Tips for Effective Recognition

Rewarding system in an organisation plays an important role to motivate the employees for the better performance. Recognition has to be very perfect to avoid employee issues which can divide the workforce.

We need to establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.

• All employees must be eligible for the recognition.

• The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.

• Anyone who then performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward.

• The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.

• You don't want to design a process in which managers "select" the people to receive recognition. This type of process will be viewed forever as "favoritism" or talked about as "it's your turn to get recognized this month." This is why processes that single out an individual, such as "Employee of the Month," are rarely effective.

Increasing Employee Morale during tough economic times

A high morale work place is essential to any business. Low morale can quickly take your business off the rails and lead ultimately to business failure. The root cause of low employee morale can be numerous including job security issues, limited upward mobility, lousy management practices, excessive outsourcing, lack of fair pay and much more.

Below are 3 simple ways employers can do this:

• Be Honest. Let employees know the state of the company. It is critical that employers are honest about the company’s financial situation. If business is good, discuss new projects and contracts. If it’s not so good, focus on the integrity of the company and its management.

• Let employees know you care. Provide information to employees about how to make the dollar go further, or where in the local area is gas the least expensive. Providing this information will show that you are listening and understand and ultimately, care. Providing this information won’t cost you too much time and more importantly, it doesn’t cost anything to provide information.

• Don’t give up on training. We know budgets are tight but there are some very cost effective training seminars that don’t require round-trip airfare, two nights’ hotel stay and a rental car. Look locally for a good ½ day or 1 day seminar and send your employees to it! Not only does it show that you value their growth as an employee, it gives them a chance to be with each other, outside of the office and can be used as a really great morale booster. It’s also a great return on a minimal investment.

By Priti Shah

How to Improve work culture?

Work culture plays an important role in organization success. Hard times push organization to the limit where its culture stands in motivating to survive. Many organizations in India are facing tuff time managing their employee and operations as because of culture not so conducive for changes and flexibility. There are some of the pointers which will help to improve work culture:

1. Say “thank you” often, and sincerely, face-to-face.
2. Publicly acknowledge hard work and initiative on the company bulletin board, in the newsletter, during meetings and at company social events.
3. Offer the option for arriving an hour late on Monday mornings or leaving an hour early on Friday afternoons when possible.
4. Give bonuses for meeting company financial goals (e.g. money, parties, a trip, etc.). Or, offer time off to an employee who has made a difference.
5. Acknowledge special events (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries of time employed, accomplishments, etc.) either through cards, company newsletters or meetings.
6. Administer quarterly reviews and encourage and/or require employees to provide a self-evaluation.
7. Take time to meet with employees one at a time.
8. Encourage a sense of ownership in work.
9. Involve employees in decisions, especially those that will directly affect them, and the quality progress of the company.
10. Encourage employees to participate in community service programs. Possibly provide incentives for their involvement.

By Priti Shah

How to solve problems?

In this world problem is the word which has to do with every human life whether it be rich or the poor. Many are not able to handle the problem as they don’t where to start from and many end making a mess which is very difficult to clear up. It is always a very useful approach to think of successful strategies for problems in the past. Train yourself to adapt useful problem-solving techniques to new situations!

Here is one of many possible models of problem solving.

1. Problem identification What is my concern?
2. Goal definition What do I want to achieve or change?
3. Brainstorming What can I do?
4. Consequences What might happen?
5. Decision How should I do it?
6. Implementation Do it!
7. Evaluation Did it work?

In today’s world we have to think when some people don’t, with a help of above many possible models of problem solving one can definitely lead somewhere to solve the problem instead sitting and crying over it.

By Priti Shah

Executive Compensation

Many organizations, especially large ones, administer executive compensation somewhat differently than compensation for lower-level employees. An executive typically is someone in the top two levels of an organization, such as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), President, or Senior Vice-President. The common components of executive compensation are salaries, annual bonuses, long-term incentives, supplemental benefits, and perquisites.

Two objectives influence executive compensation:

(1) Ensuring that the total compensation packages for executives are competitive with the compensation packages in other firms that might employ them.

(2) Tying the overall performance of the organization over a period of time to the compensation that is paid to executives.

It is the second objective that critics of executive compensation believe is not being met. In many organizations, it appears that the levels of executive compensation may be unreasonable and not linked closely to organizational performance.

Elements of Executive Compensation

At the heart of most executive compensation plans is the idea that executives should be rewarded if the organization grows in profitability and value over a period of years. Because many executives are in high tax brackets, their compensation often is provided in ways that offer significant tax savings.

• Perquisites
• Supplemental Benefits
• Long-Term incentives
• Annual bonuses
• Executive salaries

By Priti Shah

Variable Pay: Incentives for Performance

Variable pay is compensation linked to individual, team, and/or organization performance. Traditionally also known as incentives, variable pay plans are attempts to tie additional tangible rewards given to employees for performance beyond normal expectations. The philosophical foundation of variable pay rests on

Several basic assumptions:

• Some jobs contribute more to organizational success than others.
• Some people perform better than others.
• Employees who perform better should receive more compensation.
• A portion of some employees’ total compensation should be given to reward above-satisfactory performance.

Contrast the assumptions above with a pay system based on seniority or length of service:

• Time spent each day is the primary measure of short-term contribution.
• In the long term, length of service with the organization is the primary differentiating factor among people.
• Differences in individual contributions to the organization are recognized through different base pay levels.
• Giving additional performance rewards to some people but not others is divisive and hampers employees working together.

Types of Variable Pay

Variable pay plans can be established that focus on individual performance, team or group performance, and on organization-wide performance. An important feature of variable pay plans is that incentives increase the degree of cooperation in teams, whereas individual incentives do not.

Individual incentives are given to reward the effort and performance of individuals.

Some of the most common means of providing individuals variable pay are piece-rate systems, sales commissions, and bonuses.

Organization incentives reward people for the performance of the entire organization.

This approach reduces individual and team competition and assumes that Organization incentives reward people for the performance of the entire organization.

By Priti Shah

Individual-centered career planning

Individual-centered career planning focuses on individuals’ careers rather than organizational needs. It is done by employees themselves, and individual goals and skills are the focus of the analysis. Such analyses might consider situations both inside and outside the organization that could expand a person’s career. The different perspectives, Organizational retrenchment and downsizing have changed career plans for many people. They have found themselves in “career transition”—in other words, in need of finding other jobs. Small businesses, some started by early retirees from big companies, have provided many of the new career opportunities.

How People Choose Careers

Four general individual characteristics affect how people make career choices.

• Interests: People tend to pursue careers that they believe match their interests.
• Self-image: A career is an extension of a person’s self-image, as well as a molder of it.
• Personality: This factor includes an employee’s personal orientation (for example, whether the employee is realistic, enterprising, and artistic) and personal needs (including affiliation, power, and achievement needs).
• Social backgrounds: Socioeconomic status and the educational and occupation level of a person’s parents are a few factors included in this category.

Less is known about how and why people choose specific organizations than about why they choose specific careers. One obvious factor is the availability of a job when the person is looking for work. The amount of information available about alternatives is an important factor as well. Beyond these issues, people seem to pick an organization on the basis of a “fit” between the climate of the organization as they perceive it and their own personal characteristics. Many factors may influence job choice, including the gender of the job informant who passed along job information. The “dream jobs” of young people ages 13 to 17 change over time, as Further, people change jobs more now than ever before.

By Priti Shah