Managing reward with the help of computers

Employee reward processes can benefit considerably from the use of computers to provide administrative support and to assist in decision making.

Uses for computers are: Providing an employee reward database Pay review modeling Job evaluation, and Pay structure

Employee reward database:

The employee reward database allows data on employees pay, earnings and benefits to be held , processed and communicated as information to user.

The data base consists of systematically organized and interrelated sets of files.

It allows for combinations of data to selected as required by different users.

Benefits of database:

Produced listing of employees by job category, job grade, rate of pay, position in range and size in actual or percentage terms of the last increase and , if required, previous individual performance pay increases.

Generate reports analyzing distribution as a whole, to assist in managing and auditing the reward system.

Initiate and print notifications of pay increase and update the payroll database.

Use electronic mail facilities to transmit data.

In using database and distributing data the personnel function must, however, ensure that the provisions of the data protection act 1984 are met. If data are going to be downloaded it will be essential to control who gets what.

Limitation:

Pay review modeling:

General pay reviews require information on the cost of across the board increases in terms of increases in basic payroll costs and the knock-on effects of such increases on the other pay and employment costs performance pay,pensions,etc.., Alternative scenarios may have to be modeled to assess the costs of different levels of increase as under.

a. Central datab. Departmental datac. Checking and monitoringd. Use of spread sheete. Software packages

a. Central data: individual pay reviews require information at the centre

on the aggregate costs of the total review. Again “what if "calculations may be require to estimate the costs of different levels and distribution of rewards .

Variables for the estimation may include:Alternative budget costs for the whole organization including

both basic payroll increase and knock-on effects.The costs of different distributions of award in relations to

alternative distributions of ratings.The costs of performance related pay increase in relation to

budget.Different configurations of a pay matrix and the compa-

rations of individuals in each grade.

b.Departmental data:

line managers can be provided with programs which enable them to manipulate the pay data for members of their department and calculate the costs of alternative distributions awards within their budgets. The data for these what if calculations can be downloaded from the central database.

c.Checking and monitoring proposal:

To assist in conducting and monitoring departmental reviews scatter grams can be produced showing the distribution by grade of the current rates for example highlighting any irregularity which may have to be dealt with.

d.Use of spreadsheet :

spreadsheets such as lotus 1-2-3 and excel can be used for pay review modeling. They provide the user with a worksheet divided into cells, into which can be inserted text, numbers or formulate. This allows the user to carryout complex what if analysis and gives the flexibility to make adjustments in accordance with alternative levels and distributions of awards and policy changes on budgets or distributions. Analysis can be saved as a separate file for future recall when the proposals are approved. Spreadsheets can be report or graphical form.

e.Software package:

Micro- based software packages have been developed to carry-out the various processes referred to above. Proprietary software is usually designed as a standard software shell within there are a number of functions that allow users to customize the system to meet their own needs.

Computer assisted job evaluation:

Computer assisted job evaluation supports job evaluation in two ways:It helps with the administration and maintenance of a job

evaluation scheme keeping evaluation records and auditing the operation of scheme.

It helps with the whole process of evaluating jobs rather than simply administering the scheme.

Aims of CAJE:Set-up and maintain a database of job analysis and

evaluations.Help to achieve consistency in evaluation judgments by

reference to the database of previous evaluations.Speed-up the process of evaluation.

Pay structure modeling:

Software package can be developed which use the output from a computerized job evaluation exercise as contained in the database it model alternative grade structure by reference to the distribution of points scores. The computer analysis where existing employees would be placed in the proposed grade structure and produces a report which assesses the cost of increasing the pay of those who are under grade following the evaluation up to the minimum of some other designated point the new grade.