Designing a Reward System
Pamela Fabian
HSM/220
August 17, 2014
Mrs. Serena McCall

Designing a Reward System Having a motivation and reward system is an important part of a business. According to Kettner 2002 “There are nine major factors of motivation that have been studies and they are: respect for me as a person, good pay, chance to turn out quality work, chance for promotion, opportunity to do interesting work, feeling my job is important, being told by my boss when I do my job, opportunity for self-development and improvement, and large amount of freedom on the job. Rewards help to motivate employees to do their best work and gives them something to look forward to.
As stated in the Encyclopedia of Small Business “The key to developing a reward program are as followed: Identification of company or group, goals that the reward program will support, identification of the desired employee performance or behaviors that will reinforce the programs goals, determination of key measurements of the performance or behavior, based on the individuals or groups precious achievements, determination of appropriate rewards, and communication of program of employees. To make the programs work for everyone certain guild lines have to be followed. In the early stages of developing reward strategies, incentive plans were often highly leveraged paying 15 percent to 30 percent of base pay. While these plans may have been financially attractive to employees, they encouraged employees to work harder not smarter. Over time, the process has evolved to encourage an integrated approach to performance improvement and include communication, employee involvement and feedback, which is directly linked to the business strategy. (Gibson, 1995) There are several types of reward programs that can be created such as: variable pay, bonuses, profit sharing, stock option, group-based reward system, recognition programs, and pay raise base on work performance. My reward program will consist of employee of the month benefits, employee incentives, and competitive benefit packages. Making employees earn reward will keep them motivated as-well-as having a goal set for themselves to continue to do their best work to earn the rewards. Human services workers have a hard job and they need something in place to keep them motivated. Human services have to deal with their own personal problems as-well-as someone else problems, without getting their feelings involved. The reward system will be a great plus to keep the employees motivated but the program will have to be fail for all employees that will be eligible to receive the rewards. Employees have to understand rewards are not just given out freely they have to be earned. The package will have to be enough to meet the needs of the employees and also their families. The benefits will be based either on a set amount or on a percentage of what the employee make this will be one way to help keep the employees motivated. Competitive benefits should also be offered through larger companies these competitive benefits will include things like health insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, 401(k) retirement savings plan, employee paid vacation time, and additional paid time like maternity leave, sick leave, and (FML) Family Medical Leave. The competitive benefits will be offered to all employees that are full time and what is considered full time is any employee that works 35-40 hours a week. Once the employee has made it pass their 90 day probation period a supervisor will sit down and do an evaluation based on their work performance and determine if they are eligible for a raise and for the benefits the job offers. Promotions will be granted as well promotions include: moving from one position to another, with more responsibility or with new duties; Presentations: making a presentation in front of colleagues or to an external group, personal achievement; running a marathon, community work, volunteer work, Research and Development; conducting research which can be shared in the workplace to further develop employers mission. Suggestions for improvement using employees’ suggestions and acting on them especially those that have resulted in positive organization change. (Dicarlo, 2003). Offering health insurance is a great way to keep employees motivated. Health insurance covers emergency services and there is a deductible also annual check-ups such as pap smears and physicals are cover. Most policies will cover every year from one every six months or two per year. Vision insurance include one visit a year but glasses and contacts are not included unless you purchase a policy that includes purchase of hardware. Dental insurance is good to have most dental plans will cover the care with different co-pay levels which means some procedures may be fully covered and others may require you to pay part of the cost. Paid vacation is offered to some employees this is time that is provided to employees that work full time with flexible time off that can be used for vacation, personal or family illness, and doctors’ appointments this is to help reduce unscheduled absences. Maternity leave and (FMLA) Family Medical Leave Act go under the same guide lines. The Family Medical Leave Act was signed in 1993 to help with needs of employees where they need to take extended time of for serious medical conditions such as having or adoption a baby, or if a family member is sick and need someone to care for them. The Act was created to protect employee’s jobs in serious medical circumstances. 401(K) is also a great way to motivate employees. A 401(k) is a contribution plan offered by a corporation to its employees, which allows employees to set aside tax-deferred income for retirement purpose. Some employers even match dollar-for-dollar. See below diagram of employee incentives. Benefits and rewards are offered to all full time staff as long are they have work pass their 90 day probation period. Benefits are offered in monetary and non-monetary incentives. Monetary incentives in the amount of $100.00 will be given each pay period for all employees that: report to work on time, have no incidents or accidents on the job, work their schedule shift, and have no unauthorized overtime these incentives are for full time employees only. Each month an employee of the month will be chosen and the employee that is chosen will receive a gift card in the amount of $30.00 for whatever the department choose for them. Michael LeBoeuf, author of “The Greatest Management Principle in the World” (Putnam, 1985) recommended assigning deadlines to specific task, if the task is finished ahead of deadline the extra time is the employee’s reward. Or each time a deadline is met, give predetermined amount of time off as the reward.
References
Dicarlo, S. W. (2003). Reward your workers. New Brunswick Telegraph Journal.
Eastern, J. S. (2012, January 1). Employee Rewards. Family Practice News, 42, 82.
Employee Reward and Recognition System. (2007). Encyclopedia of Small Business, 1(3rd). Detriot. Retrieved August 17, 2014
Gibson, V. M. (1995). The New Employee reward system. Management Review, 13.
Kettner, P. M. (2002). Achieving Excellence in the Management of Human Services Organization. Allyn and Bacon.

Works Cited
Dicarlo, S. W. (2003). Reward your workers. New Brunswick Telegraph Journal.
Eastern, J. S. (2012, January 1). Employee Rewards. Family Practice News, 42, 82.
Employee Reward and Recognition System. (2007). Encyclopedia of Small Business, 1(3rd). Detriot. Retrieved August 17, 2014
Kettner, P. M. (2002). Achieving Excellence in the Management of Human Services Organization. Allyn and Bacon.