Competitive Pay Policy

Companies competing in different industries amongreward for the work done, and other benefits are
each other do not only oppose one another whileless attractive than those of the competitors.
trying to sell their good or services, but also theyAs already was mentioned the total reward model in
compete for skilled and experienced employees. Howthe appropriate to company’s situation balance
a company chooses to attract future employees andwould be the best answer in recruiting and
keep people working for them is determined by themaintaining employees. However there are number of
competitive pay policy. This policy is generally basedsituations to be considered and different types of
on three marketing conditions while recruiting newbusinesses to be taken into consideration. For
workforce, those conditions are: a) availability ofinstance a company only starting its operations should
qualified workers in the market, b) theemphasize log term incentives in order to attract
aggressiveness of other employers searching for thepeople willing to participate in the creation of a new
same type of workforce; c) company’s abilitiessuccessful business. Of course in such case a
in recruiting new people (financial situation, othercompany will not be able to pay high salaries, as
benefits it can provide).opposed to big companies of the same industry, but
Most of the times in modern business world,it has to promise, say, a 75th percentile in long term
company’s competitive pay policies are based onpayments and benefits, so that workers have
the percentile levels of the targeted market.motivation to stay with this company. Another
Generally companies choose market’s 50thexample of different pay system approach is when
percentile or median policy which allows anwe view an already established and mature company,
organization to stay competitive and at the samegenerating a lot of cash and yielding great profits. In
time not spend too much money or benefits forthis instance the human resource manager should
attracting employers. However, some companies dotarget the median in salaries in the relevant recruiting
choose to stay above or below this median point insituation. Such companies usually encourage
competitive pay system; it may be caused byemployees to work for an annual cash incentive or a
company’s decision to focus mainly on one ofpremium, which is based on annual performance
the three earlier mentioned compensation types.reviewed against company’s standards. In the
Often such companies get exhausted in providing tooprevious case with developing company, the long
much of particular sort of payment of benefit, andterm incentives was the only attractive feature to
this results in employees’ dissatisfaction.potential employees, here, on the other side, such
The trick, that every company that wants to be abenefits are granted to executives or highly valued
competitive employer has to learn, is to understandemployees. Non-financial benefits in well developed
the concept of balance in identifying the bestcompanies are targeted at the median level of the
competitive pay policy. The notion of total rewardrelevant industry, and company’s performance
model is the most reasonable one for the employersculture aims at staying stable at the present
to consider if they want to attract, retain, andmanagement level.
motivate, for further success, employees. ThisAlthough the external parameters are very important
approach is based on the principal of providing anin identifying company’s pay policy, the individual
employee with compensations that is money for thecapabilities of the employer should be precisely
provided services. The second type of rewardevaluated as well. It can be done through the
consists of benefits such as income protection,interviewing process, when hired and by work
welfare, health, different capital accumulationperformance throughout first three months of work
programs. Another important part of this system isor first year. The payment level can be determined
represented by working condition, which at firsttaking into consideration company’s market
glance seems to be irrelevant, but in reality they areposition, internal equity, and budget limitation. The
essential to employees, especially developmentaltotal reward system should consider personal qualities
opportunities, company’s culture andas well, only then it will be balanced and most
performance recognition. Most of the timeappropriate from the point of view of recruiting
organizations do not focus on three of themarket requirements, company’s profit, and
enumerated elements in equal proportions whileemployee’s satisfaction. The combination of all
designing their pay policies. Usually it happens that thethese elements will results in a successful employer
compensation or the salary is emphasized as a majorwith happy staff.