With the competitive landscape becoming increasingly difficult, companies are looking for ways to optimize employee effort and performance. One mechanism used by many companies is pay-for-performance, linking compensation directly to performance. A Norwegian study investigated the role of base pay and variable pay-for-performance plans in the Insurance industry over a 2-year period, and found that such compensation plans can lead to increased effort and deceased turnover intentions, but via employee job motivation.
Key Topics: Pay-for-performance; Employee motivation; Employee effort; Turnover intention
With employee health problems and associated employer costs on the rise, many companies are looking for novel ways to improve employee wellness. A study at Cornell University examined the effect of tying 10% of manager compensation to employee wellness and found that managers were more likely to promote employee wellness when incentivized to do so, and managers also expressed a preference to work for companies with such incentives in place.
Key Topics: Workplace wellness; Employee health; Performance evaluations; Management compensation
Deciding what to do next after a job separation is an unenviable task many individuals are faced with at some point, and when it comes to those of more advanced years one of the primary options is often to retire. A study at Boston College examined the conditions that lead individuals aged 50-70 to decide to retire or not following a job separation. A number of factors were found to increase the likelihood of retirement, particularly having high net worth, having an accessible pension plan, and being eligible for Social Security retirement benefits.
Key Topics: Retirement; Pension; Benefits; Social Security
In many sectors, particularly those with primarily low-skilled jobs, the use of temporary and often migrant workers is on the rise. While there are certain benefits to companies in using temporary migrant workers, their use may come at a cost. A study of the UK food manufacturing sector examined employee absence rates and the tools companies use to reduce absence issues. The results showed that companies were predominantly using punishment rather than reward techniques to combat absence. This study also found that settled migrant workers had similar absence behaviour to native workers, while newer transitory type migrant workers had less job commitment and were more likely to be absent from work.
Key Topics: Absence management; Temporary workers; Migration
The relationship between incentives and employee performance is well documented, but what role do employee needs play in this? A recent US study examined the role of the human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, in incentivized performance contexts and found them to be contributing factors in predicting performance. This study also found that the relationship between performance and need satisfaction was moderated by the extent to which incentives were directly linked to performance.
Key Topics: Employee motivation; Employee needs; Rewards; Productivity; Autonomy; Competence; Relatedness |