Chapter 12 Discussion

Concept and brief description:

Merit Pay / Raises
Linking pay increases to performances of employees through appraisals is one way companies can increase the motivation of its employees to work harder and more consistently.

Emotional hook (provocative question/ claim/real-life problem):

I used to work for a company that really seemed to struggle with appraisals and raises. They had a policy in place that stated that each employee would be evaluated every six months to rate their performance evaluation and appraisal. I worked there for nearly six years and received only about half of the appraisal interviews they said I would have, receiving a small raise about once a year. From what I can tell, the issue was probably a lack of time devoted to interviewing and evaluating the employees. The reviews were done only by the manager, who was always constantly on the move. He just didn’t have the time to spend interviewing all his employees and so times would be pushed back, and back again.

Key points to elicit in discussion

Required limits of reviews, Raises and amounts, Laws involved, and Effectiveness and motivation.

Facilitative questions

What options do employees have if they are having their review pushed further and further away, year by year? And should there only be one person doing the reviews? What if they are too busy all the time? Have you ever waited longer then you were supposed to for a raise / review / evaluation?