The current paper contains a reflection on the range of interviews concerning the issue of the total rewards system and the key reasons that motivate employees to work in a company. More precisely, the respondents clarified the system of rewards in their companies. Additionally, the HR executives explained which answer they were expecting while asking why a candidate wanted to work in the company. The paper presents a brief overview of the interviews and the significant findings as well as the assessment of strategic human resources management (SHRM).
To begin with, the respondents include HR executives of the building company and the online language school. The fact that people with different professional interests are employed in these two spheres justifies the choice. Besides, the working conditions are also varying for some members of the companies teams. It is interesting to note that both companies have the accounting, human resources, and public relations departments. Therefore, the rewards systems and employees motivation to work in one of the listed above departments of the two companies coincide. Nevertheless, the answers vary concerning the payments and the motivation of builders and teachers. The similarities and differences that were identified during the interviews are discussed below.
A remuneration system is a useful tool that helps not only to engage and retain employees but also to motivate them to work harder. According to both interviews, fixed payments, retirement options, paid vacation, and regular awards based on achievements comprise the total rewards benefits package of every employee. The HR executive of the building company admits that the work-life balance is hard to be maintained since the company has no benefits for the staffers families and cannot provide flexible schedules.
The company’s specialization causes these inconveniences that overcome mainly by decent wages and salaries. At the same time, the rewards strategy used by the online language school does not provide much space for growth and development. Notwithstanding this fact, the employees work remotely, have discounts for the members of the family, and have free access to training courses. Pregnolato et al. (2017) reveal that financial rewards are the most critical components in employees total rewards packages. As it stems from the interviews, employers prefer financial incentives to nonfinancial ones.
The reasons to work in a company vary from employee to employee and depend on the position and life circumstances. Generally, HR managers used to hear trivial reasons that motivate potential employees. Among these reasons are the broad perspectives, the right responses from the current or ex-staff members, and a competitive salary. It has been discovered that financial incentives are inferior in efficiency in comparison with such nonfinancial rewards such as manager’s attention and recognition and a chance to take a leading position (Robescu & Iancu, 2016). Therefore, the interrogated HR executives prefer those candidates who indicate their aspiration to develop their skills and consequently get a higher and more influential and answerable position.
When the respondents were asked to list the three most important reasons to work at their firms, some ideas appeared to be identical. Among these reasons are the desire to adopt the experience of renowned vital leaders and the aspiration to work in an organization that is more innovative and prosperous than the competitors. HR executive of the online language courses also mentioned the ability to work from home in flexible hours and total freedom in the organization of educational activities.
Teachers value these opportunities and agree that they influenced their employment decision. HR executive of the construction company reckoned that the employees receive a chance to work with the most large-scale projects. Consequently, employees receive a guarantee that the construction site will not be frozen, and therefore they will not be deprived of the salaries and awards. At the same time, work with prominent projects gives people a feeling of implication to something valuable and well-known that is pleasurable for the self-estimation.
Moving to the assessment of SHRM, in both firms, policies of the HR managers seem to be efficient in terms of the overall companies performance. The primary goal of SHRM is the allocation of the organization’s resources in the most efficient way so that the firm’s goals are achieved (Jiang & Messersmith, 2018). The possible methods include the motivation of employees and the creation of a proper working environment. Undoubtedly, there is a close positive correlation between the application of SHRM and a company’s operational performance. The number of researches has also proved that inter-employees relationships serve as a mediator between the SHRM and a company’s organizational effectiveness (Ali et al., 2018).
The following inference is that the methods aim includes the maintenance of favorable employees’ relations climate. Therefore, it is highly advisable to prefer the high commitment approach to the control-based approach. The former is focused on direct monitoring of the workers performance, while the latter concentrates on the abilities for further development and commitment of staff members.
The effectiveness of SHRM in the two observed companies is indisputable since both are generally famous in their field of business. Consequently, the companies prosperity means that HR managers succeed in allocating resources most efficiently. Nevertheless, there are concerns about the strategy of the construction firm. The employees there fail to uphold the balance between their private lives and working time. According to the HR manager’s words, accountants, engineers, constructors, and architects work extra hours regularly. The respondent also noted that the most significant staff turnover took place among those employees who always overworked.
Hence, the period between the retirement of the previous worker and employment of a new one puts significant pressure not only on other staff members but also on the whole company’s performance. Besides, concerning everlasting deadlines and stressful atmosphere in the team, employees feel uncomfortable, which also diminishes their productivity and the final output. Therefore, this company requires new methods of organization of human resources, which will reduce the workload of some of the employees.
In the case of the second company, online language courses, employees are less stressed, and the atmosphere is amiable. At the same time, there is an extent of competition between the teachers relative to their students success at the language proficiency tests. This contest motivates teachers to put more effort into their work, and they become more committed to what they do. The devotion of the tutors leads to an increase in the overall performance of the online school as well.
Nevertheless, it is not the SHRM that creates an atmosphere of tournaments. Instead, it is the peculiarity of work in the team of teachers because there is no similar situation in other departments of the organization. The most telling refutation of the belief that SHRM is not the main factor that influenced the online courses success, it should be mentioned that it created an employee-centered culture with a positive employee relations climate.
When employees are satisfied with working conditions and feel comfortable, they contribute benevolently to organizational effectiveness (Ali et al., 2018). The HR executive of the online courses marked that the company used a high commitment approach and strived to establish communication between the employees and employer. Therefore, SHRM affects corporate social responsibility since it allows to obtain improvement in the working environment and increase the productivity of employees as well as the sense of belonging and unity.
During the interview, the respondents also answered a question concerning the impact of information systems on the HR practice in their organizations. Both HR executives reveal that human resources information systems (HRIS) assist in tracing employees efficiency. Besides, HRIS provide managers with access to various information that could be used for the analysis and making strategic decisions on the allocation of human resources.
Additionally, HRIS speed up hiring a new employee since managers gain access to candidate pools for a new position. HR executive of the building company also emphasized that information systems streamline collaboration between the company’s offices located in multiple countries. Despite the advantaged listed above, the respondent also mentions that it is rather challenging for the construction company to adapt the workplace to technological changes. Some jobs become obsolete while new ones appear, and therefore skilled professionals are scarce.
To conclude, at some points, the answers of both respondents were almost alike. For example, talking about the reasons for employment in their companies, both HR executives mentioned reasons connected with the public image of the firms. As for the remuneration system, the answers were also more or less alike, with some minor mismatches. These slight mismatches in the reward system turned into considerable differences in employees satisfaction with their work. The ability of the second firm to keep the balance between the employees work and life made them more committed and conscientious.
The enhanced sense of belonging of the language courses staff members illustrates the interconnection between the SHRM and corporate social responsibility. Finally, technological developments ease the work of HR managers; however, they should accommodate the changes which new technologies bring.
References
Ali, M., Lei, S., & Wei, X. Y. (2018). The mediating role of the employee relations climate in the relationship between strategic HRM and organizational performance in Chinese banks. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), 115-122.
Jiang, K., & Messersmith, J. (2018). On the shoulders of giants: a meta-review of strategic human resource management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(1), 6-33.
Pregnolato, M., Bussin, M. H., & Schlechter, A. F. (2017). Total rewards that retain: A study of demographic preferences. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 15(1), 1-10.
Robescu, O., & Iancu, A. G. (2016). The effects of motivation on employees performance in organizations. Valahian Journal of Economic Studies, 7(2), 49-56.