Describe each step that must be taken in order to first ensure that the job structure is internally aligned, then that the pay structure is externally competitive, and then established a way to reward employee contributions.
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Emerald Coast Engineering was set to open its doors in the fall. The building was nearing completion, the grounds were in order, and the advertising for clients was well under way. Emerald Coast's strategy was to provide premium, diversified, engineering skills and experience to focus on long term projects from large clients with whom ongoing relationships could be built. The company was not interested in being a cost leader, but rather was focused on differentiating its product from those offered by its competitors by providing excellent customer service and offering both breadth and depth of skills and experience. However, there were no engineers. It fell to the President of the company and the Chief Financial Officer to recruit the staff of 25 engineers needed to provide the services the company was offering. Although neither of these two administrators had ever been trained to do this, they set out in the characteristic way through advertising in trade journals, various regional and national publications, and the internet. The response to this approach was adequate and interested applicants began to appear. Each prospective employee's resume was examined, and he/she was interviewed by the two administrators and other engineers as they joined. Unfortunately, neither of the two administrators had any knowledge of varying demand in different fields and, in fact, had very little knowledge of fields other than their own, which were project management and accounting respectively.
As each prospect met the rather intuitive criteria of the two administrators, he/she was asked, "What salary do you expect?". In almost all cases the salary requested was granted. In a very few cases, some bargaining took place. The year got off to a smooth start, and the two administrators felt proud of their accomplishment.
All in all things went very well until one engineer got hold of the salaries of all of the engineers at Emerald Coast Engineering.
The administrators were furious with the engineer but were not nearly as upset as the rest of the staff who found major salary discrepancies upon examining the document. They discovered, for example, that engineers with Master's degrees and several years of experience in many cases were making less than people with Bachelor's degrees and almost no experience. They also found that lesser experienced engineers in several cases were making more than their colleagues in the same discipline (electrical vs. mechanical vs. systems engineering).
Finally, a committee was selected from among the engineers to discuss the issue with the two administrators. When the two were confronted with the evidence they could only say, "We gave you what you asked for! We had no knowledge upon which to base our salary decisions but what you told us, and you seemed happy with what you got". To this the committee replied, "We came from various educational backgrounds, various geographical areas with differing salary structures, various types of experiences with the job market and expected you to give all of us a fair shake".
Describe the steps that should have been taken, and must be taken now, to establish:
Internal Alignment
External Competitiveness
Employee Contributions
Describe each step that must be taken in order to first ensure that the job structure is internally aligned, then that the pay structure is externally competitive, and then established a way to reward employee contributions. If I decide to only survey competitors in the local market, I'm suppose to explain why I chose that. Or to reward based on seniority, explain why also. I'm to establish and discuss the link between the organization's strategy and its compensation strategy. To also address the biggest issue that faces the organization at this point. Because the engineers have lost faith in the company's ability to establish a fair pay structure. What can they do to ensure the buy-in of the employees into the newly revised pay structure that you have established? How should the new pay system be communicated to the employees? Who should be involved in the process of establishing the new structure?
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Solution Summary
Tutorial is 1,831 words, no references. It starts: Concept of internal equity means that employees perceive that ratios of their inputs (e.g., experience, effort, education, relevance to job experience) is equivalent to outcomes (rewards) are equivalent to the ratios of other employees. External Competitiveness: Once the wages have been made internally equitable, the management's next task is to compare them with those being paid in the community for comparable jobs. The wages and salaries of employees must be in alignment with wages and salaries other organization are paying at similar level. (continued in posting)
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STEPS THAT MUST BE TAKEN IN ORDER TO FIRST ENSURE THAT THE JOB STRUCTURE IS INTERNALLY ALIGNED, THEN THAT THE PAY STRUCTURE IS EXTERNALLY COMPETITIVE
Concept of internal equity means that employees perceive that ratios of their inputs (e.g., experience, effort, education, relevance to job experience) is equivalent to outcomes (rewards) are equivalent to the ratios of other employees.
External Competitiveness: Once the wages have been made internally equitable, the management's next task is to compare them with those being paid in the community for comparable jobs. The wages and salaries of employees must be in alignment with wages and salaries other organization are paying at similar level.
To achieve external alignment the management must first know (either through wage survey or through secondary published material) what average rates of its key jobs are prevailing in the community. It can then fix its own wage level at this average level or higher or lower level depending on critical jobs for company, the over all strategy of company, say for the company who strategy is to provide premium, diversified, engineering skills and experience to focus on long term projects from large clients with whom ongoing relationships could be built, the focus should be for best talent. For the purpose it has to pay a slight more than market to hire and retain talent. The other external factors like the expected shortage/ abundance of qualified personnel, the linking of productivity with pay, strategy of company to deal with employees say if it wants to pay emphasis on excellent open rewarding culture and non monetary rewards like recognition, assigning higher/ challenging responsibilities, have long term career paths for employees, have goodwill in market as good/ sensitive/ employee friendly company have a variety of attractive perks then it may be able to attract persons at lower salary levels. Similarly some Companies main strategy is to only emphasize on higher salaries then they will pay more.
The above discussion leads us to emphasize on that the external alignment is though be fully conversant with what is being paid in the market for comparable with the jobs of the company. The ultimate decision is based on the company's own policies, strategy, outside people perception about company, incentive systems for achieving/ exceeding productivity targets, the near future forecast about the availability of manpower in particular jobs, overall compensation philosophy of company.
The Method of the above discussed Internal Alignment and External Competitiveness is job evaluation as described below:
The major steps of job evaluation are as following:
Preparing job description and job specifications: Job description has detail of the duties and responsibilities of each job in the company. For these job descriptions, individual job ...
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