Please read each passage below and respond to each part. I DO NOT need a reference or title page, however please provide the reference(s) underneath the passage. Please label as I have done below, example Part 1 and place your response along with the reference. Please keep each one on the same document! Please cite properly and use correct grammar. DUE by 6PM CST 5/16/22
Part 1
Great point when you stated a disadvantage to individual and group incentive plans is that employees can feel overworked and put in overtime which can make them feel entitled to certain benefits and incentives. Whether utilizing an individual incentive pay plan or a group one, I have seen it with both and can be an extremely challenging situation. One thing about incentive plans is that the individual that does not receive the reward does not or cannot see why someone else did. For example, at my organization, we use individual and group incentive plans. Me personally, I am working on multiple projects, taking additional life insurance classes to receive credentials, going to school to enhance my knowledge, and have many years of management experience. I received an award last quarter for being reliable, resourceful, and involved in organizational projects. A few coworkers did not think I deserved it and actually asked me why I thought I received the $500 gift card. They assumed that because they were putting in overtime and felt overworked with taking more calls that they deserved it. After explaining to them all I do, they were in SHOCK. They had no idea what I did and what I was involved in. No one told them, they just simply gave me this gift card without going into detail why I earned it. For a moment, this decreased morale and created a bit of a hostile work environment as everyone who thought they deserved it and did not get it were upset because they did not know the background. The key is communication. When recognizing individuals or groups, communicate the reason as to why they received an incentive or reward so that all other employees understand and can work for the same goals. It is all about how management approaches incentives for them to be truly successful.
Part 2
Incentive pay plans “reward employees for partially or completely attaining a predetermined work objective” (Martocchio, 2017, section 4.1, para. 1). Incentive pay plans motivate employees to achieve high levels of performance by attaching a, in most cases, monetary reward to the completion of a certain task, but can also be issued in extra paid time off or other rewards. A potential weakness of incentive pay plans is that the focus is highly concentrated on the financial reward and not on the work itself and its accomplishment. When high rewards are at stake, employees may be motivated to achieve them under any circumstances including being dishonest or manipulating data to ensure their successful achievement of the reward. Caution must be exercised when waving large incentive payouts in front of employees to motivate them to perform at an incredibly high level or achieve success under extremely difficult conditions since this can cause employees to look for the easiest way to accomplish the task at hand.
This type of incentive is often used in group projects or tasks that require a lot of attention and detail and are of high importance. One example that comes to my mind would be incentive pay for the successful completion of an audit and certification in international standards. At my company, which is a tier 1 automotive supplier in the manufacturing industry, we are currently being audited to renew our environmental certification and are applying for an international automotive certification that our customers require. We have played with the idea of incentivizing this project to reward each selected employee with a one-time payment since the scope of this project does not fall into one particular department and causes increased time and project management planning. As a way of thanking our employees for their contributions after the successful completion of both audits and certifications, an incentive would be a nice way of rewarding the accomplishments. To ensure the successful implementation of this program, objective criteria must be established so that employees know what is expected of them and that regular checks will be conducted into the quality of the work outputs. By having a solid system in place, employees will be aware that skimping on details or simply working towards the goal only for the financial gains will be difficult since certain goals must be met. I do believe that having an incentive pay plan for this particular project would be advantageous since an audit and certification already have established criteria that must be met to pass. In this case, employees would be fully aware of what is expected of them to earn the incentive.
Reference
Martocchio, J.J. (2017). Strategic compensation: A human resource management approach (9th ed.). Pearson.
