Title: Meyners Pays for Performance: Changing a Compensation System Is a Sensitive Undertaking. Here's How One Firm Handled It
Abstract: It was no small feat for Meyners and Co.'s leadership to offer employees nonstop support and guidance while both management and staff refined the firm's core values and worked out what behaviors demonstrating them would consist of at different levels of the workplace hierarchy. As productive as the process was, it was only the foundation. Next, Meyners had to successfully increase employees' to the firm's overall marketing and revenue-growth goals. To accomplish this the firm designed and implemented a pay-for-performance system in July 2002. The new compensation program includes a yearly salary increase that reflects a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and three bonus pools. It calls for the firm to evaluate employee performance in three areas: core values (workplace behavior), core competencies (business skills) and meeting goals (performance-measures win-win agreements). Early indications are that the individualized evaluation process is motivating employees. Janet McHard, CPA and manager in the litigation and business valuation services department, says the new system helps underscore what the firm values. If you contribute, not only will your efforts be recognized, but you'll be compensated for having worked hard to meet those says McHard. This system puts my job destiny in my hands. It removes the uncertainty of: 'If I do a good job, will anyone know?' From my perspective, that's the coolest thing about it. Here's how it works. EVALUATING EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOR Meyners's core values--which employees across the board had developed, defined and adopted--clarify the firm's goals, standards of etiquette and many other aspects of day-to-day work. Those values--collaboration; to maintain self, team, firm and customer balance; to quality and responsive customer service; to the greater good; continuous and never-ending improvement; creativity; fun; innovation; integrity; mutual respect, honesty and trust; profitability and risk taking--represent the organization's behavioral and interactive norms. The firm's new performance evaluation system measures how staff members live up to them as they work with peers, managers and subordinates. For core-value assessments, which take place during an employee's anniversary month, Meyners uses 360-degree feedback. The process includes peer-to-peer input that results in a thorough, well-rounded evaluation. It works this way: To evaluate a staff member (the subject), his or her supervisor selects four individuals who regularly work with that person, who has a say in which four are chosen. Each subject selects two additional evaluators, one who works inside his or her department and one from another section. Using a form that describes what living a particular core consists of at that person's level in the firm, the six people grade the staff member. For instance, for the commitment to maintain self, team, firm and customer balance, a level-one-employee action would be: Takes appropriate time away from work (including lunch, vacation, breaks) as needed. Each evaluator then rates how successfully the subject has lived the by Checking one of three ratings: Needs mentoring (individual is not meeting expectations); lives the core value (he or she is meeting expectations) or role model (he or she has clearly and consistently surpassed expectations). The results are tabulated and electronically scored. To encourage candor, subjects and supervisors do not see individual evaluators' ratings but instead see a summary of the results in each area. The human resources clerk coordinates the process and maintains and files the evaluation records. Employees receive a core-values bonus based on the percentage of possible points they earn on the evaluation. For example, someone who earns 70 points out of a total of 100 possible points gets 70% of$1,000 (the predetermined maximum), or a bonus of $700. …
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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