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What is Compensation ?
Compensation in HRM :
Definition of Compensation
According to Cascio :
"Compensation includes direct cash payments, indirect payments in the form of
employee benefits, and incentives to motivate employee to strive for higher levels
of productivity".
According to R. Wayne Mondy :
"Compensation is the total of all rewards provided to employees in return for their
services. The overall purposes of providing compensation are to attract, retain and
motivate employees".
Objectives of Compensation
1) Establish Equity :
One of the important reasons for making compensation plans is to establish equity.
It refers to increasing the wages of the employees who are paid low and eliminating
inequalities in the organisation. For this, concept of equal work for equal pay
should be followed.
3) Macroeconomic Stabilization :
Compensation is aimed at achieving macroeconomic stability. This can be attained by
high employment rate and low inflation rate.
6) Avoid Conflicts :
If the compensation system is well planned, the workers will be satisfied and the
workers' union will have nothing to be unhappy and this will create harmony and
peace in the organisation.
7) Legal Compliance :
An effective compensation always complies with the laws. In this way, employer is
also saved from the legal problems.
1) Availability :
First and foremost requirement for high performance is the availability of the
compensation. Low compensation does not motivate employees to do work. Employees
mostly wish for maximum bike but their wish is never fulfilled in reality. False
reporting, theft, etc. are the negative results of low hike.
2) Timeliness :
Compensation must be provided to the employees on time because untimely or long
duration taken for payment of compensation may produce detrimental results.
3) Performance Related :
Compensation should be based on the performance of the employee. It motivates the
employee and sends the right message to other members of the organisation.
4) Durability :
Some types of compensations are more valuable and have a long lasting effect than
the others. For example, non-monetary compensation such as autonomy, challenging
tasks, accountability gives long lasting effects as compared to monetary
compensation.
5) Equity :
Often comparisons are made between the compensation a person is getting with the
one his colleague is getting. If the compensation is given in an unfair way, it
will produce negative results in the long-term Hence, compensation should be equal
for employees with similar job profile. However, it should be in equity with the
performance, job position, responsibilities of the employee as well.
6) Visibility :
Management must ensure that the system of compensation is visible in an
organisation. To make such a perception, it is important that the persons are given
important assignments and delegated important tasks such as to lead a committee.
This will create a competitive and positive environment in an organisation.
7) Flexibility :
Compensation should be given to employees at regular intervals. It should be
designed in such a way that it covers both qualitative and quantitative aspects of
satisfying the employees.
8) Cost Effective :
While planning compensation, it should be kept in mind that compensation requires
funds of the organisation. Therefore, compensation should be distributed in a cost
effective way.
2) Ability to Bargain :
Bargaining capacity of worker is another factor which influences the wage
determination. If the trade unions are strong, then the wages paid to workers are
high because trade unions pressurize the employers to meet demand of workers and
give them higher wages.
3) Cost of Living :
Cost of living is different in different places, regions and countries. In an
underdeveloped nation, the cost of living is poor hence wages are low, as they are
expected to live with less facilities while on the other hand, a developed nation
has higher wages.
4) Type at Market :
Wages of the workers depend on the type of the market where they are working in. If
the market is competitive, the wages of the employees will be uniform in the market
and will be good. But if the competition is low and poor, the wages will not be at
par.
5) Comparative Wages :
Wages also depend on the wages being paid by the other organisations. Pay rates
must be compatible with the salaries paid by the other organisations, which belong
to same kind of industry. If the wages are comparative, then employees will be
satisfied.
6) Ability to Pay :
Paying capacity of an organisation is a major factor which affects the employee
compensation. Large organisations with high profitability can offer a good salary
to its employees while small organisations with low profit cannot afford to pay
high salary to its employees.
7) Labour Efficiency :
It is also an important factor in determining compensation. If the person is
qualified and more competent for the organisation, then obviously he has more value
and earns more which is not the case with every employee in the organisation. That
is why some employees have more salary package than others.
8) Employment Skills :
If a person is placed on a high position which requires high skills and greater
responsibilities, then he is expected to get higher wages. On the other hand, a
person with lower skills at low position, who has to carry-out fewer
responsibilities, will be paid low wages.
9) Government Regulations :
Sometimes, mere bargaining is not enough for an employee to get what he deserves
So, the government has put some regulations which have to be followed during wage
determination, so that workers can get minimum wages to maintain a good living for
themselves and their family members.
Importance of Compensation
Disadvantages of Compensation
Following are the major disadvantages / limitations associated with the employee
compensation :
1) Pay Secrecy :
Compensation packages are formulated and applied differently in different
organisations. But almost all the companies follow the rule of confidentiality when
it comes to the salary distribution. Confidentiality of the payments increases the
complexity in managing the system as leas information regarding salaries is to be
provided to the employees.
2) Involvement of Employees :
People are often more involved in tasks in which they perform well. Not all
employees should be involved in the process of designing compensation system of the
company, as this may not revert positively. It can be done only if the organisation
has been following the principle of participative management for a very long time
and if there is a well-balanced and trustworthy environment in the organisation.
3) Pay Reviews :
There should be constant changes or reviews in the payments. It should not be
fixed. Hence, the company performs pay reviews in three forms, viz fixed date,
anniversary dates and flexible reviews. In a fixed date pay review, payments of all
the employees are reviewed on a particular date of the year. In an anniversary pay
review, payments of the employees are reviewed after 12 months of their respective
joining Further, variable or flexible pay reviews can be done on variable timing
depending upon the felt need. Variable reviews reflect flexibility. In this form of
pay review, high performing individuals who are in lower salary grade are rewarded
more often. Generally, in established industries, pay review is done once in three
years while in government companies, pay reviews takes place between 10 to 15 years
depending upon the recommendation made by the Pay Commissions.
4) Wage Compression :
Wage compression is the biggest problem in today's compensation system. It means
that the new joining employees have higher salaries than the employees who are
working for long in a firm. Due to this, the pay differentials between the old and
new employees become very small or negligible. Wage compression can be considered
for a short-term basis but on long-term basis it affects the morale and efficiency
of the employee badly.
5) Inflation Effect :
Inflation has a great impact on compensation system adopted by many organisations,
as it has been variable over the years. In early 1980s, it was high and employees
received about 12 to 13 percentage of hike in their salaries. Later, when checked
in 1990s, hikes went down resulting in the salaries to decrease up to 7 per cent.
In the late twentieth century, only 4 percent hike was given. Hence, it is
difficult to satisfy employees about the decreasing and increasing levels of hikes
in the salaries.
6) All-Salaried Workforce :
With the increase in the participation of the employees in all organisational
processes, all- salaried workforce has been adopted by many of the organisations.
All workers including ground staff are provided with salaries and wages without
being primarily dependent upon the number of working hours. It means employees'
absenteeism or lateness does not affect their salaries. This policy is chiefly
introduced to remove the feeling of hourly paid employees about being second class
citizens.
7) Reduction in Wages :
It is observed that many companies adopt the strategy of reduction in wages.
Various manufacturing companies such as automobile, steel, etc. are extracting
cheap labour from different countries. It does not only affect the wages of the
employees but also creates a sense of insecurity in their minds. However, companies
have adopted two-tier wage contract which acts as a short-term solution to this
problem under which newly hired employees are paid very less, and the current
employees receive the existing wages. This is only a short-term solution because it
creates internal inequity as new hired workers at cheaper wages feel that they are
not equally treated like the existing workers. This problem has a negative long-
term impact as the new workers consistently increase in numbers.
8) Comparable Worth :
Under this system, equal salary should be given to the employees, if their
contributions are similar to the organisation, irrespective of their designation
and post. The individual wages will be decided by a point ranking method of job
evaluation. Apart from the concept of equal pay for equal work, concept of
comparable worth exists, which states that if two individuals receive same points
in the point ranking method, then same wages will be paid to them. This evaluation
is generally biased, as more points are given to jobs which are conventionally held
women while evaluating the individuals' jobs.
1) Basic Salary :
Basic salary is the fundamental component of pay structure. It is the major portion
of the employee's compensation. Different components of the wages such as bonuses,
premiums, allowances, etc. are determined with the help of basic salary. Seniority
and rank are the two factors, which are considered for determining the basic
salary. Basic salary is a major issue of discussion during negotiations between
management and labour unions. Labour unions demand for increasing basic salary as
it affects other benefits of the employees also.
2) Incentives :
An incentive is a very important component of pay structure. It is given in
addition to the regular wages. Incentives attract the employees and motivate them
to perform better. It also motivates the employees to improve their efficiency and
productivity of the organisation.
3) Bonus :
Bonus is the payment which is given to workers.as a share of the organisation's
profits in a particular year. The profit is expected to be made due to contribution
of employer and hard work of the workers. Bonus is paid according to the
performance of employees based on certain criteria, which may include their
eligibility, performance standards, time span, etc.
Earlier, payment of bonus was just confined for the manual workers, but now they
are applicable in almost all types of organisations. Profit-related bonus,
attendance bonus, work study related bonus are some examples of bonuses.
4) Employee Benefits :
Employee benefits are also known as fringe benefits or fringes. They are given to
the employees in addition to their wages and salaries, e.g., health care benefits,
retirement benefits, etc.
5) Provident Fund :
Provident fund is the payment which an employee receives after his retirement or
when he resigns from the organisation. Both employee and employer contribute
equally in the provident fund. The provident fund is mainly given with the
objective to secure the future of employees after retirement.
6) Overtime Pay :
It is the amount of compensation that an employee receives if he works for extra
hours beyond his normal working hours.
For example, if the working hours for an employee are 42 hours in a week but if he
is working for 48 hours in a week then he has to be paid extra amount for the extra
6 hours he has worked. In case, the employee is working for more than 48 hours in a
week, he should be paid at double rate.
7) Allowances :
Allowances can be defined as the payment given to an employee by an employer in
monetary terms. It may be fixed, predetermined or it may be provided regularly in
lieu of services given by the employee. Taxable, partially taxable, and fully
taxable are the three types of allowances given to the employees. Some important
allowances are given below:
x) Hostel Allowance :
This allowance is given to the employees by the employer to meet the expenses that
have incurred when their children are staying in hostel while studying away from
their hometown.
The traditional systems of compensation which have been used since years
centered on "paying for the job". which mostly emphasizes on the designation or the
grade or the job, but not centered on the person by whom the job is being
performed. The evaluation of the external and internal value of job is the basis
for the salary given to each job. On the basis of market survey and outcome of job
assessment, a pay structure is created to set restrictions on pay. A shift in the
pay structure occurs on the basis of merit or the time expanded by an employee in a
job category.
In the past few ten or twenty years, new kinds of pay programmes have emerged. A
number of these programmes denote a substantial difference from the traditional
approach. Thus, it is beneficial to see that what are the reasons due to which
organisations are trying with new approaches :
1) Change is the fundamental nature of work. There are many factors because of
which the manner in which the work is organised, done, and directed has been
influenced. These factors include competitive pressures. the move from
manufacturing to service economy, emphasis on quality, the uncertain business
environment, and the globalization Team-based processes, coaching style of
supervision, and worker empowerment are the crucial issues at the present time.
Jobs are flexible and are more widely defined. Traditional job description
activities are being substituted by more common employee roles.
For example, when IBM decreased the number of several jobs it used above 5,000 to
less than 1,200, it was reacting to such similar pressures by "generalizing" and
widening work. But traditional job evaluation was based on a different work
philosophy. Excessive importance by several traditional programmes of job
evaluation is given to special knowledge and the monetary value of areas managed.
Some, if any, traditional plans of job valuation clearly takes into consideration
working successfully across and in the groups, challenges relating to customer
service, or responsibility towards quality as important job dimensions. Therefore,
it is claimed by a few individuals that wrong things are rewarded by traditional
plans of job evaluation.
2) It is the presumption of the traditional approach that the main aim of the
compensation system is paying competitively. For this purpose, the compensation
professionals in the organisations are likely to be "outwardly focused", observing
the practices of the competitor, adopting such practices which seem to be
productive, and making use of surveys for recognizing suitable pay levels. A
stylish and popularized thinking may really be motivated by this component of
compensation management. Contrary to this traditional approach, the efforts are
being taken by the successful organisations for distinguishing themselves from
other organisations in the market area. Opponents of the traditional approach
suggest compensation professionals to "focus inwardly" which will encourage,
supervise, and energize performance taking into account the goals and policy of a
single organisation.
4) Traditional plans have been condemned for the measurement of the value of
internal job and after that believing on the information of market survey for
creating actual pay. The net outcome is that few jobs can be rated rather high
regarding their job content using a plan of job evaluation, however are paid
relatively less in case their contribution is underestimated by the market. It is
argued by comparable worth followers that this often takes place as the market area
biased.
1) Gross Compensation :
Within an organisation, the gross compensation differs at every hierarchical level.
There exists a considerable difference between the gross compensation of managers
and their subordinates. This difference largely depends upon the project and
support functions Companies plan high salary systems specifically for individuals
at higher levels which is the reason for considerable difference in basic salaries.
Companies offer non-tax perks that are usually divided in several heads, which act
as a type of reimbursement for high levels of management. An allowance is also
given under soft furnishing allowance for purchasing curtains, carpets, utensils,
and crockery which is annually paid as a non-taxable allowance. Most of the
organisations have omitted components such as servant's wages and utilities
allowance as they are taxable allowances. Conveyance is the field in which a lot of
variations can be done. This field covers various practices such as provisions of
cur, driver, reimbursement of expenses on car, parking, cleaning. petrol and
maintenance, etc.
2) Employee Benefits :
Nowadays, the companies encourage their employees towards purchasing of their own
conveyance via various hire-purchase plans under which, the installments will be
paid by the company. The practice, in which the company provides conveyance to its
employees, is diminishing. This solves the problem of accumulation of used cars by
the organisations especially with high employee turnover. Providing loans for
automobiles is a common practice which is followed by most of the companies these
days. However, interest rates and repayment period may vary from one company
another.
Many companies have a tie up with various hospitals and insurance companies for
providing medical benefits to their employees. Free health check-up programmes are
also organised by several companies, annually. Some organisations even bear the
hospital expenses of the employees of special grades and ages. Very often,
companies sponsor various education programmes for their employees in the form of
evening classes or time-outs.
Companies even pay for books, periodicals, newspapers or journals and their
subscriptions up to a limited extent. Club memberships are offered to senior
management including onetime joining fees for one club and annual or monthly
subscriptions for more than one club, which becomes an attractive perk. Bulk
corporate memberships are also often provided to the employees. Furthermore, they
are provided with soft loans for the purchase of furniture, appliances, and
computers by many organisations. Housing loans and interest subsidies are also
offered. The reimbursement plans include travel expenses covering accommodations in
guest houses and abroad holiday packages for senior employees and their families.
These reimbursements are awarded to some employees as a return for their exemplary
performances.
3) Pre-Employment Benefits :
Pre-employment benefits are the new trend that is observed in many companies these
days. It is an attempt to make the job lucrative and attractive for talents in the
market. These benefits include coverage of all relocating expenses such as expenses
for their families, transport of personal goods, support in locating house,
schools, hospitals, etc. However, these components are taxable in nature.
4) Broad-Banding :
It represents the small hierarchal structures of organisations that give more
importance to team work rather than individual contributions. The breaking down of
salary grades into fewer wide "bands" for the management of career growth and
administration of payments is known as Broad-banding. It supports the leaner and
customer-focused structure of organisation by eliminating the hierarchies
associated with traditional pay bands.
5) Team-Based Pay :
Nowadays, companies believe in rewarding teams rather than individuals. This has
led. to the concept of team-based pay that encourages individuals to produce best
results through working in teams rather than performing individually for
compensations. This concept helps team members to work in group and cooperate with
each other. Team-based rewards grab the attention of every individual in the team,
thus stimulating cooperation between team members. This reward system is very
effective for an organisation through which many employees perform similar tasks.
These rewards are easier to evaluate, as they inculcate the importance of teams.
As some organisations are following the concept of team, it has been observed that
it is difficult for the employer to develop team-based compensation programmes. One
of the main problems faced by the employer is how to compensate an individual
working in team, and his performance, which is judged by the team as a whole.
However, base pays are calculated on the basis of individuals' competencies,
experience, and other job factors. But, many companies prefer team-based pay rather
than base pay.
6) Knowledge-Based Pay :
The companies have increased their focus towards innovative employee involvements
and compensation strategies as they search for new methods of improving
competitiveness. One of the newly emerged compensation strategy is Knowledge-Based
Pay (KBP) or Skill-Based Pay. This strategy helps in improving the flexibility of
the employees. KBP focuses on compensating individuals on the basis of the
knowledge and skills they possess instead of rewarding on their performances.
7) Competency-Related Pay :
This compensation strategy can be a part of competency-based approach to HRM and
thus, is attractive in theory. It is also compatible with human capital management
and focuses on employees to use their competencies and skills in the workplace. By
focusing on competency-related pay, the over-emphasis done on PRP (Performance-
Related Pay) is ignored while achieving quantitative goals. This strategy
compensates individuals for their competencies and capabilities rather than their
results over the tasks on which they might have slight control.