Introduction
Any company that values its human resource and cares about motivation should come up with compensation and benefits plan (Sims, 2007, p. 38).The company needs to hire a non-exempt accountant for the department. As said in the memo, the position will be hourly and will not be available for yearly bonuses.
However, evaluation will be carried out after every six months to determine advancement and the returns of each employee. The employee may start receiving benefits after three months of work at the company. It is important to note that though non-exempt jobs are normally non-skilled, this is a skilled position that requires the holder to be a trained accountant with possibility of experience in a similar position.
The holder will be paid, between $12.00 and $14.00 per hour depending on experience. Additionally the holder will be paid for overtime for any hours that he/she will work beyond the mandatory 40 hours per week. Overtime will also be paid to the employee for any holiday or day that may be determined to be special.
Reimbursement and benefits plan
The reimbursement plan will take into account the standard requirements and components of an employee reimbursement and remuneration plan. They include, guaranteed pay, which may also be referred to as the basic compensation, variable pay that may also be referred to as variable compensation. This will entail rewards for both individual and business performance.
It is important to note that variable compensation may have both short-term and long-term compensation components. There will also benefits, which may include equity benefits that the holder will enjoy if the career growth plan is implemented. this includes healthcare benefits, pension and perquisites. the base compensation will include a fixed annual salary that will be subject to the number of hours the employee has worked.
It is important to note that the employee may not be able to enjoy all these benefits at the moment. The plan assumes that the employee will stay in the company for long enough to be confirmed to permanent and pensionable status that will enable him access all the compensation and benefits of the plan that will be described.
This compensation and benefit plan will operate on the four principles including competitive compensation, good pay for performance, giving balanced rewards for the creation of sustainable value and equity ownership that will come in last if the employee satisfies the criteria that is used to award these particular benefits.
Base Compensation
This compensation will include the annual fixed salary payable in monetary terms according to the number of hours worked. The main drivers of this incentive will be the position of the employee, which will be the accounting clerk, the experience, which the holder may or may not have, and sustained performance, which will be expected of the employees.
The holder will get between $12.00 and $14.00 per hour, which may be adjusted upwards as dictated by the main drivers of the base compensation. The performance measures that will be used to gauge the holder’s performance will be according to market practice as dictated by professional accounting bodies.
The base compensation will be competitive as dictated by one of the compensation principles of the company to ensure competent accountants are retained in the company.
Variable compensation
Variable compensation will be offered in cash that will be contingent on discretion and the performance as well as the results realized. They will include bonuses, overtime pay, and other incentives as applicable to the accounting profession. The variable compensation will be divided into short-term performance plans and long-term performance plans.
Short-term incentive plans will be determined by the achievement of the individual, financial, and annual objectives, as they may be applicable. It will also include the achievement of milestones as dictated by the company and the accounting departments’ strategic plans.
Success of this position for the qualification of the compensation will be determined by the innovation and optimization of the accounting department’s effectiveness and productivity. The business principle that will be fulfilled when this part of the compensation plans are implemented will be the payment for performance. Rewarding good performance will ensure retaining of the holder of the position top avoid a high turnover rate.
The long-term variable compensation will be determined by the same drivers that were used in the short-term.however, the performance measures will be done through the analysis of year-end performance rating of the accountant clerk, and business performance.
The compensation principle that will be linked here is the alignment of the accountant clerk with the interests of shareholders and to ensure long-term sustainable business performance.
Benefits
This will include a host of benefits for the accountant that may include comprehensive medical coverage, paid leave, car and pension plan. The benefits may not be in the form of cash. It may also involve the equity compensation.
This compensation for the accountant will be determined by the opposition the holder of the job will have achieved the experience and sustained performance in the departments and the entire organization as well.
Obstacles
There are a number of obstacles that may hinder the realization of other benefits by the jobholder if the plan described above is implemented. One of the problems includes poor measurements, management problems, and communication problems. Measurement problems includes the occurrence of subjective measures, multiple measures, group measures, uncontrollable measures and process measures.
Measurement of the account clerk’s performance, if not don properly may lead to one or more of the above problems hence presenting a challenge to the compensation plan.
Communication problems include lack of system understanding from the account clerk, delayed feedback from both parties, recognition of goals only attitude and change of the benchmarks against which goals are measured.
Management issues may result from the lack of support from top manager of the accounting department, lack of guidance and motivation from the top leaders of the department as well as those of the company and lack of integration of the incentive system with that of human resources.
Conclusion
The plan described above is a proposed structure that the management will use to gauge and reward the new employee. There may be rigidity and clarity when appraising the account clerk considering it is a new position. However, there is no doubt that the new employee can rise up the ranks to achieve the benefits that are contained in the compensation plan.
The most important thing is for the management that is directly involved to ensure the new account clerk is motivated and offered the necessary support that he/she needs. That way, both the organization and the jobholder will benefit.
References
Sims, R. R. (2007). Human resource management: contemporary issues, challenges. London: Cengage Learning.