June 2015 |

Having studied companies closely and analyzed their Employee Reward Systems over a significant period of time, what comes out consistently is that while Rewards continue to remain the core of all Talent Management activities, managing successfully the Employee Reward Programs still remains the biggest challenge with most of those companies.

Some of the key reasons that come out as to why Employee Reward Programs either struggle or fail to live up to the desired expectations in such companies are as follows –

Rewards not understood by people

The employees in general are not aware of the process that goes behind the plan, design and delivery of the Reward Programs. The same are also not communicated adequately/effectively to the people, and the engagement/involvement of the line managers are also not sought in the process either. As a result, HR is not able to either articulate or maximize the value of such Rewards to its internal customers.
Rewards not linked to company’s business

While planning and designing the Employee Reward Programs, it is often found that HR actually works in isolation or at best with a only few chosen stake holders who they are ‘comfortable’ with, and not in overall alignment with the company’s goals (vision/mission) or its business strategies. The same results in a lack of broad alignment between the employee needs and the employer’s top objectives.
Rewards not linked to employee performance

More often than not, it is the ‘perception’ around the intent and efforts of employees, rather than the actual results or outcome delivered that drive performance measures and the rewards associated with the same. Developing clear expectations, creating a clear line of sight, setting achievable goals and establishing a credible measurement system are some of the areas that such companies should focus on. Leading industry research reveals that more than 80% of highly successful companies consistently display certain common attributes like clear/common employee goals and performance based rewards.
Rewards not linked to the job to be performed

The absence of a proper Job Evaluation System or well designed Job Descriptions often fail to differentiate between the real job at hand and its worth, as against loosely crafted designations/positions. The pitfall of the same is an incorrect/inappropriate job mapping exercise with the equivalent market jobs, resulting in ‘orange to apple’ and not ‘orange to orange’ kind of job matches, and hence incorrect/inappropriate worth/price linked to such jobs during the hiring of employees and their annual salary reviews.
Rewards not linked to the labor market

Those companies which do not track their competition or compare their salary levels with the industry are always at a disadvantage of not paying their employees Market level salaries, and hence losing out in talent attraction/talent retention. It is always wise to get Market Salary Data periodically, and fresh custom surveys providing real time data are the best options, as database study reports have their own limitations.
Rewards not linked to individual employee needs

Most of the time, the Employee Reward Programs end up being flat and linear, in the name of standardization and equality. The spectrum of rewards must be flexible/adaptable, as the motivational factors are different for different groups of employees and their respective needs/purposes must be met. While ensuring overall fairness and equity in the system, the way to go is ‘different strokes for different folks’.

Such companies will need to focus on building their internal capabilities, processes, tools and data to address their Employee Reward Systems in a robust and scientific manner, and ensure that fine balance between employee expectations and business needs for retaining that competitive edge in today’s market place.

Indranil Gupta,
Founder & Principal Consultant,
Meritt HR Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

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“Continual experimentation is core to innovation. You can’t apply learning principles to technology, if you don’t understand the technology. Similarly, you can’t truly leverage technology, if you don’t understand how people really learn.”

(Quinnovation)

Meritt offers comprehensive and quality Training Programs to client organizations to support them in their internal learning and capability development processes. These programs are diligently researched, designed and delivered by industry experts in the respective areas to ensure maximum relevance and value proposition to the participants.

We offer such programs by way of both open (public) programs and corporate (in-house) programs. Based on specific industry requirements and client business, these programs are also customized appropriately to suit the internal needs of each organization.

Our objective is always to ensure that our training efforts can result in actual performance improvement of the employees and further drive the business results of the organization through their people and process related interventions.

Meritt has already trained thousands of HR, line and business professionals from over hundreds of organizations from India and other countries across locations like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

We deliver these Programs through a dedicated Training division, called the “MERITT LEARNING CENTER”, which currently offers Training Programs in the following areas –

Human Resources

Compensation and Benefits
HR Metrics and Analytics
HR Enterprise Resource Planning
Performance Management

Organization Management

Job Evaluation and Job Design
Quality and Business Excellence
Balanced Scorecards

Management Development

Team Building and Working
Managerial Effectiveness
Leadership Development

The list of programs given above is only indicative in nature and not exhaustive. More programs and locations get be added to this list through the year, and the same are communicated to all the clients and participating organizations.

Our open (public) programs are usually held on Fridays and Saturdays. The same may also be changed to Thursday-Friday or Saturday-Sunday combination in any particular location and for a particular program, based on the availability of the participants.

The corporate (in-house) programs are usually conducted during the weekdays, based on the suitability of the organizations and the availability of the participating groups in a certain location at a certain point of time.

You can write to us for the Training Calendar, Program Content, Program Fee, Faculty Profile, Registration Form and Participant Feedback of these Programs.

Please contact us on: training@merittconsultants.com or meritttrainings@gmail.com

“If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings – and, put compensation and rewards as a carrier behind it – you almost don’t have to manage them.”

Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO, General Electric

Total Rewards Planning

Total Rewards is an advanced model of Human Resource management that goes beyond employee remuneration, which helps organizations to not only attract, motivate and retain, but also ensure building engaged employees, enhancing their performance and improving their competitiveness in the global workforce market.

Our total rewards solutions are always aligned with the business strategies and people needs of the organizations. We support them with total rewards planning which is holistic and integrated in nature, not just technical. We strive to understand the organization and the intrinsic value of the right rewards program. This comes from our solid experience of managing people and processes, what motivates them and how to effectively influence them keeping in mind the elements of total rewards.

With our expert insights and vast experiences, backed by our market-leading tools, research and data, we create a suitable blend of financial, organizational and behavioral aspects of reward, which fits the business strategy as well as the HR goals of the organizations. We also focus on providing strong implementation and communication support, ensuring that it actually translates into bottom-line results for them. This helps organizations optimize their employee reward programs and still do more with less.

Compensation Review and Design

Among all kinds of budgets in an organization, the remuneration cost is of critical importance. With less or limited money to go around, organizations face a very challenging question – that are the employees, especially critical talent, paid enough and in a manner that motivates them and keeps them engaged? Is the pay really proportional to the performance of the employees, is the pay structure really suitable to the environment in consideration, is the variable plan attractive enough to motivate performance and does it have the right reward mix to drive business results?

Our compensation review and design solutions provide the strategy, design and execution support essential to find all the answers and take appropriate actions. Such solutions align pay with jobs and environment, and help better differentiate performance and drive the right employee behaviors. We design effective, globally consistent framework for pay decisions to ensure that compensation is both appropriate and competitive. We help companies gain the required clarity and objectivity to take these decisions and understand where their pay structures stand and why so.

Compensation Benchmarking Survey

Our compensation surveys provide companies the relevant data and analysis that they need to establish competitive and effective compensation plans and salary programs to attract and retain top talent in the market warfare. We design and conduct compensation surveys to meet the needs of companies of all sizes, ranging from start-ups to small-and-medium enterprises to multi-national corporations, across various sectors and industries. We also customize the surveys to tailor make them to match the exact business requirements of the companies in consideration.

Our compensation surveys allow companies to get the most out of the market compensation data, as it helps them to determine where their salary rates for jobs and groups of jobs stand in relation to the relevant labor market. It also enables them to look at the need for and also the quantum of across-the-board or specific demographic or certain skill groups pay hikes, so that they can better manage their salary review programs and budgets at both local and global levels.

We also provide actionable advice to help companies choose and implement the suitable kind of survey from a single market pay assessment to an organization-wide pay practice review. Our rigorous survey processes, together with the accuracy of our databases and the relevance of our analysis, guarantee the delivery of high-quality, robust data and consistent reporting practices. Our database study and custom survey reports give companies that competitive edge for taking decisions during their employee salary review and payout actions that really work at the practical level.

Employee Benefits Study

Just as it is important to know, understand and compare compensation levels across the industry, it is also crucial to have a clear understanding of the benefits offered by similar companies. Our benefit studies help provide companies with data and information to give them a competitive advantage, where they can frame and execute the appropriate benefit programs to attract, reward and retain employees.

Our benefit studies employ a comprehensive process of research and analysis, to provide consistent and comparable data and information, which help us to assess and compare benefit policies and benefit costs across companies. On our part, we turn the data or information into insights and recommendations to transform into reward decisions. We match the companies carefully and then compare on equivalences, so as to determine the right benefit plans and programs for their workforce.

Executive Remuneration

With markets becoming more and more difficult and competitive, companies are facing a huge challenge in terms of hiring and retaining the top leaders. They are striving hard to strike a balance between providing these leaders justified and attractive remuneration, and the increased scrutiny of executive pay and regulatory governance. Our executive remuneration strategies help companies design fair and transparent systems for executive rewards, which balance the views of executives, shareholders and other stakeholders.

We help companies select the appropriate performance metrics and goals, and advise them on the right remuneration to drive business performance and retain experienced leaders. We do not just match job titles and salaries, but assess the actual responsibilities and value of an executive position to design a remuneration package that drives performance and motivates them. Our experience of working with leading organizations, coupled with on-time market data research helps us to establish fair and competitive executive compensation benchmarks. We deliver trusted, objective and appropriate solutions by striking a right balance between total pay mix, risk factors and reward value which are best suited to the needs of the organizations.

For more details, please contact us on: info@merittconsultants.com

“Employees, who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which also leads to profitability.”

Anne M Mulcahy, Former CEO, Xerox Corporation

Employee Engagement Study

We conduct employee engagement studies for organizations, the output index of which are used as a measurement to directly link the level of emotional and psychological attachment, and motivation of the employees in the work place. It is believed that a higher level of engagement transforms into more commitment and contribution from the employees, resulting into more productivity and profitability for the organization.

Employee Recognition Program

We provide help to organizations in designing ‘best-in-class’ employee recognition programs, with the purpose of recognizing and rewarding performance and behaviors that further support the vision, mission, values and goals of the organization. Such programs work both at the individual and group levels, and are aimed at acknowledging and appreciating contributions which are of exceptional nature, that can be showcased as ‘role models’ for the others to emulate.

Employee Communication

We help organizations design effective and impactful internal communication programs in line with their corporate policies and human resource strategies, that can be delivered to their employees through different channels, either verbal or written or both. Strategically, such communications normally go in alignment with the employee reward and employee the engagement programs of the organizations.

HR Systems Audit

We conduct audits for organizations, meant to assess and measure their different HR systems (processes) against either pre-determined internal standards or external market benchmarks, and the gap analysis reports are fed back into the entity to further plan and action continuous improvement efforts and results. It is important that the organizations are able to measure correctly, what they want to monitor.

HR Analytics

Our HR analytics support to organizations offer tools and metrics to help companies analyze and quantify employee data to improve their performance and hence get a better return on investment (ROI). It helps to correlate business data and people data, which can provide critical insights for taking important decisions to conclusively show the impact HR department has on the organization as a whole. This can help to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between what HR does and the business outcomes, and then creating key strategies and action plans based on the same.

For more details, please contact us on: info@merittconsultants.com

“To help others develop, start with yourself. When the boss acts like a little god and tells everyone else they need to improve, that behavior can be copied at every level of management. Every level then points out how the level below it needs to change. The end result – no one gets much better.”

Marshall Goldsmith, Leadership Coach and Management Author

Competency Framework

We support organizations to develop different types of competency frameworks (competency models) as required, which focus on identifying the behavioral, managerial, leadership, functional, technical and business skills and traits for performance evaluation, performance improvement and development of its people in different jobs. The set of required competencies serve as optimum guidelines for mapping the employees in their current and future jobs. This is also correlated with superior performance on the job and is used as an organizational standard against which to measure performance as well as to recruit, train, develop, evaluate, promote and reward employees in the organization.

Performance Management

Our work in this area revolves around designing and developing performance appraisal systems for organizations, by aligning their vision, mission, strategies and objectives with the key priorities and deliverables from each job (position). This also includes the process of goal setting (objective setting) and defining the key behavioral indicators for each individual in their respective jobs, so as to ensure that the business outcomes are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner.

Leadership Development

We work with organizations on a selective basis and through focused interventions for enhancing the quality of their leadership abilities and attitudes, both at the individual and enterprise levels. This is based on carefully identifying the competencies and behaviors based on the job (role), and working in a structured manner over a period of time to ensure individual effectiveness for organizational impact.

Assessment Center

We develop and conduct assessment centers (AC) for organizations, and for diverse objectives like recruitment and selection, potential for promotion in management jobs (positions), and career and succession planning for leadership roles (positions). Based upon detailed analysis and report by experienced and trained assessors, organizations will do a review of the skills and competencies of the individuals for the job in consideration and take an informed decision on the same.

Career Framework

Our work in this area involves developing career frameworks for employees, based on the organization, the industry, the technology and the nature of business. A clear and systematic career path helps both the organization and the employee to internally chart a course of action based on business needs, availability of other jobs, employee performance output and his/her individual developmental plan.

For more details, please contact us on: info@merittconsultants.com

“What business strategy is all about, what distinguishes it from all other kinds of business planning is, in a word – competitive advantage. Without competitors there would be no need for strategy, for the sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as efficiently as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors.”

Kenichi Ohmae, Former Professor and Dean of UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Organization Strategy

We help organizations to evolve successfully over time to meet their business objectives, along with a detailed assessment of what needs to be done in the context. While developing an organizational strategy for a business, we work by doing a gap analysis comparing its current state to its targeted state, and then steering out a phased plan of action to effect those desired changes over specific timelines.

Organization Structuring

We work with organizations to translate their business model into people framework. An organization structure is a reflection of the vision, mission, strategies and objectives of that particular business. It also represents the hierarchical arrangement of the lines of authority, communication channels, roles and responsibilities of various departments, functions, groups and people. The way a certain business operates must be correctly translated through its organization chart.

Organization Diagnostic Study

Our interventions in this area involve diagnosis of the organizational culture, its strategic, structural and operational strengths and weaknesses, through a process of data collection, in depth analysis and feeding the results back to the system for promoting better corporate performance. Such diagnosis are less of the purely behavioral, and more towards a strategic development and holistic corporate performance approach, as more organizations are realizing the linkage of their people to their business performance.

Job Analysis and Job Design

We help organizations by doing detailed study on the nature, duties, responsibilities, complexities, requirements and outputs of their existing jobs (work positions), and also provide systematic inputs and insights for the creation and design of new jobs (work designs). This is done as a part of their organization design and management activities, which they can use further in such areas like job evaluation, recruitment and selection, manpower allocations, performance appraisals, training and development initiatives, career and succession planning, and others.

Balanced Scorecard

We use the essence of the balanced scorecard (BSC) in its different forms as both strategic and operational inputs to design and develop performance management frameworks (strategy maps) for organizations to track the activities of its people, review the efficacy of its processes, monitor the response of its customers and measure the effectiveness of its business outcomes.

For more details, please contact us on: info@merittconsultants.com