M&S is a well known clothing as well as food store within the UK. They provide customers quality services as well as good products. M&S believe that if the employees are happy at work, it will automatically bring success to the company. Treating the members of staff equally and fairly will motivate them, but giving them rewards for good work performance will also keep them going and continue to work better. M&S has a good reward system within their organisation and the aim of this system is to attract good candidates to work for the company and also to keep the current employees motivated. A friend of mine who works at M&S told me that some people often apply for certain jobs due to the good reward system they have going on. During the selecting process, M&S makes sure that they explain how the reward system works and they also tell them who is eligible for the rewards. The reason why it is important to tell the new candidates how the system works is because once they start working at the store, they will expect to get rewarded for small things. If they know how they can get rewards, they will work accordingly which is good for the organisation. Full time employees at M&S get rewards for good performance which is a fair way of rewarding their employees. The reason for this is because everyone within the organisation will get monitored either by mystery shoppers, or the manager and if they feel that the employee has performed well, they will get rewarded. If the employees get rewards for good performance, they know that the organisation are recognising their achievements which means that they are not being ignored. If employees perform well during inspection etc, they will get monetary rewards such as bonuses or commission. As employees like the rewards that they get for good work performance, they tend to work to their best ability because they don't know who is monitoring and assessing them. If employees are part of the Sharesave scheme than they will receive rewards every time the company makes a high profit. For example in 2007 staff who were part of the Sharesave scheme were set to get a reward from the £56m bonus that the organisation received from the large amount of profit they made. Their share price went up from 282p to 734p which was a huge increase. Even though everyone who works for M&S will not benefit from this reward, it is still a fair and equally shared out to the one's who will benefit from it. The reason why it is fair is because everyone who work for M&S will be given the opportunity to be part of the Sharesave scheme, and the people who have signed up will get the rewards every time the organisation makes a huge profit. However joining this scheme could also have it's drawbacks because if M&S is making a loss then the employees will also loose out (Personneltoday 2007).
Employees who work in the head office or are the store managers, tend to get better rewards than the employees who work on the shop floor. This might seem unfair to the employees working on the shop floor because to them it might feel like they are doing more work than the employees working above them. However this doesn't mean that employees working on the shop floor can't work their way up. If they work long enough and continue to show good performance etc, they will eventually aim higher and get better rewards (Corporate.marksandspencer 2010). Employees who work for M&S also tend to get non-monetary rewards which some of them tend to prefer. Employees who work full time at M&S tend to rewarded more than the people who work part time. A friend of mine who currently works at M&S and is a full time employee, told me that if people perform well during their working hours or if customers give them good feedback, the trainer or the manager will let them go home early from work, but not only do they get sent home early, they also tend to get extended breaks.
Should chief executives receive large bonuses even if the organisation has underperformed?
Chief executives have important roles within an organisation. The bigger the organisation they are working for, the less responsibilities they have within. But if they work for small organisation, they will need to be capable of making business decisions etc, however if they work in large organisation they will only be in charge of things happening higher up the business. Chief executives have important responsibilities which they have to make sure are done carefully and properly. They do important decision making for the over all organisation and during the process they have to make sure that they have all the information and research so they won't regret the decision they have made in the future long run. They also manage a few departments such as the Human resource department and the financial as well as physical resources (Managementhelp.org 2010). If a certain company has been under performing but the company has no control over the situation, I think that chief executives should still be paid large bonuses. For example if the economy is in recession, the organisation will have no control over customers spending etc and therefore it is not down the company for doing so bad. However if it is the other way round and it was all down to the organisation that they have not performed well due to the careless decision made by the chief executive or even if they haven't carried out their responsibilities properly, than they shouldn't be paid large bonuses. The reason why I think it's a good idea that the chief executives get paid large bonuses even if the organisation has underperformed is because getting rewards will make them motivated and if they work to their best ability, it is better for the organisation. They are responsible for quiet a lot of important things within an organisation and therefore the manager would like them to perform well and bring the success of the business higher. If they get large bonuses from the organisation they will continue to work hard etc. However there is also a down side to giving the chief executives large bonuses even though the company isn't performing well and that is if the organisation is under performing, the income they get will be really low and therefore it will be hard for them to pay their employees as well as giving large bonuses to the chief executives. In those kind of situations it is not important for the executives to get bonuses because they are already getting a good salary. The money which is being used on the large bonuses can be used on the organisation instead and bring up the performance to a level until they are stable.
How to reward a primary teacher
A primary school will have a quiet a lot of responsibilities as they have to be able to teach a wide range of different subjects. If there was a year 6 primary teacher, he/she will have a lot to take in to account because they have to teach and get the children ready to do their 11+ as well as stats. As they have a lot of work to get on with, they would want something in return to keep them motivated and so they can help the students get good grades which will bring the school a good image and name. If the head teacher wants the teacher to perform well, they can set targets for them which they have to achieve in order to get their rewards. For example the head teacher could say to the teacher that she wants 60% of the students to pass the 11+ and if they reach their target, they will get a reward accordingly. This is a fair deal because both sides are getting something from the rewards. In this case performance pay should be awarded to the teacher because the better they perform, the better their pay will be. This would encourage the teachers to perform better and they will also concentrate more on the students so the outcome of the results are good. Another financial reward could be to give them large bonuses. If bonuses are given to them, there will be a higher possibility that they will stick to their job which is good for the school because they don't have to go through the recruiting and training process. Fringe benefit could be a financial reward that could be awarded to a primary school teacher. They could get free lunch meals which will save them from bringing their own lunch from home or even spend their money to buy their own lunch. Having free meals could benefit teachers because when they are hard at work looking after all the students and teaching them certain subjects, it will be hard work for them, and therefore they need to eat something nutritious and healthy food to keep them going for the rest of the day. As the syllabus changes now and then, the teachers need to keep up so they can teach their students according to the education board, so if they go on training courses which are paid by the school, the teacher will benefit from it. Not only will they learn things, they will also meet new people and socialise more. If teacher are put on training courses, they can learn new methods to teach students and the more they pick up during the course, the more they can bring back to their students (Tutor2u.net 2010). There are also some non financial rewards that could be awarded to a teacher and this is beneficial for both the teacher and the provider which is the head teacher or the local government. Teachers would like to know how well they are doing at work meaning getting to know what they have managed to achieve etc. Therefore a good non-financial reward that could be awarded to them could be having a one on one meeting with the head teacher. During this meeting the head teacher can tell the teacher all the good achievements they have achieved during the term and also how certain things can be improved in the future. This is a useful reward for the teacher because they need to know where they stand and what they have to work harder at in order to reach and aim higher. Having staff meetings in the morning before the school day starts will also be useful for teacher. Everyone will come together as a team and share out their thoughts and opinions on things that are being discussed within briefing. Staff meetings makes the teachers feel more involved with the school as well as with one another because the head teacher will ask for different ideas from the teachers which can be put into use if necessary. Being able to go on unpaid career breaks would will be a thing for a teacher in particular because if they are working full time teaching younger students, they might want to get away from it all and go on a break just to relax their minds. But when they come back they know that they have a secured place waiting for them when they come back. If they are allowed to take such breaks, when they return they will be more switched on and maybe during their break they might have gained more experience to teach students etc.
Out of all these rewards, the one that will motivate me the most is getting regular feedback from my manager because the more feedback I get, the better I will work in the future. If someone works within getting any feedback, even if your not doing the work correctly, you will not know how to work correctly and this will just bring the reputation down for the organisation. When managers provide you with feedback, they will not only give us information on what we are doing right and wrong, but also key pointers on how to aim higher etc.
Conclusion
Over all providing rewards for employees is important because it will keep them motivated. If they are not motivated, they will not work to their best ability as they know that they are just stuck with a basic salary or wage. If the reward system is good within an organisation, more people would want to work for the company and once they get the job, they will try and work their way up until they benefit from the rewards available.
Reference
- (Personneltoday (2007) Marks and Spencer staff in retailer's Sharesave scheme to benefit from £56m bonus [online] available at: http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/01/08/38762/marks-and-spencer-staff-in-retailers-sharesave-scheme-to-benefit-from-56m.html [accessed at: 18/04/10])
- (Corporate.marksandspencer (2010) Rewards and Benefits [online] available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/mscareers/rewards_benefits [accessed at: 18/04/10])
- (Managementhelp.org (2010) General Responsibilities of a Chief Executive [online] available at: http://www.managementhelp.org/chf_exec/ed_rspon.htm [accessed at: 21/04/10])
- (Tutor2u.net (2010) Motivating employees- financial rewards [online] available at: http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/people_motivation_financial_rewards.htm [accessed at: 21/04/10])
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