Reward

An organisation which rewards employees
A reward system consists of financial rewards and employee benefits, which together comprise total remuneration.’ (Simpson, 2012). 
Choosing just the right reward will encourage employees to redouble their efforts and aim even higher, reward does not always have to be in financial forms, it could also consist of other benefits.

Asda has launched an online management system that enables plastic gift cards to be used by employers as easily as paper gift vouchers.
As well as making employee incentive schemes easier to manage for any size of business, it can also help to reduce the costs associated with the security risks of storing high value gift vouchers and the secure postage required to distribute them.
Graham Sellors, Director of Asda Business Rewards, says: “The system is very simple yet secure and allows funds to be added remotely by an authorised administrator to new or existing gift cards.
“This system allows Asda gift cards to match the flexibility normally only associated with gift vouchers.”

benefits of the GCMS include:

• 24/7 access- total control of funds by authorised customer- at the touch of a button.
• security-cards can be suspended if lost or stolen
• remote access- cards can be securely managed from any computer with internet access
• pause-protect - this is a function allowing cards to be activated once they have reached the correct recipent.
• re-use- all cards can be re used as many times as necessary, employees can also top up the cards in store themselves.
  
  Like Tesco, Asda also offer ‘Shares in Success’, this is when Tesco offer their employees free shares at the end of the financial year (which is February). According to employee salaries, a proportion of Tesco’s profit is distributed amongst employees. Employees are eligible to take these shares tax-free after they are held in trust for five years. There is evidence of fairness in regards to shares within Asda as all employees are eligible to participate in the share schemes of working for the company for as little as three months. The different types of share schemes available also show evidence that Asda are trying to achieve equality and fairness as there should be something available to suit all employees.
  
  Employee leisure time: Asda give their employees staff discounds a 15% staff discount and special offers that are available such as theme park visits in the summer, free gym membership and much more. These are available exclusively to Asda staff only.
• 
  
• Asda also engages their employees in its next advertising campaign by giving them the chance to win starring roles in a television advert. As part of efforts to engage its workforce with the relaunch of its ‘pocket tap’ advert, the retailer has invited employees to take part in a simultaneous ‘pocket tap', which was held in Adsa stores in March 2009.

Employees were given the chance to film their colleagues doing the pocket tap. Entries were uploaded to www.youtube.com/savingyoumoneytv, and the best will win parts in the next advert, which will be filmed at the store of the employee chosen to perform the leading role.

Another reward that Asda give their employees is annual bonus if they have worked for Asda for six months, or three months if they are salaried staff. In the retail sector, each store has individual performance measures and profit plan targets to meet, while staff in distribution centres have a bonus plan based on cost performance. Head-office employees’ bonus is based on total company profits.

Asda rewards differ for different groups in relation to the length of time in which they have been working for the company as well as the type of employment they are working in. There is a wider-range of rewards available for full-time employees who have been working within Asda for over a year. By offering employees who have worked for the company for a longer period more wider-range and advanced rewards fairness is demonstrated, because this suggests that those who have contributed the most deserve more.

Do you think that Chief Executives should still receive large bonuses even if the organisation that they have led has underperformed? List the arguments for and against this.

A recent story in the news regarding to Chief Executives receiving large bonuses even if the organisation underperforms is the story relating to Stephen Hester. Stephen Hester is the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland; he rejected his bonus even though he met the targets set. (BBC News, 2012)
I believe that Chief Executives should still receive their bonuses as promised even if the company as a whole underperforms; the reason for this is because if the rewards promised are not given, then this will cause the Chief executive to be demotivated and will result to an increase in poor performance within the organisation.

Arguments for

·         Chief Executives have stressful jobs and so therefore there should be high rewards to make the job position attractive.

·         The Chief Executives contract will state their rewards if targets are met so therefore once targets are met it would be seen morally wrong to not offer the Chief Executive their rewards.

·         By offering large bonuses, it will motivate the Chief executive to work harder and aim for more challenging targets.

Arguments Against

·      Instead of offering Chief executives bonuses, the money could be used for investment purposes and also for growth.

·      Employees within an organisation will feel it is unfair if they are at risk of job losses while the Chief Executive receives large bonuses.

References

BBC News (2012) RBS boss Stephen Hester rejects £1m bonus.  BBC News [Online]. 30^th January. Available From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16783571 [Assessed Date: 4^th May 2012].

Fairness is promoted within this reward as Asda try and aim to find rewards which are appropriate for all their employees no matter their age, religion, or gender.