方正姚体Strategic Compensation Management:
The Changing Pattern of Pay and Benefits
作者: Tudor, Thomas R., Trumble, Robert R., Journal of Compensation & Benefits, 0893780X, Sep/Oct96
Today, many companies still base their reward systems on the 1950s compensation model made popular during the brief period when U.S. companies dominated the world. With todays increasingly competitive environment, however, companies must look more closely at the cost-benefit of rewards, instead of just using them in an attempt to reduce employee dissatisfaction. Companies must provide short-term motivation and encourage employees to develop long-term skills that will aid the company. Most importantly, companies must also attract and retain high performers, instead of alienating them with pay systems that give everyone pay increases without regard to levels of performance. For example, such new compensation approaches may include skill-based pay, gainsharing plans, and flexible benefits systems.
Traditional compensation approaches are still often modeled on the centralization-based organizational model, in which decisions were made at the top and management rigidly defined tasks. However, with global competition becoming an increasingly prominent issue, companies need reward systems that match their movement to decentralized structures. Larger numbers of companies are also becoming very aware that they cannot just pass additional compensation costs onto future customers. Today, our pay systems must move in step with the participative-management trend by becoming more flexible instead of remaining fixed. This adjustment involves many factors including shorter product life cycles, a need to be more flexible, a need for workers to continually gain additional skills, and for them to think more on the job.
In today's most successful companies, employee rewards and benefits are increasingly incorporated into an organization's strategic planning. Why? The rationale is that employee compensation has a substantial impact on the long-term financial position of a firm. Compensation structures should consider an organization's strategic requirements and should match organizational goals. Compensation strategic planning should involve:consideration of the internal and external environment; and creation of an organization's compensation statement, compensation goals, and the development of compensation policies.
Today, one strategic compensation trend is the use of pay incentives instead of the traditional, annual “everybody gets” pay increase. The rationale is to control costs and to more closely tie performance to compensation. We can group the changing pattern of compensation into two general areas: Pay Method Trends and Benefits Trends. Human Resources managers should familiarize themselves with these changing trends and determine the plan that is most suitable for their organization.
