SALARY HIKE.....IMPROVISE EMPLOYEE CULTURE

Once again the phase of salary hike has come for this financial year. This is one of the key tools of employee motivation. Reviews and internal meetings are the common matters being held at each office. Few will be happy and few will lookout for the change in job in search of salary hike or better position. Salary hike is also being used to retain the talent within an organization. Well this is a wrong tool being utilized over the years by the companies.  Often it is being found that after salary hikes and reviews the satisfied employee’s lookout for an change in their jobs despite of everything in a positive. Most of the employees blame is being thrusted on the organization and its policies after the review and salary hikes being given. I have often heard that employees complain about the review process and most of reviews are biased ones. I don’t completely deny the same since still today we have organization where the heads of the employees are faced towards the boss whereas the ass is faced towards the customers. Hike of salary is an expectation of every employee but that expectation might not meet the objective of the organization.

The management science must understand and incorporate within their process that entrepreneurial based organization would be the survivors in the coming enhanced globalised economic trades. As the strategic management has taken renewed shape over the last couple of years and complexity of the business process have increased to new heights entrepreneurial based organization should be the survivors of any recession from diverse geographic. Now if the organization culture is entrepreneurial then the employees of the organization would be focused towards the same. In this type of culture we find that an organization gets an open minded employee segment where strategies and products come in a beeline. One of the biggest advantages of working in this type of organizations is that employees are in a constant period of Knowledge and education up- gradation. This constant process leads to an improvement in the employees’ quality which finally leads free political, unbiased review process and more focused towards the company’s performance.

If the organization changes its culture irrespective changing its objectives but changing the process of achieving the same then the employees  of the organization are also  motivated accordingly. HUL, Infosys, ICICI Bank is few of the examples where organization culture is based upon the improvement of the employees in terms of education and knowledge. We must not forget that these companies have not only created well class professionals but also these professionals are working in many organizations driving the growth of those organizations. Performance driven systems are being taken to be the best way for development of an organization. I would like to accentuate here that performance driven should not only be the key factor for employee motivation. In Indian context political biased performances are always mixed with performance since the performance is not dependent on a particular employee and team work is required. Often in my research I have found that team leader is often being apprehended as the one who will be sole take away of the credit of performance. Moreover team worker would focus more on pleasing the team leader and in this process the objective of an organization is being achieved. This is the reason why an equal opportunity of talent upgrading needs to be given where the performance and the bureaucratic mind set is being annihilated.

When an organization changes its culture then salary hikes can happen twice in a year since entrepreneurial mindset have been developed and this process leads to an organization to perform better to achieve its objectives. Today’s organizations are focusing on improving the responsibility levels of the employees. This being developed by giving them the responsibility of their departments followed with opening the minds of the employees.IBM was able to create its own computers without affecting its core business where as cannon developed its product range keeping intact its brand image. All these companies created best of the product and transformation of their brands through employees with the help of improving their productivity. In my previous articles I have written that Balanced Score is a dangerous tool to develop the culture and productivity of an organization. The same can be applied for employee salary hike and review process. Salary hike should not be the alone factor to retain employees within an organization.  If the value of an employee is being increased then the employee motivation and review becomes more easier and more comfortable for both the sides (employee as well as organizations)

Annihilate the bureaucratic and diplomatic nature within an organization. Review the process and then review the employees.