The Impact of Rewards Programs on Employee Engagement - Research Proposal Example

?The Impact of Rewards Programs on Employee Engagement Research Objectives The objective of this research is to explore the diverse issues concerningreward management in the workplace and how these programs and employee engagement are related. Furthermore, there is the need to determine whether total rewards programs are associated with organization performance and how these are behind the high performance of certain organizations. There have developed systems through which employee performance and rewards are determined by what their supervisors say about them and this has created a situation where the former have been given too much power over their subordinates. However, there has recently developed a system, in many companies, where information is not only gotten from the supervisors but also from the employees themselves. It can be said that as the number of sources used in the evaluation has increased, and so has the accuracy of the information. There has come to be a realization that the employees of an organization tend to be the best source of information when conducting an evaluation to determine the employees who are best suited to be rewarded for their services (Sarin and Mahajan, 2001). In addition, it has been found that many employees prefer to be rated not by their subordinates, but by their supervisors, their fellow employees, or by themselves so that a balanced and unbiased assessment can be made concerning their deserving of rewards or incentives. It has been established that employees tend to be extremely concerned about fairness in the evaluation and reward process and to ensure that there is fairness; it has become necessary to ensure that they become active participants in the process. While being interviewed, the employees should be given an opportunity to provide comments on what they think concerning their evaluation as well as those of their colleagues so that the organization’s management can be able to provide rewards efficiently. Research Questions In order to help in the assessment of the objectives of this research, several questions concerning it will be asked in order to effectively cover all the areas of concern. 1. Which reward policies and practices are associated with employee motivation to increase their output? 2. Does involvement in the development of pay programs enhance employee motivation at work? 3. Is employee engagement associated with the performance of the organization for which they work? 4. What are the most significant aspects of rewards that affect the way employees function in the work environment? Hypothesis While many studies have been conducted concerning the factors that encourage employees to be motivated in their work, very little research has been conducted concerning the use of reward programs to ensure that these individuals are motivated to work harder for their organizations. It is therefore suggested that the use of reward programs in many organizations is what is behind the motivation of employees to be more productive in their work. It is quite possible that in those companies which lack reward systems, the motivation of employees to perform is often quite low and this creates a situation where there is a general loss of productivity. Background As a reaction to the monetary crisis that has developed in recent years, companies have developed in to being apprehensive about keeping personnel involved after the former suffered through stipend restrictions, lost gratuities, increased work demands and downsizing. In addition, managing their employees motivation in these environments while at the same time being aware of that once the financial situation improves the best they may leave for other opportunities has created a new objective in the corporate world, and this is employee engagement. Despite the fact that there are many definitions for it that can be found, employee engagement can be described as an elevated level of employee involvement, whose main purpose is to ensure their commitment to the organization as well as ensuring that they are satisfied in their jobs. It can be said that engaged employees value, enjoy and have pride in their work and that they are more willing to help each other and the organization succeed (Sizoo, Plank, Iskat and Serrie, 2005). In addition, they are often willing to take additional responsibility and invest more effort in their jobs, hence ensuring that they are more productive. Furthermore, these employees are often confident enough to share information with other employees, and are more likely to remain with the organization than employees who are less engaged (Khan, Shahid, Nawab and Wali, 2013). Finally, employee engagement and other related factors, such as commitment and cooperation, have been found to be associated with the increase in the performance of the organization, essentially adding to its success. Despite the fact that the main focus of engagement efforts has mostly concentrated on team-building programs, employee opinion surveys and nonfinancial rewards as well as equal pay structures have been found to be related to employee collaboration, involvement, fulfillment and commitment to the organization (Jehn, Rupert and Nauta, 2006). All of the above mentioned factors have been used as proxies for employee engagement by a diverse number of companies and organizations. However, previous studies that have been conducted on this issue have not been able to examine the specific pay practices used by compensation professionals or attempt to relate pay plans in particular to employee engagement. One of the biggest rewards, which can be given to employees, is being provided with leadership positions within the organization. It has been found not to always be a good thing to bring in a leader from outside the organization when one can be selected from within it ranks to head it. This is because an individual who has not worked with the organization might not be able to inspire the confidence among the other employees of the organization. This would be in contrast to a situation where a leader was appointed from among the ranks of the employees because he would be easily accepted hence keeping the other employees motivated (Uddin, Luva and Hossian, 2013). The lack of confidence towards a leader who has been externally selected from outside the organization can be disastrous for the organization because there will be a lot of conflict not only in its management but also among its employees who might not take kindly to the new leader (Yavas, Karatepe and Babakus, 2011). It has therefore become important to select a new leader from among the most capable employees within the organization to avoid such situations which may create a lack of confidence in any new leader. This will also function as a reward for those employees who are hardworking and deserving of a promotion. Not only will the new leader be well known within the ranks of the employees, but this fellow employee as a leader will also be able to inspire the confidence of his colleagues who will end up supporting him wholeheartedly. Such support will ensure that the new leader does not have to look over his shoulder every time in fear that his authority will be undermined (Houger, 2006). The promotion of employees from within the organization as a means of reward ensures that they know exactly how everything within it is done and will not need a lot of time to learn about the organization’s practices. The experience of such an employee, which would most likely have spanned quite a number of years within the organization will work in his favor as he will get work done faster than a leader who would have been brought from outside. The experience gained within the organization by the employee who is likely to be promoted will make sure that he knows what it lacks and what it has. This will enable him to work to further strengthen the stable parts of the team he has been put in charge of and work on smoothing those that he thinks are its weaknesses (Chieh-Peng and Chun, 2004). The knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of his team will ensure that he is able to use the knowledge effectively in ensuring that the team he leads works towards the benefit of the organization. An employee who has been promoted as a reward is likely to give the other employees over whom he is in charge a sense of continuity. This is because they will consider him to be one of them and his experience with them will have ensured that he understands how they work and will therefore not be quick to disrupt this mode of work. The fact that the system of rewards is internal within the organization will be most beneficial for the employees as well as the organization itself because the former will be motivated in their work hence increasing the productivity of the latter. Literature Review The impact of the reward management systems in the various organizations within which they are applied cannot be underestimated and this is because of the fact that it has become an important part of the current business environment. The understanding that is developed by the management of their employees enables it to determine the abilities of individual employees and this ensures that they are promoted into positions within the organization that will enable the furthering of its growth and achievement of its goals (Abbasi and Rana, 2012; Yifeng, Tjosvold and Peiguan, 2008). Furthermore, reward management systems are designed to help organizations to determine the areas whose performance needs to be enhanced as well as ensuring that the employees are provided with the opportunities that are necessary for the promotion of their professional growth (Majumdar, Dawn and Dutta, 2012). This process is done in methodical ways which gives the organization the opportunity to measure the payments that are made to their employees in comparison to its aims and objectives. Reward management also gives the organization the opportunity to make an analysis of the factors that determine how the employees perform over a certain period (Allen and Kilmann, 2001). It is a system which helps the management of this organization to be in a position where it is able to provide guidance to its employees towards a path which will lead to their performing better in their jobs and increasing their output (Robinson, Williams and Yanagihara, 2009). It has been realized that human resources are the most important among all the resources an organization owns and a lot has to be done to ensure that it is well catered for. To hang on to an efficient and knowledgeable labor force in an organization is very crucial in overall performance of an organization (Chiang and Birtch, 2006). This is the reason why motivated employees can help make an organization competitively more valuable and profitable. Studies have been made in an attempt to find out the major factors that motivate employees and the relationship between reward, recognition and motivation, which inspire those employees who work within an organization. Data that was collected from employees of diverse types of organizations to gain wide representation of composition and it was found that in all of the 250 self administered questionnaires that were distributed among the employees of different sectors and 220 of these were completed and returned with the questionnaires having a response rate of 88% (Agarwal, 1998; Ozutku, 2012). The participation in survey was voluntary and confidentiality of responses was ensured and the statistical analysis showed that different dimensions of work motivation and satisfaction were drastically interrelated and reward and recognition have an immense impact on motivation of the employees and this eventually works towards the expansion of the output of these employees. In the current competitive business world, it is understood that organizations can only contend with their adversaries by innovating, and organizations can be inventive by managing their human resources well (Kim and Lee, 2006). The human resource system of an organization can become more effective by having a legitimate and precise reward management system used for rating the performances of employees, but despite this requirement, the number of organizations using an effective reward management system is limited. Perceptions of employees about the objectives and uses of reward management results would be beneficial depending on a number of factors, and an example of this is when employees are more likely to be open and accommodating of a given the said reward management program if they perceived that the process as a useful source of response which helps to improve their performance (Nandanwar, Surnis andNandanwar, 2010; Wang and PHwang, 2012). Employees are likely to embrace and contribute significantly to a given reward management scheme if they recognize it as an opportunity for promotion. In addition, as a path that can be used for personal improvement opportunities, as well as a chance to be able to be seen and to demonstrate their skills and abilities, and an opportunity to get to interact with others within the organization (Danish and Usman, 2010). It has been suggested that reward management has created a trend in organizations where their pay is connected to their performance. In essence, pay for performance connects employee performance directly to pay level, and because of this, its efficiency in generating positive effects on employee motivation and behavior depends largely on the presence of an effective and fair reward management system (Boachie-Mensah and Dogbe, 2011). Without an adequate reward management system in place that is not only fair but also perceived to be fair, employees will believe that the pay for performance system allocates incentives almost at random, and thus undeserving individuals end up benefiting. This unfair situation is most likely to exacerbate the potentially negative effect of pay for performance on the morale of employees in organizations (Buch and Tolentino, 2006). In contrast, when employees feel satisfied with the criteria, standards, and procedures applied to reward management, they are less likely to experience negative attitudes in relation to pay for performance, and this will shift their attention toward maximizing the return within the given reward system. For this reason, the positive effect of pay for performance on meticulousness expected among employees in various organizations should be more pronounced when employees feel satisfied with reward management than when they feel that the probabilistic link between their work efforts and evaluated performance is ambiguous (Erbasi and Arat, 2012). Research Methods Sample population of 6,300 members from World at Work members were invited to participate in the study of how the reward is able to impact on employee engagement, the total period the survey took was 28 days. There was a reminder email sent to the participants when the survey was half way, each individual who participated in the survey took approximately fifteen minutes, participants from various parts of the world were 736. The percentage of respondents who were considered good for the survey was above 12%. Demographics of the respondents were a diverse section that stood for all companies, both small and large and from various industries. There was limited diversity of the respondents from outside countries, the breakdown portrayed World at Work membership proportions of the various countries that were represented (Tebeian, 2012). 55% of the population that took part in the interview was from industries in the United States, 7% were from Canada, 4% from Western Europe, while other that were few in numbers came from the UK, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Eastern part of Europe. There aare several respondents who failed to specify their country of origin while the industries that participated were distributed by size. Organizations that had less that 1,000 workers were 19%, those with workers between 1,000 and 5,000 were 20% and workers between 5,000 and less than 20,000 were 18%; companies with over 20,000 workers were 14%. Limitations Survey approach in this case study tries to emphasize quantitative analysis and data from large organizations were collected using questionnaires and interviews, the data were analyzed using various statistical techniques. The study of representative sample of organizations, this approach seeks to discover relationships present among several organizations and hence come to a generalized statement about the objective of the study. The survey is capable of providing a snapshot of the situation present in these organizations at a certain point off time; it therefore, yielded little information regarding the meaning of data. Besides this, there are variables of interest to the researcher, which are not measureable when using this method; such include cross-sectional studies, which offer weaker evidences of causes and effects. The fieldwork and other related methods are important because they provide insights and discoveries during the research process, despite this, field work is one of the poor methods that is used in verifying hypothesis. Use of survey documents the norm in an accurate manner; define relationships between variables present in a sample and in identification of extreme results. For the outcome of the survey to be successful in elucidating casual relationships, it has to have the right questions that are asked in a right way. The stripping context that occurs such as in the model complexity present when survey is used is able to buy objectivity testability, which comes at a test of understanding what, is taking place. The survey research is not flexible to discover poor discoveries that were made when collecting data, there is little the researcher can do upon realizing crucial items are omitted from the questionnaire because when it is misunderstood, the feedback will not meet the expectations. Research Timetable Develop or adapt research objectives 1 day Design research protocol 2 days Design or adapt instruments 1 week Recruit interviewers 2 weeks Translate instruments into local language 1 week Train interviewers (include pretesting and revising instruments in training) 1 week Collect data 3-5 days per site Transcribe recordings 1 week Translate transcripts 1-2 weeks Preliminary analysis in field 3 days Prepare for presentation 1 day Present preliminary results to communities 1 day Complete analysis 2 weeks Prepare report 1 week   References Abbasi, A.S. & Rana, A.H. 2012, "Impact Of Islamic Work Ethics, Reward System And Organizational Environment On Citizenship Behavior Of Employees", Science International, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 513-519. Agarwal, N.C. 1998, "Reward systems: emerging trends and issues", Canadian Psychology, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 60. 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