¶ … Human Resources, the main issue here is the customization of rewards related to work achievements in small organizations. We will also assess the relation our main question has with previous major topic regarding the intrinsic and extrinsic shift of business needs in times of recession. Some focus will also be given on the proposed methods which can be used to give assists in the customization of rewards as well as some reflection on other related issues. Finally the paper will conclude all the necessary details. Let's assess some of the main issues regarding rewards management in small organizations. The main question here is that what should be the basis for rewarding any employee. Another important thing to note is the determining of categories which every employee has within a small organization, this is relatively different from the general categories the employees have in a big firm. Another important question here is regarding the age and experience of employees and the amount of perks any personnel can have regarding its experience.

Main Question

The issue of rewards management is very important since in almost every small firm there exist an employee force which asks for work related benefits related to their performances, therefore it is very important here to manage and deliver according to the needs of the employees in a way which satisfies their demands. This is very crucial for the success of the business as well since a more dedicated workforce can deliver better results as compared to a dull workforce. "Rewards are an excellent motivator for any employee" (Berg 1972).

Relation to previous research

The topic of rewards management relates greatly to the intrinsic and extrinsic needs of any firm either small or large in times of recession. The factor of a firm's profit level greatly decides either to grant additional benefits to the workforce or not. "Profits are dependent on a firm's targets" (Budhwar 2001). For small businesses, the time of economic recession brings great hardships and many are even known to close down resulting in huge rises in the level of unemployment throughout any nation or state. "Economic recession affects common employees the most" (Lawler III 2003).

In terms of basic needs, any small firm would do just about anything in order to survive in tough economic times. "Survival is the first priority for firms in recession times" (Budhwar 2004). "Recession brings opportunities as well" (Sims 2002). In any recession the demand of the products go low because of the decrement in either the purchase power of common people or power of doing business with the firm therefore it becomes more and more evident that cuts are needed to be made in the supply portion to the customers. "Rewards are often tend to be in cash form" (Cooke 2003). In these circumstances it is almost impossible to give any sort of rewards to the employees who in many cases sit idle and do nothing. "Rewards should be made attractive" (Burke 2005). "Additional job benefits are also good as rewards" (Schuler 2003).

Therefore most of the smaller firms in dire economic situations go into their survival mode and focus on savings rather than investing more. "Recession is tougher on small firms" (Debrah 2003). "Recession affects little businesses greatly" (Tayeb 2005). "Recession often kills the small businesses" (Briscoe 2004). "Small businesses suffer most in recession" (Gratton 1999). "Small businesses should adopt to survival tactics as soon as any recession event occurs" (McGoldrick 2002). The intrinsic needs focus on the basic things any firm needs such as basic utilities and the extrinsic needs may be taken as the additional staffing which any firm may require in time periods of business boom. "Staffing should be done based on experience" (Kamoche 2001). "Staffing should be done based on knowledge" (Mayrhofer 2000). "New staff should be hired according to their educational background" (Brewster 2004).

The portion of rewards management can be related both to the intrinsic as well as the extrinsic needs of any firm and since recession greatly impacts both of the needs therefore it also impacts the system of rewards management. "Intrinsic needs deals with internal matters" (Gilley 1989). "Extrinsic needs often deal with the non-essential requirements of a firm" (Zhu 2005).

Proposed methods

There are many methods which any small firm might choose regarding the awarding of rewards related to work. For any firm to be successful in its business it must adapt to rapid changes that exist around itself as well as to satisfy...

Here, any small firm can ask its employees what they want and then give them exactly that or come up with a compromising solution which is acceptable for all of the parties. This practice also tends to greatly motivate the workforce as they feel more empowered and therefore give all they can to their firm.
In cases of small firms the main advantage the senior level management has is that it is easy to conduct more precise ways of information collection regarding the likes and dislikes of employees. Here, we will focus on two of the most commonly used methodologies which can be used by any small firm easily to determine what its workforce demands and thereby can also determine their overall rewards management. "Determining demands of workforce is very essential for the success of any business" (Mann 2005).

The management can choose to interview their workforce, since a small business has few numbers in workforce therefore it will be easy to conduct interviews. This can also give a more detailed account on the information required by the management as during the interviews it is often seen that a good interviewer can extract much information even besides the main subject matter. "Interviewing is the best possible source for the collection of quality data" (Kaponya 1991).

This information can be very critical when knowing the true nature of the workforce. The second method regarding information collection which the management can apply is questionnaire, through this a vast amount of information can be collected from many different array of repliers. One of its huge advantage is that a lot of information can be collected in a very short span of time, however some disadvantages include the non-serious attitude of the repliers in their replies regarding any question asked.

When dealing with questionnaires, the firm should focus on making them as simple as possible so that it is easy for any person to inform regarding its opinion. In our case, a small firm may ask its employees which sorts of benefits would they prefer conditioned with any additional performance. The employees should also be asked about their own personal opinions rather than just giving them a selected choices to reply within. "Questionnaires should be made simple" (Lawler III 2006). "Questionnaires should cover a wide variety of topics" (Schippmann 1999). "Questionnaires should be strictly according to the relevant subject matter" (Anthony 1988).

Reflections

Let's answer all of the questions we asked in the introduction section of this paper. The first is regarding the basis at which an employee should be given rewards. Here, the firm can choose many methods in order to determine the efficiency of its employees. For any small firm it can choose to judge its employees through the extra hours of duty they perform. Many firms pay their employees according to the hourly rates which are commonly applicable in the industry today therefore the employees can choose to earn rewards based on more work.

Many firms assess the quality rather than the quantity of the work performed by their employees. Here, the firm can choose to assess its workforce by observing how well a certain task is performed. For example in the business of any small telemarketing agency which tends to focus on having the confidence of its target who is called upon, it can measure the efficiency of its employees by assessing which of them have gained more consumers in a selected time rather than those who have called the most.

Many other rewards are also awarded such as based on any employee's ability to work under extreme conditions. Here it is often seen that not everyone can work under difficult circumstances, therefore some chosen fields of work are more rewarding as compared to others and those who take the risk of doing work in those fields related to any business are also the ones who earn more rewards as compared to the common employees. Example here includes the services of any delivery person who needs to deliver any item in a short time, this person can also earn extra if it can satisfy the buyer with the level of service that it provides.

Many employees also earn extra rewards by performing extra duties which are in addition to the official tasks that they are supposed to do, such as if any business representative of a firm can help its company to gain any additional contract then its firm would consider that employee for any reward or possibly a promotion. Therefore the…