Common Merit Date vs Anniversary Date - Assignment Example

Common Merit vs. Anniversary Task: Common Merit vs. Anniversary Merit increase or pay is one of the most common means of rewarding the most hardworking employees after a performance oriented evaluation. It is basically based on individual performance, and could either be individual based or integrated into the standard employee payment increase. Therefore, an effective employee evaluation mechanism has to be carried out to ensure that the best practice merit increase. This is because an evaluation should factor in all the necessary elements that make up an all rounded employee. However, this is not really such an easy task as most organizations and corporations are always at a fix regarding the most effective evaluation method. Consequently, this necessitates the comparison and analysis of the common merit date and anniversary date employee evaluation mechanisms. Each of these methods have their own merits and demerits, and a detailed look at these disparities can shed more light on their use. Advantages of Anniversary Date evaluation. In light of the above, anniversary date reviews are typically carried out throughout the year. This means that employees receive their appraisal after every one year cycle. Given that not all employees were recruited into the company during the same period, the process is always continuous as every employee has their own unique 1 year cycle or anniversary (Sims 2007, p. 387). It has various advantages, one being that it is a much fairer approach as each employee is reviewed as an individual. In addition, employees are reviewed against set standards, and not against fellow employees. Therefore, this makes it much easier for the organization to keep track of how it wants the employees to behave and the qualities that are to be instilled into them (Henderson 2006, p. 411). Another advantage is that it is much easier to carry out anniversary date review since it is only one or a few employees at any one given time. Therefore, it is an easy undertaking from the perspective of the managerial department depending on the number of employees. This is due to the spreading of the review activity over a year as opposed to being carried out all at once. Disadvantages of Anniversary Date evaluation. On the other hand, the anniversary date review has its own demerits. For one, it requires an advanced management mechanism that can track it throughout the year since it is a year-long process. Furthermore, the continuous process makes it exceedingly difficult to gather any useful analytical information since it is bound to change over time (Henderson 2006, p. 323). Moreover, the fact that it is based on an individual approach makes it much more difficult to come up with an entire employee evaluation since managers only have evaluative details of single employees at any one given time. In all, one of its major challenges is the difficulty that comes with the timing of any organizational objectives. Employees are on a constant cycle of appraisals and this provides challenges in aligning them towards the organizational goals and objectives. Advantages of common date evaluation. On the other hand, the common merit date review method sets aside one period of time during which evaluation of all employees takes place. The entire period is determined by the overall number of employees in the company. The advantages are diverse, first being that it is much easier to evaluate employees in their entirety. This makes it much easier to align corporate goals with employee evaluations as the employees are taken as one single unit. It also makes the managerial needs less complex since it is only carried out during one period, and not extended over a long period like in anniversary date (Sims 2007, p. 298). Since employees are all evaluated at once, it is much easier to provide employee ratings that give better insights into the exact situation as it is on the lowest levels. Additionally, it is easier to gather information regarding the employees due to its static nature. Therefore, this enables for the necessary analysis and evaluations regarding the data. Disadvantages of common date evaluation. Nonetheless, this method also has its fair share of disadvantages. Essentially, it is often deemed unfair for newer employees since they will be evaluated before they have a significant impact on the company. As such, this gives them a lower ranking thereby making it harder for them to improve their positions. On the side of managers, they will typically have to shelve all other activity away during the evaluation period. This may inconvenience them especially when the employee base is quite large and necessitates a much longer evaluation period (Sims 2007, p. 302). In addition, clustering the employees together may make it much more difficult to pin-point individual success or even failure. This means that some employees are bound to be riding on the impeccable performances of others, but this will be difficult to note due to the approach that considers all employees as one single unit (Henderson 2006, p. 312). Analysis. As an employee receiving an increase, the anniversary date review is the best as it gives a more detailed evaluation. Irrespective of the time of joining the company, the anniversary date evaluation is fair as it gives every employee a fair chance at their evaluation. In addition, the fact that each employee is taken on their own means that it is much easier to give maximum attention to the employee. Therefore, this results in a much more accurate analysis of the employee, consequently making it easier for the organization to get the true picture of every particular employee. On the other hand, as a manager administering the merit reviews, a common merit date approach is the best for a variety of reasons. The common merit date clusters all employees and evaluates them during one period, thereby making it easier for the manager to cope with the logistics involved quite easily. This is because dealing with each employee on their own requires much more input than dealing with all of them at once. In addition, the common merit date method makes planning for any evaluation report easier, since all of this can be achieved during the evaluation period. Therefore, reporting to seniors on employee evaluation is easier than when the entire process is carried out through a year. Therefore, the foregoing analysis evaluates the various details regarding the common merit date and the anniversary date methods for merit increases. While each has its own factors to consider, it is worth noting that both methods are essential and important in administering merit increases. References. Henderson, R. (2006). Compensation Management in a Knowledge-Based World. New York, NY: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Sims, R. (2007). Human Resource Management: Contemporary. New York, NY: IAP Read More