managing compensation requires a through understanding of the taxation of compensation and benefits, differing state social systems, differences in living standards and employee values and expectations. Some of the most challenging questions in compensation practices are following: How does a company pay expatriates from difference home countries brought together to work on a project? What about compensation packages for same country nationals sent to different regions of the world? Traditional compensation systems for expatriates, such as the balance sheet approach and going rate approach, may not be adequate for the company or expatriate in facilitating an case of Continue reading
Process of Performance Appraisal
One of the most important things to remember about performance appraisals is that its effectiveness will be highly influenced by its purpose. For example, a programme, which is developed, to focus on employee development and training needs may not be suitable for making major decisions about salaries. Likewise, it is possible that the organization, management and employee may all have different goals for the performance appraisal process. Performance appraisal involves ‘identifying, evaluating and developing employees’ work performance with the dual purpose of achieving the organization’s goals and objectives whilst also ensuring the employee receives recognition, feedback and development’. The process of performance appraisal starts with employee planning and ends with an evaluation of employee progress. The process of performance appraisal consists broadly two steps. First, complete the performance appraisal form; secondly, participate in a performance appraisal interview and discussion. These two sages comprise the following levels in the appraising performance Continue reading
Job Evaluation Process
Job evaluation aims to provide this equity and consistency by defining the relative worth of different jobs in an organisation. Job evaluation is a process consisting of several steps. The following are the steps in job evaluation process: 1. Job Analysis Job evaluation process starts with the base provided by job analysis. Job analysis identifies various dimensions of a job in two forms: job description and job specification. Job description provides responsibilities involved in the performance of the job while job specification provides attributes required in the job performer. Both these taken together provide information about various factors involved in different jobs. 2. Appointment of Committee for Job Evaluation As pointed out earlier, job evaluation is a specialized function and is carried on by a committee consisting of members drawn from different line departments of the organisation, outside experts, besides HR personnel. HR person generally acts as committee convener or Continue reading