HRBible

You may have heard some companies that provide its workers with salaries depending on how they performed in the organization. Many employees are enticed by this benefit called “variable pay,” which is a type of employee compensation that changes in amount as compared to salary that is paid in equal proportions throughout the year. Variable pay is used by organizations generally to recognize and reward worker contributions that leads to productivity, profitability, team work, safety, quality, or some other metric that is considered as important.

The employee who is awarded with a variable compensation means that he or she has gone beyond the job description to contribute to organization success. It is awarded in a variety of ways, including profit sharing, bonuses, holiday bonus, deferred compensation, cash, as well as goods and services like a company-paid try or a Christmas basket. Payments can also be based on the performance of an individual employee, a certain team or department, or even the whole company.

Advantages and disadvantages

Many employees are enticed by this type of compensation program, as they realize that the company rewards them with a higher pay for a job well done. It also creates a competitive working environment and prevents employees from idling around the office. However, other sectors say that variable pay creates assumptions that money motivates the employees to work harder and that it is possible to fairly measure their work performance.

Proponents of variable pay do not believe that money can be a powerful motivator, saying that a worker’s performance does not change even on a variable pay compensation. However, money can be a motivator for some, especially if they are not passionate about their work. Meanwhile, measuring the performance of an employee is difficult and considered as the most significant problem in the variable pay system. It is because some workers may not be compensated with more benefits due to lack of skills, poor organization, bad strategy, accusations of favoritism among other factors.

The variable pay plan may also be working too well in some instances because it does not consider worker motivation in a realistic fashion. For instance, a building design company implemented a variable pay program to encourage its engineers to draft buildings under budget. In response, one engineer simply scaled a building’s walls and ceilings down by several inches. While the company saved thousands because of the engineer’s idea, and was rewarded with a large amount of cash in the process, he did not necessarily produce the most stable structure.

In order for the variable pay plan to be efficient, an employer must make a commitment to define employee expectations in behavioral and measurable terms. Goals should be achievable, profitable, and practical for both the company and its workers.

Every employee belonging to a team or work group develop ways of interacting with each other. And for the team to function effectively, much focus is needed on interpersonal communications among members as well as with managers and employees outside to the team. A team’s success is determined by how a team decides, assigns work, and holds members accountable. If you want your team to become successful and effective, team members should form relationship guidelines or team norms.

What are team norms?

Team norms are a set of guidelines that a team establishes in order to shape the interaction of team members with each other, as well as with employees who are outside of the team. These norms can be developed during a beginnings of the team’s establishment, or can be done on an early team meeting if it has already been established, with more norms added as the team sees it fit. Team norms are used to guide the behavior of each member, and to assess how well they are interacting. It also enables members to call each other out on any behavior that may be seen as dysfunctional or that is impacting negatively to the success of the team. And although members may not really mean to harm the team, but the lack of an agreed-upon framework of interaction creates the potential for misunderstanding and negative conflict.

Team norm essentials

It is usual for teams to have trouble with certain components of interpersonal communication and interaction. Developing norms in these areas is much needed to ensure team success. Here are examples of team norms in several aspects of team interaction.

Team members as coworkers – Regard all team members as equal, and each of their opinions will be thoughtfully considered. All members will keep all commitments by the agreed-upon due date, as well as agree to constantly assess whether they are honoring their commitment to the team norms.

Team members as communicators – All team members will speak respectfully of each other. In doing so, they will not talk down to each other, will positively recognize and thank each other for team contributions.

Team members in meetings – Everyone in the team should listen without interrupting. They should hold no side nor argue. They are required to attend meetings on time and always work from an agenda. Minutes will be recorded at each meeting, and end the meetings on time.

Team members as leaders – Leadership of the team will rotate monthly so everyone will have a chance to hone their leader skills. If the team has a fixed leader, the second-in-command will be rotated.

Team members as they interact with other employees and managers – Members will have to make sure that they have agreed on what and when to communicate with other employees, including managers. Complaints about team members must be addressed first within the team.

Team members as problem solvers and decision makers – Decisions should be made by a consensus on all team members. However, the majority will rule if timely consensus is not reached. Meanwhile, conflicts should be resolved with the persons involved in the issue..

Now that we have established the essentials of team norms, the next step is to create these norms so that each team member learn to interact with fellow members, as well as those outside of the team, effectively and successfully. If you lead a team that has difficulty of interacting with each other, perhaps you need to follow these steps in creating and developing team norms.

Form a charter – Draft a list of proposed team norms that you want to project in your team. You could also follow team norms from other work groups. You could also advise your co-members to make up their own ideas for team norms.

Gather your members – Schedule and hold a meeting to introduce the proposed team norms to your members. Make sure that all team members must be present at the meeting so that the norms can be “owned” by all of them. If one member is absent or does not attend, postpone the meeting for another day.

Let an outside person facilitate – It is best that a person outside of your team facilitate the meeting so that members would not feel that they are being “dictated” by a new set of rules. In the absence of a facilitator, let another team member lead the meeting.

Let ideas flow – Begin the brainstorming by brining out each of the member’s drafts for a team norm. Let them provide additional ideas as they come along. The more ideas generated, the better. Remember not to comment or critique on the ideas, and instead list everything on the board so the whole group can see them.

Discuss about these ideas – Once the proposed norms are generated on the board, you might want to cross out redundant ideas off the list. You can decide to keep all the group norms listed, or you can discuss to determine the group norms your group wishes to keep. Although there is no recommended number of group norms you can keep, it is best to let common sense prevail when you find there are one too many guidelines. You could also add new group norms over time if the team sees it fit.

Only pay attention to how you interact – Group norms does not concern all group behavior and therefore should not be legislated. What needs attention are the important interaction areas including effective conflict communication, and keeping commitments.

Commit to the norms – Once the set of guidelines has been agreed upon by all members, they are also bound to commit into applying the team norms, as well as telling each other if they believe a group member is violating these norms.

Distribute the list of team norms– After the meeting, distribute to all member the group norms that they have agreed upon.

Evaluate the team norms – After a certain period of time, such as every three months, evaluate how the team norms are affecting the group into achieving its business goals as well as its members’ relationship goals.

The workforce nowadays has become so diverse with different races, ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs (or non-beliefs), political associations, sexual preferences, and many more.  Singling your pool of employees according to a single category would not only give a negative impression, but would also create a boring and bland workplace.  If you are aiming to have a diverse workplace, there are several issues that you need to evaluate.

The local demographics – Where your office is located may matter when it comes to determining your organization’s diversity goals.  This might include age, gender, sexual orientation, physical disability, as well as race and ethnic background.  Employers should do all they can to ensure there is a numerically-based decision on diversity goals.  Look at your local census data as an indicator of the makeup of your labor pool.  If the find the recent census data to be outdated, since it is only gathered every 10 years, consider hiring a private market research firm to update the company’s diversity goals.

The scope of your recruitment – Your employee search may go from within city limits to as far as your local county, states, or even the whole country.  Remember that the pool of qualified local-based candidates gets smaller as you move into managerial and executive ranks, which is why you may need to go beyond the city lines when searching for a potential employee.  Taking a nationwide executive search carries higher costs for recruitment and relocation, and it can also test whether your company is willing to back its philosophy on diversity with money.

How diversity is distributed among the ranks – A company may brag that it has a high percentage of minority workers, but if most of them are at the outlying production departments while managers are nearly all white, then you cannot completely say that your organization is diverse.

Hiring a prospective employee usually goes through an arduous process of salary negotiations.  It is understandable, of course, that the candidate wants to receive his or her salary according to his experience and skills, and at the same time the candidate does not want to provide an impression that he or she is asking for too much.  These negotiations could either end up with the employer feeling excited to welcome the candidate or as if he lost a prospective employee who would contribute significantly to your company, or worse, accepting the new employee but ended up paying more than you can afford.

Salary negotiations can consume the employer’s mental and physical energy way beyond its importance because, by the time you reach the stage of making an offer, you have spent the time developing a pool of candidates and have interviewed them for weeks.  And after investing significant time and energy in wooing and getting to know your final choice candidate, more often than not they would counter your initial offer letter.

Although these tips to not intend to comprehensively detail how to conduct salary negotiations, but they ensure that your organization would conduct a successful salary negotiation.

Negotiation is not a battle between employer and employee – The essence of salary negotiations is that both parties should win.  If either the employer or the candidate feels they have capitulated—having paid more than the employer could afford or less than the employee could receive—both parties lose.

Identify the most recent salary and benefits your candidate received – There is a reason why other organizations ask for salary on their job applications, so that they would be able to match what the employee’s current employer is giving (and at the same time they would have an idea who they can afford).  You can either ask for the employee’s W-2 forms and other proof of salary, or you could also ask former employers during reference checking.

Know your limits in salary negotiations – Your salary offer should have a limit according to how much your current employees in similar positions receive, the economic climate and job searching market, as well as the profitability of your company.

Any other financial benefits can be included in the negotiation – Even if your salary is non-negotiable, superior candidates will negotiate with you in other areas that may be negotiable.  These include benefits, paid COBRA, tuition assistance, paid time off, a signing bonus, stock options, variable bonus pay, commissions, car allowance, paid cell phone, severance packages, and relocation expenses.

If you cannot afford the candidate, let it go – Even if you are convinced the final candidate has potential positive impact within your organization, you cannot accept him or her in your company if the candidate is asking for too much.  Most organizations have limit, and you will regret violating your limits if you accept an employee that you end up capitulating.

Indicate if your initial offer is not negotiable, or barely negotiable – Other employers usually provide their candidates with a “base salary,” which subtly suggests that the employee cannot negotiate that amount.  However, they also say how the base salary can increase in time (either according to a time period, or according to performance).

Resignations and turnovers are inevitable in every employer. However, if there have been a more-than-the-usual number of resignation letters piling on the office lately then maybe there is a problem you may want to fix. The following are issues as to why employees usually quit their current jobs, and how to retain them.

Your employees feel stuck in their current work – Your workers may feel that their current position has no hope of promotion. They look around and do not see any job they would like to do next. What you can do is to provide opportunities for lateral moves or skill-stretching assignments. Encourage your employees to initiate communications when it comes to exploring options within the organization.

They feel unappreciated in their current job – Despite their hard work, your employees do not feel that the boss or the workplace recognize their efforts. To fix this, show appreciation to your employees’ contributions. Establish an employee recognition team that can develop a process of recognizing the hard work and efforts of all your workers. Also, there are some cases that feeling unappreciated has to do with money, which can be solved by providing a policy on compensation reviews, as well as opening communication when a worker asks for a raise.

They feel overworked – Your office has probably cut back on hiring and are expecting employees to do more with fewer resources. Talk to your employees and find out if the job is indeed more work than one person can comfortably handle. You may also want to hire a new employee or part-time intern, as well as determine value-added tasks, and eliminate non-critical job components.

They dislike their career field – There are some cases that you employees have chosen the wrong career or field of work. If this is the case, it would be rude convincing them to stick to their jobs, and let them decide on their own.

They dislike their employer, coworkers, or customers – They may probably like their work, but not the people that they interact with. They may want to explore their options to move to a different employer, or move to a different department in the case of an unfavorable coworker.

They can’t stand their boss – This is the most common reason of all on why people leave their current work, when managers fail to provide direction, involve people in decisions about their work, appreciate staff contributions, and provide help developing employee’s talents and abilities. When a worker consults with you regarding this dilemma, see how you can remedy the situation. They may want to be transferred to another department, but if that does not work maybe you have to talk to the manager about your employees’ concerns.

Giving your workers the recognition they deserve should be worth the time and money you spend on it. Anything that congratulates an employee for a job well done would certain make your whole workforce feel good about your company and goals. Employee recognition items range from congratulatory letters to bonuses and gifts, which motivates your workers and creates a positive employee morale.

If your company could not afford providing your good-working employees with annual cash bonuses, try giving them reasonably-priced gifts. Even company merchandise can work well as gifts. However, if by circumstance you cannot give gifts to your best workers, you can at the very least adopt the habit of writing letters to employees for recognition and thank them for their contributions.

A simple, personalized thank you letter that recognizes specific employee contributions goes a long way in helping employees feel recognized and rewarded. Adding it with another bonus like a gift even multiplies the feeling of “being belong” an employee experiences. Some employees experience a sense of accomplishment and gratification that they post the recognition letter in their cubicle, office, or workstation.

Writing a recognition letter does not need to be elaborate. However, it is more effect when you do the following on your congratulatory note.

Specifically describe the behavior you would like to encourage – Tell your employee why he or she is being given a recognition letter in the first place. You could also include that may his or her contributions to the company may inspire other coworkers to perform better in their duties.

Say thank you – Appreciate the notable contributions and achievements your notable employee gave to your company.

Give it in time to the event you are praising – If you are congratulating an employee for a perfect attendance the prior month, give the letter at the start of a the new month. You could also send the recognition letter close to Christmas if you are referring to the employee’s overall performance this year.

As much as possible, make it handwritten – Even in this day and age, handwritten letters are still considered more personal and adds a “human factor” to the recognition letter. However, if this cannot be achieved, a customized e-mail will do (but avoid sounding like a form letter).

(performance management)

In an employer’s perspective, a job interview should not be a display of power towards the job seeker.  An effective staff selection begins with a series of screening processes that defines the qualities, talents, and skills of the applicant and determining if these are the assets that you want to have in the organization.  However, you do not need to have a lengthy process to defining competencies for each position.  A simple job description with a set of behavior-based interview questions can pinpoint the people you want in your company and immediately improve the hiring process.

Define the traits your company seeks – Your team should first define the qualities, characteristics, and basic aptitude you want to find in a potential employee.  For instance, you may want to find people who have excellent attendance and dependability, flexibility, good communication skills, attention to detail, team orientation, strong work ethic among others.

Develop interview questions to identify these characters – Create a set of interview questions that would indicated whether applicants have the characteristics that you seek.  For instance, you may want to ask the following, but take not that no list of questions is totally comprehensive:

•    What made you decide to apply in our company?
•    Tell me about yourself and your last job.
•    When we call your previous employer, what are they likely to tell us in regards to your dependability?
•    Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond your responsibilities to get a job done.
•    Give me an example of a time when you had set a goal for yourself and tell me how you went about accomplishing it.
•    Give me an occasion when you followed a policy with which you did not agree.
•    If you have heard a co-employee saying racist remarks, how would you respond?
•    In what kind of work environment do you do your best work?

Asking about how the applicant handles different work-related situations helps you select better employees.

Determine job interviews in advance – You need to create a list of job questions that would apply to all applicants for comparison.  It also assists your organization to take a more team-oriented approach to interviewing and selecting candidates.

Communication is more than just an exchange of dialogue.  Sometimes, even the most powerful messages are unsaid or nonverbal.  Nonverbal communication reminds you of what is inside another person’s mind.  Emotions and thoughts are usually conveyed without the use of words or voice, but the best communicators are sensitive to its messages.  Nonverbal communication includes facial expression, gestures, body language, and the use of space.

A study over at UCLA indicated that around 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues.  Another study shows that the impact of a singing performance was determined seven percent on the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal behavior also reflects a person’s true emotions and thoughts.  A speaker may try to say one thing, but his body language and the tiniest of facial expressions tells otherwise.

However, multicultural differences in body language and gestures are usually open to misinterpretation.  Greeks would nod their heads when they mean “no,” which we would instantly misunderstand for a “yes.”  Brazilians, meanwhile, would find the OK sign vulgar.  With the thumb and index finger forming a circle and the three other fingers are extended, for them it means “you’re an a-hole.”

With these in mind, nonverbal communication can be a vital tool in screening job candidates.  If you want to determine what is really on each interviewee’s mind, you need to pay close attention to the following.

Watch their body language – People communicate on many level.  Their facial expressions, eye contact, posture, hand and feet gestures, body movement, and even appearance can determine a person’s confidence level as well as the emotions conveyed.  In fact, how a job applicant sits in the lobby can say a lot about his skills, strengths, weaknesses, and concerns.

Check if the verbal and nonverbal communication agree with each other – If a person says one thing but his body gesture tells you otherwise, give more weight on what he does not say.  He may try to mask his thoughts by saying things differently, but his nonverbal behavior would most likely show it.

Practice reading nonverbal communication – We do not become experts in nonverbal communication overnight.  Understanding this types of communication takes time and practice.  The first step is to recognize the power of what is unspoken, as well as following your gut whether what the applicant said is true.

Assessing a company’s culture may be difficult especially if you are already working in it.  Sometimes you cannot determine the corporate culture because you may think that such scenarios are “normal” in the business environment.  However, understanding the company culture is essential to determine how employees benefit from it, as well as being able to enhance a laudable practice—or even change a flawed system.  You can obtain an idea of your current organizational culture in several ways.

Be an impartial observer – Look at employees and how they interact in your organization in an outsider’s point of view.  It is just like being an anthropologist observing a newly-discovered tribe.

Watch for emotions – Your employees do not get excited or upset about things that are unimportant to them.  Examine what makes them happy or agitated in the office.  Examine conflicts closely as well.

Look for common artifacts – Do your employees tend to decorate their desk with various stuff?  Observe what they like to put on.  Check out what your employee like to wear or how they like to spend their spare time.

Watch for things that are not there – It is an interesting note if nobody mentions something that you think is important, such as the customers.

Talk to employees – Interview your workers in small groups.  Ask indirect questions that would gain the most information, such as “What would you tell a friend about your company if he was about to start working here?”.  Not only you should take note of their answers, but also their behaviors and interaction with people during the discussion.

Conduct surveys – Another way of assessing the company culture is through written essays.  Create a questionnaire using the information collected during your observation and interviews.