Compensation systems
Compensation systems are the schemes applied by different companies when remunerating employees. Compensation refers to the analytic approach used when providing financial value to an organization’s employees in reimbursement for the work they have done. Compensation systems vary from one organization to another and they are generally classified in to two categories.
The two broad categories of compensation systems are the direct pay benefits and the indirect pay benefits. The system adopted by an organization plays a crucial role in the determination of the level of productivity and it also displays the values of the organization to the public. “Compensation systems are capable of attracting or repelling the right kind of people because they communicate so much about the organization’s philosophy, values and practices”(Ling & Roloff, 2002).
Compensation systems are also responsible for the quality of work force in the organizations. Organizations offering excellent remuneration to their employees stand a chance of attracting highly qualified personnel who will deliver their services with high levels of professionalism thus ensuring that the organization’s profile is high.
Securitas security Services Company has enormous number of employees working at different capacities. The main classifications of the departments in this organization include the security officer, security guard, security supervisor, armed security officer, security manager, security guard gate, accounts manager and the scheduling manager.
The people working in these departments are compensated on relation to the bulk of their work, their qualifications and the risks they face while in operation. The security manager for example receives the highest compensation owing to the fact that he is professionally qualified (Ling & Roloff, 2002). The armed security officer is also compensated more compared to the other security officers because they handle complicated cases that put their lives at risk.
The compensation system at Securitas security services is built on a number of components. The first one of these components is job depiction. This describes the responsibilities of each employee and the environment in which they work in. The second one is job investigation, which is done by way of consultations, filling survey forms and through observation.
Third is job appraisal, which matches up different job classifications in the organization with an aim of establishing the most suitable levels of reimbursement for the job elements. In relation to this, four chief procedures are adopted. They include; ranking technique, factor appraisal, classification and point method.
The other components of the Securitas security services compensation system include the pay structures used in the standardization of the compensation plans.
The pay structures consist of the various job categories with the respective minimum wages applicable. Salary survey is the component that deals with research on market remuneration data and mainly considers factors such as inflation indicators, average salaries and cost of living indicators (Lawler, 1999).
This company conducts its own survey across all the regions where it has sub branches. These components ensure that the compensation system of Securitas security services is equitable both internally and externally and that the employees are satisfied with the system such that they improve their productive for the good of the whole company in general.
The current compensation model at Securitas security services is made up of both direct and indirect compensation plans. Direct plans consist of a basic salary, which differs, in the different departments. Employees are also paid commissions for any extra work done besides their daily duties. Overtime is paid to employees who stay in the office after the normal working hours including any duty performed over the weekends.
Given the company deals in security services, overtime is an indispensable part of the compensation plan since they will always require some people to be on duty to handle emergencies. Bonuses are paid to the most consistent workers and to the workers who have been in the company for a long time.
The indirect compensation plans include some percentage of the company’s shares awarded to employees who have stayed longest in the company and that means that they have a share in the company’s profits (Lawler, 1999). This acts as an incentive to the employees to stay long in the company to enjoy such benefits.
Some employees are expected to travel out of their regions on a regular basis and they are given a travelling allowance package, which consists of transport, meals and accommodation allowance. Besides all these, employees are provided with the medical benefits, which also cover their families.
The compensation philosophy in the organization is based on attracting the most qualified individuals in the various fields and that requires a compensation package that is relatively high and includes even the non-monetary benefits. They developed a strategy of increasing the wages of employees with time and this works as an incentive to retain the employees, rather than having to train a new workforce every year.
According to Lawler, “this compensation philosophy is a consistent one and it provides a strong foundation for both the organization and the employee” (1999). Through the philosophy, the human resource department is never faced with the difficulty of deciding on the starting salaries of new employees since it is usually predetermined.
It also ensures that the organization does not get itself into salary burdens that it cannot bear in the long term. The compensation plan is organized in a way that ensures salary increments do not affect the financial position of the organization, while it remains competitive in the labor market.
The executive compensation plans in this organization differ with the rank of operation. The top executives who include the operations manager, security manager, scheduling manager, human resource manager and the financial manager are compensated on a higher scale than their counterparts in the lower levels.
This is owing to the fact that these people are faced with a huge responsibility of ensuring that all the organization’s activities run smoothly. Their compensation is fixed and they are remunerated on a monthly basis unlike the casual employees who are paid on an hourly billing.
This means that they have a constant basic salary and the only variable component in their remuneration are commission and bonuses, which differ, based on their extra input and the extra time worked (Ling & Roloff, 2002).
As a scheduling manager, I am faced with the responsibility of ensuring that the activities are properly scheduled and that they are performed within the allocated time. The compelling issue is therefore to ensure no delays in operations hence ensuring efficiency in service delivery.
I therefore belong to the management level in the organizations compensation scheme and I am entitled to benefits such as housing benefit and health insurance. My job requires that I travel frequently to the other locations and due to this, I am provided with a travel package consisting of accommodation allowance, transport allowance and meals allowance while am on official duty.
Reference List
Lawler, E. (1999). Pay and Organizational Effectiveness: A Psychological Approach. New York: McGraw – Hill.
Ling, L. & Roloff, M. (2002). Compensation Systems, Organizational Culture, and Organization Attraction. Malden, Mass: Blackwell press.