Citation
The article to be reviewed in this paper is “Human Resource Management: Employee Benefit and Compensation” by Toy McKinsley. The article expounds on the several policies touching on rewarding and remuneration of employees. This scholarly article further points out the importance of Benefit and Compensation as a discipline in the expansive Human Resources Management study. The article defines compensation and wages as different terms that determine an employee’s pay or rather what an employee takes home after committing his or her services to the organization in its quest to achieve its objectives and goals. The benefits and compensation are the key source of motivation and internal equity in a firm. The two are also pegged on the market competitiveness in the desire of organizations to pick the highly valued and skilled personnel in their quest to create and manage efficient personnel (McKinsley, 2000).
Summary and Major Thesis
As a sub-discipline in the personnel management, Tom McKinsley dissects the quality of personnel and work output basic components in his article. The Benefits are defined as the optional (non-mandatory) extra pay that are offered in addition to the cash salary or wages an employee usually earns. These benefits are not performance-based but membership-based. The benefits are accrued to individuals identified with a firm. They have no direct impact on work force performance, however low or inadequate benefits contribute to increased absenteeism and low levels of satisfaction (Randy, 2007). The benefit package for any firm should be tailored taking into consideration the specific needs of an employee.
The legally required benefit programs are mainly sick-pays, employer‘s pension contribution, health insurance, disability insurance, employee stock ownership plans and vacation (Snell & Bohlander, 2013). These are in the form of value rather than payment. However, they are federally required such as worker’s and unemployment compensation. The benefits go along way improving the general welfare of employees as McKinsley cites. The benefits touch on the essential pinnacles of personnel’s lives such as health, education, old age, and vacations. For instances, the educational grants are vital for an employee who desires to improve his or her academic qualifications. It can also touch on the employee’s dependants enrolled in the educational system. The vacation benefits on the other hand are good in motivating employees as they enjoy the fruits of being a firm’s core assets (McKinsley, 2000). Health benefits are essential in an employee’s well-being as many employers realize a healthy employee translates to a performing employee. Old age benefits on the other hand, are vital in providing an employee peace in the knowledge that he or she has a fallback plan when time for retirement reaches.
The “Human Resource Management: Employee Benefit and Compensation” article by Toy McKinsley defines compensation and its different forms. Compensation is defined as the total reward system in any organization that manages employees’. Compensation is linked to employee recruitment and organizational structure, retention, motivation, feedback, performance and employee satisfaction. Many employees view the compensation as a measure of not necessarily of how they are paid but rather how they are valued. Employers on the other hand view compensation as return of time spent in the employees’ contribution to the organization.
The compensation packages can be considered as non-monetary, direct, and indirect. The non-monetary compensation entails what employee receives for a job that lacks tangible value. The direct compensation on the other hand defines the base wage that can range from annually to hourly-based wage. The direct compensation can also be tied to a performance-based pay. The last tenet of compensation is indirect compensation, for instance, public protection programs such as social security (Randy, 2007). The combination of these alternatives of compensation extended to employees, McKinsley cites that employers can tailor-make them according to the value attached and uniqueness of employees who receive them. Direct compensation as per the article centers on the base pay, incentive pay, cost-of-living-adjustments, and merit pay. When designing the pay model, employers are keen in ensuring fairness; competitiveness and legal compliance are key factors to be taken into consideration. Internal equity must prevail with jobs and the employee skills inside the organization as well as similar external jobs.
Conclusion and Utility
As the employers create a benefits and compensation framework, it is vital they realize that they are competing for human capital with other numerous organizations globally. However, it is proper to note that main values of employees differ as per region and this must be considered in designing a pay model while at the same time laws must be complied to. In the formulation of compensation plan of employees the questions that arise centers on value and imitation. McKinsley further sheds light on the relation between business strategy and the compensation mechanisms of an organization (McKinsley, 2000). The strategies should be in line with personnel remuneration in order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the aim of attaining the objectives and goals. The benefits and compensation should reflect the quality of employees and work that employers desire. The human capital is integral for any firm and anything to do with their motivation and general work-output quality must be chief in any employers plans.
References
McKinsley, T (2000). Human Resource Management: Employee Benefit and Compensation. Agape Scholars.
Randy, G. (2007). Human resource management. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors.
Snell, S., & Bohlander, G. W. (2013).Managing human resources (16th ed.). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.
