More than often, companies will report of having lost their best performing employee to its competitors. The main reason why employees move is better incentives and rewards in the new company. Employers always face a fierce competition when in need of good and qualified staff members (Texas, 1997). Most companies will always want to hold on to their best employees. In case the best employee leaves, there are difficulties encountered in finding the right replacement. A lot of resources are spent on finding the suitable person. In some scenarios, there is a total failure of finding an employee capable of fitting in the shoes left (Javis, 2009). As competition among the employers becomes stiff, some will offer better and more attractive incentives to keep the best employees and attract new employees. They may also reward those who sign for them. Basing on this, companies with hopes of keeping their best employees should be prepared in giving better offers than their competitors. The type of compensation and benefits given to employees can be reached after wide consultation. Determining the best compensation that will help one keep his/her best employees is very delicate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). The goals of the company ought to be in balance with the available funds. Among many other things, the size of salaries the competitor is offering need to be evaluated before the company sets its salaries. In the subsequent paragraphs, I have discussed the compensation and benefit plan for engineers and trainees in a company.
The benefits the company intends to offer to its employees will be categorized into health and well-being plans, work balance, employee discounts, saving programs and employees recognition programs (Texas, 1997). In regard to health plans, employers should come up with strategies to meet a given percentage of medical expenses in case one of their employees falls sick. This will go a long way in motivating the employees. Employees will be willing to work without fear of falling sick since they know their medical bills will be taken care of. This will motivate the employees and they will be more than willing to work for the company. Since it is an engineering plant, a lot of accidents may occur. This may kill the morale of individuals who want to work for the company. In order to help keep such individual, the company needs to take insurance cover for its employees against accidents arising when in line of duty (Mader, 2006). The permanent disability that employees may sustain while at work may also instill fear among employees. To alleviate such kind of fear and help keep the employees, the company needs to come up with plans where a worker who becomes disabled while at work is paid for a given period of time. This will ensure the organization reaps maximum benefits from its employees. In addition, the company will also be able to retain its performing employees and there will be reduced competition from employers looking for such qualified worker. The obstacle the organization may face as a result of implementing the medical benefits could be the reduced caution among individuals when handling the machines. It might also be difficult to fully implement the medical benefit and compensation plan since it might be too expensive for the organization in case most of the employees are involved in an accident. This may lead to the company experiencing losses during such a time.
Employee recognition can also be used by the company as one way of compensating and benefiting the employees. There is a need for the company to come up with annual rewards, such as an employee of the year, employee who enforced teamwork, among others (Entrepreneur, 2013). Such people should be rewarded in the form of cash and also should be given holidays where the company meets the cost. The company should also come up with a strategy where all employees have a joint party to celebrate what they have achieved as a team (Javis, 2009). This will make the employees feel appreciated and stay longer in the company. The obstacle to such a plan is that some of the employees may feel there was some biasness in picking of the employee of the year. This may end up resulting in enmity between the employees, hence, leading to reduced performance. An employee who had expectation of winning the award may leave the company if it is won by another person.
Use of nonmonetary incentives to retain employees without necessary affecting the company's budget is another compensation plan. Such a program will have several effects on workers. Among them there are: increasing the morale of employees, motivating employees, and yielding positive results (JLRC, 2006). This compensational plan will not only present the employees with opportunities to grow, but will also provide flexible working hours. This will end up accommodating the working needs of the employees. Consequently, the employee's productivity will be boosted; there will be a decreased rate of employees' turnover, help in retaining qualified employees and increasing loyalty of employees. This kind of compensational plan will be of help to the company since no cash or little if any will be incurred in retaining the qualified employees and attracting new employees to the company.
Raising the wages of the company to be above those wages offered by the competing employers is another compensation plan (Human Resource Council, 2007). The contracts signed by employees can also be planned, such that long-term contracts have higher wages compared to short term contracts. There should also be an annual increase in wages basing on the number of years the employee has worked for the company. Such kind of a plan may attract qualified and experienced personnel. Furthermore, such a move will help in retaining the already existing workers. Since qualified and more experienced workers are employed, there will be posting of better results. This will be in the form of increased productivity of the employees. The way employees will relate to the customers will also be improved significantly (Javis, 2009). This will end up winning most of the consumers and helping the company to associate with its own consumers. As a result, the company will benefit since there will be increased productivity. Despite the benefits associated with increased wages, such a plan may be difficult to be implemented at the start. This is so because it requires a lot of capital at the start before the benefits are realized (Business, Legal Resource, 2013).
Discussed are the recommendation I deem to be necessary in increasing the productivity of workers and retaining them at the same time. If the company efficiently implements them, there will be reduced loss of qualified employees to the competitors. It is understood that in the initial phase, the plan might be costly but once implemented the returns will be worth the cost.
