Compensation Benefits of HR Generalists: e-Compensation - Coursework Example

e-Compensation affiliation e-Compensation Web-based compensation is an online approach in which information that regardscompensation is gathered, managed, analyzed and stored online. These programs can be accessed anywhere as long as someone has internet connection. This enables employees’ view their compensation benefits wherever they are. Also web-based compensation helps in streamlining work flow and by doing so, they save human resource time. In addition to that, web-based tool do not require constant updating and installation which saves time. Information stores on web-based tool does not consumer a lot of space on company’s disks, this is because it is stored remotely. On the other hand, web-based compensation has its own shortcomings. If the remote server is compromised, it might lead to leakage of private information. The user experience for this application is not well developed because of browser limitations. This leads to poor performance and user experience. Finally, web-based compensation requires internet connection for it to function appropriately, if the connections are down or low, it discourages. According to Myers (2004) client-server or standalone compensation tool is a compensation tool that is composed up of two parts: a server and a client. This tool has several advantages. The server where information is store is centralized thus making information provided uniform and reliable. Management of files on the server is easy; this is because the files are placed on the same location. It is also easy to recover data loss and restore backup in case of data loss owing to the fact that information is stored in that same place thus making it easy for backup. Also, it is easy to upgrade the system this is because it is within the organization. Upgrades made on the system enable addition of extra resources and system to it for the benefit of the system. Finally, information stored on the system is extremely secure. This is because one needs authorization to access it. On the other hand, this system has its drawbacks as highlighted in the subsequent sentences. If there are too many client computers registered to the server, congestion may occur slowing down the system or may break the system down due to overload. Installation of the same is extremely expensive; this is because management of the system demands qualified IT professionals who may demand high salaries. The system that will provide the most value to organization stakeholders is the web-based compensation. First, it is cheaper and mobile. Secondly, it is an automatic system. Finally, it cannot easy break down due to system overload because the remote servers usually have large disk spaces. To the management of the organization, use of e-Compensation system enables clients’ access information without use of specialist, this cut down expenses that may be channeled to do other important things. To the HR, the e-compensation enable them come up with new policies, like the centralization policy, which in turn enables smooth functioning of the company (Evans, 2006). The introduction of the new policies make employees develop good morals that enables them to relate well with others. Merit pay programs are programs meant to pay worker on merit, that is worker are paid extra based on their performance. An organization may adopt a centralized, where one department provides the compensation or a decentralized approach, where multiple departments provide this compensation. The centralized approach enables internal consistency, whereby employees may be transferred from one department to another which is not the case in decentralized approach. Centralized approach enables maximization of internal equity while decentralized approach does not. Finally, managing the centralize approach is less costly that managing a decentralized approach. On the other hand, they centralized approach has its shortcomings. One, it is prone to bias since management may opt to focus to the company rather that individual promotion which is not the case with decentralized approach. Secondly, centralize approach is applicable for smaller organization and the method of merit compensation may become complex for larger organization which makes decentralized approach prominent (Geutal, 2005). Finally, centralized approach consumes time and resources this is because managers tend to spent a lot of their time to justify decisions on which employee deserves what amount of compensation this is not the case in decentralize approach since it is easy to plan for compensation. Integrated analytical features that needed for compensation and planning and decision support in e-compensation systems are intuition, simplicity and flexibility. By intuitive it means that the systems should provide most basic information that an employee would want to know for instance, basic salary, bonus target, employee’s manager, and other fundamental information that are used for benchmarking the employee. Systems should be simple but powerful. Through simplicity, managers can easily service the systems without the help of IT experts. Finally, flexibility is a feature that enables managers to implement different processes of compensation for different departments. Some of these processes may include: workflow, budget, schedules, policies and guidelines for different departments. According to Pophal (2010) the three barriers to adoption of web-based is cost of adoption, fear of losing data and finally literacy level of employees. Most organizations have maintained their old ways of maintaining equity. They think that those methods are cheaper compared to the superior web-based tools that in the current market. Having a web-based tool means buying space from a remote server where all information will be stored. Though it may appear expensive, it depends with which company hosts the remote server. This rationale has made most organization fail to recognize the potential of web-based tools. Organizations that live under this fear can overcome by making an intuitive of buying space, from the remote server that is equivalent to the cost they are using to maintain their old tool. In doing so, they will be able to evaluate cost and benefits accrued in adopting web-based tools. This will enable them come up with comprehensive decisions on that may dispute their rationale. Information is very fundamental to an organization. As a result, organization may tend to protect it and this may make them not adopt web-based internal equity tools. If an organization has web-based tools, competent workers may access it from outside the business premises. This means that they may also expose company information to the outside world. As a result, organizations have feared venturing into this world leading to them not reaping the benefits of web-based internal equity tools. As a resolution, organization may agree with the company that hosts their remote server to implement security measures like authorization and backtracking. In doing so, they will be able to monitor real time transaction occurring on the systems. This will also scare employees who may be having the idea of jeopardizing the company’s information. Finally, literacy level is a major barrier to adoption of such tools. Companies hope that by introducing such tools, all employees will be able to access these systems whenever they want to and get the information they want without involving management. By doing so, they relieve management the mandatory duty to keep employees update. However, employees come from different setups that define the degree in which workers understand things. While some of them will adopt and adapt to those changes with ease, other employees will have problems using the systems due to different literacy levels. The organization should have training departments that train workers and equip them for any new technology that comes along the way. Evaluation of quality of market data in very important for HR for it enables them set standards on how they will better working environment for their employees. This section proposes three strategies, survey, direct reach out and benchmark salary studies. While using surveys, keep the survey short. This will enable the participant use little time is filling it. Ask questions that are relevant to the study. Use of extra question will make it hard when it comes to analyzing the survey. Finally, in order to obtain quality feedback, use open-ended questions since they give true opinions. Direct reach out is simply going into the field. By directly reaching out to different sources in the market, say people, it is easy to understand their feelings, towards something, which cannot easily be expressed in questionnaires and surveys. Reaching out to people also enable one dig deeper into the issue under study, and by doing so one gets extra information that would have otherwise been impossible to obtain if other strategies were used. The final strategy for determining quality of market data is use of benchmark salary studies. Workers compensation is very important to an organization and HR managers need to be aware how other industries are compensation their workers. HR manager should compare how other workers are compensated by rival firms. This strategy should not only be limited to monetary compensation such as basic salary, it should also incorporate other financial compensations like commissions, allowances and salary advance. By doing so, HR manager will obtain fundamental information that will enable them compensate their worker well hence motivating them giving them no reason to move to other companies with good pay. References Evans, M., E. (2006). Compensation benefits of HR generalists. New Haven: World at Work Press. Geutal, H. (2005). The brave new world of eHR: human resource management in the digital world. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Pophal, L.(2010). Sales compensation essentials a field guide for the HR professionals. London: Society of Human Resource Management. Myers, D., S.(2004). An extensible component-based architecture for web-based simulation using standard-based web browsers. Boston: University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Read More