Costco's Compensation System

However, having a good salary isn’t always a deciding factor if the employee stays with the company. Additional components of good compensation package

In the case presented both AFLAC and L.L. Bean had their own distinctive ways of utilizing their products in order to enhance the total compensation for its employees. The factor that has deterred more employees away from their current employer is that of benefit packages, and reward systems. As stated by () “compensation affects a person economically, sociologically, and psychologically. For this reason, mishandling compensation issues is likely to have a strong negative impact on employees and, ultimately, on the firm’s performance” (p.313). Many felt just a bump in pay wasn’t enough to substantiate their hard work or the efforts that the performance efforts provided to their organization. As stated by () “the right total rewards system a blend of monetary and non-monetary

Compensation systems can take on many forms, all of which have positives and negatives related to it. However, certain components are noted to be determinants of solid compensation plans. One agreement of a solid compensation system is the use of incentives. “Clearly a successful companies set objectives that will provide incentives to increase profitability” (Needles & Powers, 2011). Incentive bonuses should be measures that the company finds important to long-term growth. According to Needles & Powers (2011) the most successful companies long term focused on profitability measures. For large for-profit firms, compensation programs should offer stock options. The interweaving between the market value of a company’s stock and company’s performance both motivate and increase compensation to employees As the market value of the stock goes up, the difference between the option price and the market price grows, which increases the amount of compensation” (Needles & Powers, 2011). Conclusively, a compensation plan should serve all stakeholders, be simple, group employees properly, reflect company culture and values, and be flexible (Davis & Hardy, 1999; The Basics of a Compensation Program).

For the most part, a company’s compensation policy aims to ensure that employees are compensated in a fair and competitive manner. However, the compensation objectives employed by different companies can vary widely. This is especially true when taking into account wages vs. skills, competitor salaries, pay-for-performance, and other elements of compensation, like overtime, incentives, etc. (Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2015).

I thoroughly agree with your post. You have indicated some very key points in regards to how compensation definitely has bearing on performance. I like how you stated that compensation is one of the predominant factors that drives a company’s performance. This is very true. Furthermore, compensation is the reward given to employees in return for their services provided and it is often the foundation of a productive and stable workforce. All the more, the quality and performance of your company’s talent pool is usually directly dependent on how well you put into effect the compensation planning tactics.

The term compensation refers to all forms of financial returns and tangible benefits that employees receive in exchange for their time, talents, efforts, performance, and results (Bernardin & Russell, 2013) Presumably, employees are motivated by the compensation they receive in all combinations to include their benefits packages. Naturally, employees want to be able to take care of their family to include having good medical coverage and other related benefits. Equity is said to occur when a person perceives that the ratio of his outcomes to his inputs is equal to other’s outcome/input ratio (Salvendy, 1976). Of course, employees want more money, and companies want more work out of each employee. With the cost of benefits like health insurance continuing to rise, companies have to take the higher cost of benefits into consideration when implementing pay

The right compensation program will depend on the organization’s business strategy and goals. To achieve these, an organization must recruit and select the best possible employees. To attract such employees, there must be an attractive compensation plan. Competitors will be offering different payment options, this may be based on pay rate or special perks, and a company’s stock options. Organizations must be aggressive yet reasonable to compete with competitors. Retaining and encouraging employees to perform at their best may be achieved through an immediate incentive award

This paper looks at the opinions and issues involved within executive compensation. This is important because executive compensation is such an integral part of a company or organization’s functions. Executives are the ones tasked with making the decisions within an organization, and their pay can sometimes be linked to how well or how not well their decisions pan out. To look at these opinions, research and high quality analyses from various data sources were used. Some of these sources included the in-class textbook, “Compensation” by George Milkovich, Jerry Newman, and Barry Gerhart. While other sources used, included peer reviewed journals as preferred by the professor. All of these sources were used to show the relevance between executive compensation and compensation management as an entirety. The results are across the board; there are issues and opinions that clearly contradict each other and individuals take many different stances on the topic of executive compensation. The conclusion is that this will continue to be an ongoing and sensitive topic to discuss within organization structures and plenty more research and data will arise for individuals to gain further and deeper understanding of the complex nature of executive compensation.

In a free market, such as the one used in the United States of America, competition between companies is cutthroat as businesses look for every possible way to have the edge over competitors. One of the major ways that businesses stay ahead of the competition is attracting and retaining the most talented employees. It is common practice for companies in the United States of America to provide several non-wage compensations to employees with the aim of sweetening the employment and reducing turnover (entrepreneur.com, n.d). Employees have come to appreciate the benefits offered by companies and consider benefits just as important as their salary.

Costco’s compensation strategies offer greater benefits than companies like Target due to an “efficiency wage” (Lutz, 2015, ‘Why Wal-Mart’) a strategy that attempts to lower turnover ratios by paying employees a wage above the industry standard. In turn, this compensation strategy attempts to value employees higher, also implementing a standard of operation that promotes performance and identifies employees who excel. In comparison, Ungar (2013) notes that focusing on the internal workings of the company may have placed Costco at even greater advantage, considering that they reported an 8% rise in profits while Target “experienced [less than]

Compensation strategies within a company are very important. Companies need to invest in offering compensation benefits to their employees because they enhance an employee’s wiliness to stay long term with the company. They also provide a positive foundation between the employee and employer. If an employee is happy and content with the company they work for then this will benefit the company and the employee. The employee will be motivated to do a good job for the company and in the long run the extra money and work that the employer puts in for the added benefits will pay off. In this report you will see how Paid Time off (PTO) , bonuses and merit pay increases will benefit not only the employee but the business.

The challenges of an organization can influence the performance of an organization from a satisfaction with pay (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2016, p. 296). The employee salary within an organization is a huge cause for turnover of employees (p. 296). First, the topic of employee salary is of great importance for the current and potential workforce (Lee & Lin, 2014, p. 1577). In addition, employees that have the perception on receiving lower compensation that others within their market will lack in performance and have a desire to leave the organization (p. 1577). In retrospect, the regular evaluation of compensation within the organization is vital to the reduction of employee turnover (p. 1577).

To determine the type of data affected. An inventory of data is required to determine what data is at risk and the regulatory and compliance requirements that need to be met.

The goal of compensation in our case, is to attract and encourage executives to diligently pursue the interest of the shareholders that have a stake within the firm. Richard Long (2010) discuses the steps of formulating a strategic compensation plan which involves; the defining the required behavior, role of compensation, determine the compensation mix, compensation level, and evaluating the proposed strategy. If we want to attract the best and most talented individual to work as the executive of a firm, the package must be attractive enough to pull the individual already making millions to work at another firm. Some typical compensation packages for executive pays include; cash/base salaries, bonuses, stock options, and stock ownership (Richard, 2010). The executive compensation proposal from the board of directors / shareholders consist of mainly stock options, restricted stock, and long term- contracts and retirement plans, which shareholders use to motivate the CEO to maximize the firm value (Martin, 2006). Most of the wealth comes from the stock options, in which the CEO is more inclined to raise the firm’s stock value over time to produce better value for shareholders which in return, better compensation for the CEO. Martin (2006) also noted it is important the stock options are more for long term

In today’s competitive workforce, compensation and benefit packages plays a crucial role on recruitment and retention for both the organization and the employee. Bumpbie finds itself in a situation where it could positively affect its employee’s morale, turnover rate and longevity; by making a strategic decision to implement compensation and benefit packages that will encourage current workers to stay and entice new applicants. Money is not always the inherent reason businesses experience high turnover rate, the constant shifting in the job market will always be a contributing factor as well as employee’s moral. Mayhew, R. (2016), explains that an “employee compensation plan” refers to all the components offered as well as the way in which they are paid, and the reason behind the employees getting the compensation case bonuses, salary increases and incentives. The fact that there are voluntary and mandatory benefits that organization provides to their employees give employees the freedom of choice, as well as the option to make the whether to stay with or leave an organization based on the benefits it provides. Variable Pay is also an option that some employers offer their employee which is performance based or results oriented. Whether it is profit sharing, merit based programs or incentive bonuses; it all comes down to which organization can provide employees with the compensation or benefits packages that best satisfy their needs.