Strategies for Improving Employee Performance

¶ … Employee Benefits Through Incentives

In every organization, the Human Resource department plays the role of recruiting, training, supervising, and remunerating the employees. The HR department is also responsible for offering incentives to the employees apart from the normal remuneration offered after a certain agreed period. The incentives are offered to employees when they perform efficiently in their respective jobs or motivation for them to continue working to the required standards or beyond the standards (Agarwal & Braguinsky, 2015). Incentive payments to the employees can be determined in two different ways as casual or structured incentives. Casual incentives are offered unexpectedly to the employees after accomplishing certain goals or duties in the organization. Casual incentives are not revealed to the employees but offered as a surprise. When the employees do a commendable job in their respective duties, the management or HR department will decide to offer them an incentive so that they can maintain the same spirit while undertaking their obligations in future. The incentive will make the employees feel part of the organization, as their efforts of making the organization successful are recognized.

In casual incentives, human resource department can decide to offer bonuses, organize a trip, dinner, and even offering a certain sum of money to the employees. The employees will realize the incentive offered after the incentives it has been offered or when it is offered. In most cases, the employer or human resource department will explain to the employee about the incentive and the reason for being offered (Al-Tit et al., 2015). Casual incentives might not have much influence or motivation on the employees in their respective duties. The incentives are offered after the employees have accomplished certain duties and achievements made. The casual incentive might create envy and a sense of favors among the employees. Often, casual incentives do not have any design or method of selecting employees or groups to receive incentives. The department will choose those to receives the incentives or ask the employees to pick them, a move which will not be welcomed by all the employees.

Structured incentives are offered to the employees after the accomplishment of their duties as required by the human resource department or the employer. Structured incentives are well-known to both the employer as well as the employee. The employees are aware of the incentives they will receive after accomplishing specific duties assigned (Bhattacharya, 2015). Employers reveal to the employees that they will receive the incentives if they increase sales, reduce production costs, and accomplished any other duty assigned to them. Structured incentives are mostly used by many organizations because the employees will work hard to achieve or accomplished certain duties and targets being aware that they will receive certain incentives. The employers and the staff will benefit because the staff will receive the incentives as they anticipate and the employers will achieve the targets set to their employees in their respective duties. Structured incentives will create any biases on the side of the employees. It is because the employees will receive and incentives individually or as a group after accomplishing their assigned duties and meeting the targets. Those to receive the incentives will not be selected randomly as in the casual incentives.

The benefits offered to the employees by their employers should meet certain legal requirements. Legal requirements should be observed such that in the case of any disagreement between the employers and the employees, there would be legal backgrounds concerning the matter, and it will be easier to solve such problems. For example, a social security tax is one of the benefits that the employees receive from the employer (Agarwal & Braguinsky, 2015). Legally, the employer should pay social security taxes to the responsible authorities at the same rate that the employees are paying. Workers compensation insurance cover is another legal benefit that employees receive from the employers. The employers are required by law to carry the compensation on a self-insured basis through a commercial carrier or workers compensation insurance program. Unemployment insurance is also a benefit that the employees enjoy in their workplace. Business organizations with employees are required by law to pay unemployment insurance taxes on behalf of the employees. Such organizations paying insurance taxes on behalf of the employees should register with state's workforce agency.

Business organizations need to provide training as part of the legal benefits offered to the employees. Training is a benefit to both the employer and the employee in the organization. The employer will acquire knowledge and skills that he/she might apply in future in other workplaces while the employer increases its production and sales in a given period. Educational benefits should be made legal as it benefits both the employee and the employer. Most of the employee seeks to leave from the employer to pursue their educational careers, which should be legalized and even the employer should assist the employer in paying a fee.

Disability insurance should be legalized because employees fail to perform their duties due to injuries for them to seek treatment. In such instances, the employer should pay for disability insurance cover for the employee. Most of the employees suffer because they are replaced immediately they are on sick leave (Adom, 2015). Sick leave should be made a requirement and legalized such that the employees will benefit and not suffer. Before an employer decides on an incentive to offer to the employees, it should be a benefit to the employee and the employer at the same time such both the parties will benefit. The incentives should also be equally offered to the employees without discrimination or biases on the side of the employees. The incentives offered should be directly related to the achievements and accomplishment made such the responsible employees in the achievements benefit from the incentives.

The employers should communicate in an efficient manner concerning the incentives offered. Some of the employers offer incentives like training, dinner, and even trips without communicating to the employees the reason for the incentives (Al-Tit et al., 2015). In such instances, the employees will not be aware of the appreciations, and they might not be motivated to maintain the same spirit of working hard. The employees should be aware of the incentives they will receive and the level of accomplishment needed through communication from the employer.