Wage and Salary Survey

Wage and Salary Survey
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Wage and Salary Survey
Describe the basic steps in conducting a wage and salary survey.
A wage and salary survey is an analysis carried out on workers regarding wages to ascertain whether their pay is fair or not. Similarly, this is a practice which companies undertake to establish the prevailing wages per different job titles in a given industry. Carrying out a wage and salary survey enables a company or a business to ascertain competitive wages and to develop an appropriate pay increase to existing and newly hired employees. The following are basic steps for conducting this practice:
The initial step is to choose the jobs and ascertain its average salaries as well as wages.
The second step involves carrying out a comparative analysis which helps to ascertain prevailing salaries and wages in a given industry for similar jobs.
For the company to come up with an appropriate structure, it should consider opinions from different employees and vendors.
Prevailing laws on wages should be appraised for effective salary and wage analysis. When the survey is completed, it becomes easy to build a compensational structure.
What are the key factors to consider?
Some factors must be considered when conducting a wage and salary survey and also the way it is administered. This is because it can significantly influence the productivity of workers and the performance of an organization as a whole. These factors can be classified as either internal or external.

Internal factors are things like job worth, workers compensational policy, employee performance, and employer’s capability to pay. External factors comprise wage rates of an area, labor market conditions, cost of living, legal requirements and the outcomes as a result of collective bargaining (Bohlander & Snell, 2016).
One of the objections to granting wage increases on a percentage basis is that the lowest-paid employees, who are having the most trouble making ends meet, get the smallest increase, while the highest-paid employees get the largest increase. Is this objection a valid one? Explain.
No, it is not accurate since both internal and external factors are taken into consideration when creating a compensational structure, and this directly or indirectly affect employees’ wages.
What is a compensation scorecard?
A compensation scorecard is any transmission of cumulative compensation information outside the human resource organization. It assembles and displays the outcomes of all measures used by agencies when monitoring compensation. It also helps when comparing compensations between internal units or departments of an organization.
How does it help align a company’s strategy with its compensation system?
It scorecard can help a company identify and avoid problems associated with compensation. It can also help to formulate compensation decisions as well as actions that are more apparent. Apart from that, compensation scorecard can help an organization reduce entitlement, improve pay for performance and in increasing workers acceptance. In doing so, it aligns a firm’s strategy with the compensation system.
Do you use (or have you ever used) a compensation scorecard system at your company? If so, please tell us a little about it.
Yes. I was working in one organization which used to employ a compensation scorecard, and its compensation was very useful. All objectives that were set by the organization were achieved.
If you were assigned to create a pay for performance system at your organization, how would you begin?
If I were assigned to build pay for performance system, I would begin by ensuring my organization is ready in some aspects. I would carry out self-assessment to ascertain the readiness of the organization in numerous dimensions. First and foremost, I would focus on the organizational culture to ascertain if it is in line with the pay for performance. Secondly, I would make sure the performance evaluation system is efficient so that it can help supervisors detect and record the performance of workers regularly. An effective performance evaluation system should comprise aspects to be measured. Thirdly, I would ensure there are enough funds since the pay for performance system cannot be credible if resources are not enough (McPhie & Sapin, 2006). Adequate resources enable an organization to reward high performers, and this motivates other employees to put more efforts.
What steps might you take to ensure the process is fair to all employees involved? 
To ensure fairness to all employees, I would make sure both employees and supervisors understand how the pay for performance system works. This can be attained by training both groups not only on the fundamental principle but also regarding the technicalities of the system. The business encourages a shared understanding of what is expected of employees and supervisors regarding outcomes and behavior if there is transparency on rules which the system depends on when operating. This helps build trust between employees and supervisors. Another thing which can help ensure fairness to all workers is by putting checks and balances in place. Employee’s confidence increases when transparency regarding outcomes, checks, and balances as well as employees understanding of the company’s pay for performance system is combined. (McPhie & Sapin, 2006).
Case Study #2
Do results from the survey illustrate typical complaints about teams and specifically about team incentive rewards? Please explain your thinking.
The outcome of case study review illuminates usual grievances regarding teams and particularly group incentive rewards. This is something normal as most individuals in a team usually have varying performance. The variation is that causes many problems in many organizations.
If appropriate, what changes would you recommend to improve the incentive reward program? Please be specific.
According to me, I could allocate those rewards to all team members evenly. The range between the highest and lowest pay is too high, and this is the main reason some members are unsatisfied. Teams are formed to work together, and any profits should be shared equally amongst individuals.
Would management have benefited from employee involvement in the initial design and implementation of the program? Please explain.
Indeed, the administration would have profited. The primary aim of incentive reward program is to encourage workers to put more effort; thus their views are crucial when making decisions. Office manager, Michael Carell, could have inquired some information from workers regarding what was workable for them. But then again, the ultimate decision would be from the management. Furthermore, objectives could have been laid to determine the team that could acquire more customers. Involving employees in things concerning incentive rewards is imperative as it helps them to put more effort so that they get rewarded (Marteau, Ashcroft & Oliver, 2009).

References
Bohlander, G., & Snell, S. (2016). Managing Human Resources. Google Books. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=J1MgADAhyr8C&pg=PA445&lpg=PA445&dq=1)+Describe+the+basic+steps+in+conducting+a+wage+and+salary+survey.&source=bl&ots=0zRgds_P1R&sig=Q2Ebu6M-ogJUhCCcwx3HdS3CgK0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcnOCus5PZAhUKKo8KHbjyBzUQ6AEIXTAH#v=onepage&q=1)%20Describe%20the%20basic%20steps%20in%20conducting%20a%20wage%20and%20salary%20survey.&f=falseMcPhie, N., & Sapin, B. (2006). Designing an Effective Pay for Performance Compensation System. Mspb.gov. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from https://www.mspb.gov/MSPBSEARCH/viewdocs.aspx?docnumber=224104&version=224323&application=ACROBATMarteau, T., Ashcroft, R., & Oliver, A. (2009). Using financial incentives to achieve healthy behaviour. bmj.com. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from http://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b1415