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Human Resources Management

I think all of these pay incentives are important to an employee. However, the question ask us to choose one of the incentives. I had to put a lot of thought into this question. I could not decide between merit raises, bonuses, and group rewards. I finally settled on merit raises.

First, I want to make a small note about why I did not choose the other two. Bonuses and group rewards are not always guaranteed. These are nice to receive. However, you cannot guarantee you will receive them each year. Furthermore, the group rewards can be unfair. I am the perfect example. The company I work for gave a company-wide reward my first year with the company. I was a temp with the company for three months and had been an actual employee of the company for three months. I did not receive a bonus because I had not worked with the company for 6 months. Furthermore, it was based on the number of years an employee was with the company. The problem was some who had been with the company for 5 years did not do as much work as someone who had been with the company for 1 year. The difference in the bonuses was around $500! This is not a fair practice.

A merit raise is different. The amount of merit raise your receive is still going to be on your paycheck the next year. Hopefully, the employer has issued the raises truly due on performance and not an across the board raise. A performance or merit raise gives the employee an incentive to do his or her best in the job. He or she knows the merit raise is going to increase the take home pay from that point on.

Bonuses and commission come and go. A person cannot depend on them. However, a merit raise is going to be there for you. A merit raise gives you something to rely on in making financial decisions. I cannot think of a better reward then knowing your paycheck is higher and will probably not go back down.

There is one type of incentive not listed in this section. What do you think...