Introduction
Mercy’s is one of the leading departmental stores in the United States of America. This firm has experienced growth over the years due to its effective market strategies. However, the management has recently been faced with the problem of maintaining a team of highly motivated employees. The human resource management unit recently came up with a new project called Total Rewards in order to motivate its employees. The program is meant to offer the employees a number of benefits that will make them feel valued by the management. The program seeks to offer monetary, non-monetary, and work environment benefits to help maintain employees’ morale at this firm. In this term paper, the researcher seeks to develop a timeline for the implementation of the recommendations for the total rewards program.
Timeline for the Program
The stakeholders at Mercy’s have recommended the implementation of three categories of rewards when implementing the Total Reward Program. The first category will be the monetary rewards. The second category will be the non-financial rewards, while the third category will be the work environment reward. It will be important to identify the steps involved when implementing this program, individuals responsible in each of the steps, the overall supervisors, funding sources, metrics used to measure the success, and problems encountered in the process (Moreen and Gross 93). The Gantt chart below identifies the steps necessary when implementing the program.
Table 1: Timeline for the Program Activities
The Gantt chart above identifies the timeline for the implementation of the recommendations given in this program. In order to understand the stakeholders responsible for each step, sources of funding, metrics to measure the success rates, and the problems encountered when implementing each of the recommendations, it will be necessary to look at each of the steps individually.
Awareness creation
According to Gross and Friedman (45), before initiating any project, it is always important to inform all the relevant stakeholders about its relevance and their roles in making it successful. In this project, it will be necessary to inform all the employees, management, and shareholders about the intended program. These three categories of stakeholders will be directly involved in the project, but in different ways. Funding for this activity will come from Mercy’s resources. The success metrics will be how well the stakeholders understand and approve of the new project. Some of the possible challenges expected would be slow acceptance of the new plans among the stakeholders. The head of communication at this firm will be responsible for this process.
Non-financial rewards
The first category of rewards as per the recommendation is the non-financial rewards. These are nonmonetary benefits such as regular employee trainings, annual retreats and get-together parties meant to relieve the employees of the constant pressure at work. The metrics in this case will be the level of happiness of employees at work measured in a scale of 1-5. The stakeholders responsible for this process will be the management and employees of this firm. The head of human resource department will supervise the entire program. This program will be funded by Mercy’s, and to measure its success rate, the appropriate metrics will be the employees’ satisfaction and output rates. The possible challenges that may be met in the process include lack of corporations or proper coordination among the key stakeholders involved.
Work-environment rewards
The work environment matters a lot when determining the level of employee morale. Highly stressful workplace environment may lower their output. This program seeks to address issues such as the employee-employer relationships, work hours, flexible jobs, and peer relations. The main stakeholders involved will be the management and employees. The metrics will be the level of employees’ satisfaction measured in a scale of 1-5. The head of human resource will be the supervisor. This program may not need funding because it only involves a change in the management strategy. Lack of appreciation of the new efforts is one of the biggest challenges when using this program.
Financial rewards
Financial reward is one of the widely used incentives when planning to motivate the employees (Manas 114). It may involve giving bonuses, increased salaries and allowances, or financial rewards to the best performers. The metrics in this case will be the percentage increase in employee’s remuneration. The stakeholders will be the shareholders, management, and employees. The head of finance will responsible for this process. Finances for the project will be obtained from the accounts of Mercy’s and the productivity of the employees will be the appropriate metric. Limited financial resources at the firm may a problem when implementing the strategy.
Project assessment
The last stage in this program will be to evaluate the overall success rates of the entire project to determine if the overall objective was achieved. The shareholders, managers, and employees will be the main stakeholders, with the managing director being the overall supervisor. The program may need to be funded by Mercy’s because it may involve bringing of the external auditors. Misinformation and integrity issues may affect this stage of the project.
Works Cited
Gross, Steven and Helen Friedman. “Creating an Effective Total Reward Strategy.” Holistic Approach Better Supports Business Success 20.1 (2004): 45. Print.
Manas, Todd. Creating a Total Rewards Strategy: A Toolkit for Designing Business-Based Plans. New York: American Management Association, 2002. Print.
Moreen, Bob and Steven Gross. Striking the Right Balance: Total Rewards that Work. New York: Cengage, 2014. Print.