Strategic Compensation Management
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[Enter name of institution here]
Job Description for cleaning Operators
Job Introduction
We are currently seeking the services of highly talented and motivated person in one of our offices. We seek a person having high level of organizational skills and a clear ability to prioritize workload according to importance and communicate to various people at different workplaces. Team work will be in action most of the time but the person will also be expected to work on his own for certain instances.
Role Responsibility
The person should be able to deliver a consistent level of service within standards set up by company. These standards will also be communicated through specifications of job contract. Ensure that all areas of the premises are cleaned properly and responsibilities designated to him are completed in a timely and appropriate manner. He must be aware of all expenditures and costs incurred. He will perform the following general duties with his team or as an individual.
Hovering
Buffing
Dusting
Cleaning
Mopping of toilets
Ability to work on own initiative
Skills to organize the work and show superior time management skills
All company policies should be followed and client’s concerns have to be catered in a timely manner. Any policies of client have to be followed if they specifically relate to cleaning activities and cleaning staff including statutory regulations related to health and safety. Any specific hazards associated with work place should also be communicated to higher management. This job may require travelling to client’s place to complete cleaning tasks. The person will be responsible for work assigned to him, he has to keep himself within specific details of job in hand and report to supervisor on daily as well as on specific job basis. Employee will be expected to keep a high standard regarding his personal hygiene and appearance to make sure that he complies with statutory and company laws and wearing company uniform as specified CITATION Sod14 \l 1033 (Sodexo, 2014).
The applicant will have to pass practical test in which specific tasks will have to be performed by him within stipulated period of time. He must have 12 months’ experience of cleaning large buildings with appropriate knowledge of using chemicals and must be fluent in English speaking. An ideal candidate will be willing to work after office hours because many times our activities are carried on past the office hours.
Job Description for Handyman
A handyman is expected to perform a wide variety of services on particular projects. Our projects will be related to cleaning so handyman will be expected to make repairs to cleaning equipment if and when required. They will also wash the janitorial clothes and equipment on a daily basis. When cleaners are doing their job, handyman is expected to see if cleaner needs some help, he will provide the help accordingly.
Handy man will be hired for particular projects only and they will be assigned next project based on their current performance. Handyman related to our project will provide us with all necessary tools and equipment, facilitate running the project and clear any mess after the project has been completed.
Comparison of 2015 and today’s wages
For most part of Human resource management. It was assumed that this department has to manage the workforce. With the passage of time, organizations faced more and more legislations from the government regarding wages, taxes and employer contributions. This has compelled organizations to spread the functions of human resource management to compensation as well. One of the most important factors determining the success of any organization will be its ability to attract and retain quality employees. Most strategies of business are not linked to their compensation strategies. Compensation professional have to rethink their roles in organizations.
A compensation program is designed to control managers or employees instead of facilitating them in achieving their goals. However in order to achieve the organizational goals, people have to be provided with tools not rules. A manager dealing compensation should be changed from compensation consultant to expert compensation carpenter. For this to happen, organization’s business environment, culture and processes have to be thoroughly researched. This will help the person have a solid knowledge base about his organization and he will also know the needs of business as well as employees. Managers should have a toolkit that allows him to do right things in a unique way. Currently, organizations only use merit pay as the only tool to manage compensation. This technique is not satisfactory because this will seem to treat all employees in a similar manner. After arranging all tools of compensation management program, compensation manager will teach the use of all tools to its colleagues and subordinates. Another consideration will be that he will apply tools that are appropriate for particular person, place and situation.
Compensation management is only a part of the whole human resource management department. Compensation may be intrinsic reflecting employee’s psychological mind sets. Extrinsic compensation includes monetary benefits taken by employees from job. Jobs should be designed in a way that they promote intrinsic rewards. Total compensation is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are associated with job characteristics and personal characteristics of the employee. Extrinsic rewards include financial and non-financial rewards given to employees in the form of salary and other legally required benefits.
In 2015, wage rate was $ 12.50/hour which has now been raised to $ 16.87 in 2018 in New York whereas in California, it is $ 16.14 CITATION Bur18 \l 1033 (Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2018). The company has to consider several factors while assessing an increase in pay. Skill variety is the level of skills, abilities and talents that are required to perform a particular task. In case of cleaning activities, there is not a great amount and variety of skill required for workers because they will perform similar duties over and over again. The ability to maintain a consistently higher standard of service is very important for employees. Task identity will be high in cleaning job because this concept shows the ability of a worker to handle a particular job from start till end. A cleaner must be able to handle a job from start till end. Task significance for cleaners will also be high because their work will have significant impact on work of others. People will not feel at ease while working in a dirty environment. Keeping in view all these concepts, there have to be considerable changes in compensation plan. Cleaners’ salaries must be raised because they will have the ability to take a work along from start to finish. Handyman should also be selected on the basis of their ability to handle any given job independently. While increasing the pay of employees, organizations have to consider various options available to it for managing compensation. Base pay is the starting point in considering revision in compensation. Employees get base pay as long as they remain a part of the organization. Base pay in this particular organization is set up on hourly rate. This may help the organization because employees may want to work more hours to earn more but their efficiency should also be calculated and base pay structure must also be reassessed. Compensable factors affect the level of pay that employees will get which include the level of skill and effort required to complete a job. In my opinion, cleaners do not need a high level of skills to complete their job but they have to be paid higher wages because they are the real face of this organization and their service will show the standard of this particular organization. Being low in skill and qualification, these employees will not understand the true meanings of intrinsic rewards so they should be sufficed with the extrinsic rewards in form of hourly wage or salary. The increases in hourly wages over a period of time are caused by increases in costs of living. There is another possibility that organization may be using seniority pay system and pay higher wages to senior employees who are assumed to become more valuable for the organization over a period of time. The most common pay method used by organizations to manage compensation is to implement merit pay. Performance on job is considered while revising the pay for different employees. In order for the organization to have a talented work force that will remain its part for a longer period of time, it has to revise its compensation plan. The new compensation plan should account for the increase in general price level over a period of time. Performance incentives should be included by this company because workers represent the face of organization in front of its customers. Pay per performance plan will make sure that employees will work harder to achieve their goals. Most of the work is done after 5 pm when offices are closed so company should offer an overtime payment to its employees so that these employees are encouraged to work late hours. Another option is to divide workers in 2 shifts so that there are sufficient workers available to organization at any given point in time CITATION Jos11 \l 1033 (Martocchio, 2011).
Answer 3
Organizations have to adapt their compensation plan according to various geographical areas. Generally, demand and supply of specific workers decide the wage rate for any area. If organization under consideration decides to enter Boston, Atlanta and Washington, it will have make certain changes to its existing compensation plan. Average salary for cleaners is higher in this area showing that supply will be less than demand for workers. Company will have to pay more to workers in this area. In order to manage this aspect effectively, company has to focus on intrinsic benefits CITATION Bur181 \l 1033 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018). Although extrinsic benefits include the take-home pay and all other monetary benefits, they are not sufficient to satisfy the employees and keep them attached to the organization. In this regard, there should be more skill variety in the staff. This aspect refers to the ability of a person to perform different tasks that require different skills and abilities. A cleaner who has sufficient skill variety will be able to handle more jobs at the same time. A simple janitorial worker working in an organization may not need a large variety of skills but current organization is such that workers represent it in front of the customers and their performance will decide whether a particular customer will come back and do business again with the company or not. High task identity will be required in employees especially in Boston because wages are higher in this area. Task identity means that an employee will be able to do a task from start till end. Having employees with higher task identity will mean that company will not have to keep many employees. In Atlanta and Washington, wages are much lower than New York, San Francisco and Chicago. In these areas, company can afford to keep more workers and assign separate tasks to all employees. There will be high autonomy available to the employees because they will decide the way they will perform their particular respective jobs. In high wage areas like Boston, there should be quick and appropriate feedback on the outcomes of any tasks performed. Although feedback is always important in services companies like Q, company can afford to delay the feedback in low wage areas. In Boston, company will focus on intrinsic rewards and in lower wage areas, focus will be upon extrinsic rewards. This will serve many purposes for company in addition to savings in monetary terms. It will be more important for the company to keep employees satisfied in areas where wages are higher so that company does not have to keep a very large number of employees and overall cost of wages will be lower. There will be more supply of labour in areas with lower wages so company will not find it difficult to find employees who match to their requirements. These employees may have lower skill levels as compared to employees from higher wage area so they may not be able to cover the aspects of intrinsic rewards as discussed above. Another difference between higher and lower wage areas can be regarding taxes which have to be paid by employees. A higher tax cut will mean that an employee will need a higher gross pay so that his take-home pay is not affected. Inflation rates may be different in different areas which will mean that a higher wage will suffice in areas with higher inflation. To sum it up, the organization will have to consider a large number of factors affecting the wage structure when going from one area to another and almost all of these factors may has lasting impact on employee satisfaction and retention.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018, May 31). https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_47900.htm#37-0000. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_47900.htm#37-0000
Bureau of Labour Statistics. (2018, May 31). https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm#s. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm#s
Martocchio, J. J. (2011). Strategic Compensation A human resource Management approach. Delhi: Pearson.
Sodexo. (2014, March 13). https://www.sodexojobs.co.uk/jobs/job/Cleaning-Operator/9883. Retrieved from https://www.sodexojobs.co.uk: https://www.sodexojobs.co.uk/jobs/job/Cleaning-Operator/9883
