Question

Total rewards, originally introduced in 2000, has evolved to depict the strategic elements of the employer- employee exchange as well as to reflect how external influences and an increasingly global business environment affect attraction, motivation, retention and engagement.

1. Describe the elements to a competitive and desirable total rewards system.

2. How will this concept assist a company to achieve their strategic goals?

3. Discuss the perspectives and the challenges of balancing a global workforce.

4. What generational considerations need to be addressed in 2016?

5. What external influences affect a Total Rewards system?

Answer 1

1. The total reward system is a system prevailing in the organization which involves all the approaches taken by the management to recruit, motivate and retain the employees in the work place.

The elements of the total reward system includes the following

• Compensation: Reasonable compensation which are competitive in the market can motivate employees to be loyal and productive.
• Benefits: Provision of benefits and non monetary rewards can motivate and retain employees.
• Professional development: The training and development programs can contribute to employee loyalty.
• Recognition: recognition, respect and empowerment can motivate and make the employees self responsible.
• Work-life balance: Flexible work timing can enable the employees to maintain the work life balance.

2. The concept of total reward system can contribute to the achievement of the strategic goals of the organization. This rewarding system will make the employees satisfied and this satisfactory level will make them loyal towards the organization. This can motivate the employees and will make them to be more productive. Hence the achievement of the strategic goals becomes easier.

3. Balancing the global work force is a challenging task for the managers. Some of the challenges and perspectives are discussed here.

• Cultural diversity is the major challenge in managing the global work force.
• The attitudes, behaviors, personality will be different for the employees from different countries. Hence balancing becomes more challenging.
• Even though technology could support the managers to coordinate the employees at different geographical limits, the barriers like the timings, technological savvy of employees, geographical barriers etc acts as the challenge for the balancing.

4. The attitude approaches and the behaviors can vary in the employees when there is a change in the generations. The employees in 1990s have a different behavior than the employees in 2016. The employees in 2016 are more professional and are also expecting more entertainment, holidays, benefits etc. Hence the total reward system of the organization should be changed or modified with the changes in the generation.

5. Some of the external factors which can influence the total rewards system are listed below.

• The financial situation of the organization.
• The economic slowdown which can impact th business operations.
• The changes in the top management level executives, policies, procedures etc