Assignment 1: Discussion-Motivating Employees Through Compensation and Benefits

How can HR staff work with organizational managers to create an effective incentive and motivation plan to make employees more effective and efficient?

Use the Argosy University online library and your textbooks to read about HR incentives. Based on your assigned readings for this module, consider the relationship between employee compensation packages and productivity in your current or previous organization.

Next, respond to the following:

• What compensation and benefits have been used as incentives for employee productivity and motivation? Provide specific details and show the link between the compensation or benefit and the increased productivity or motivation with facts and figures (without violating any confidentiality rules).

• Evaluate how effective the compensation and benefits were at motivating employees and increasing productivity.

Post your initial response to the Discussion Area below. Contribute to our discussion of employee benefit packages and their relation with the increased productivity and motivation.

Through the end of the module, comment on at least two of your peers' responses. Do the following when responding to your peers:
Write your initial response in 300-500 words. Your response should be thorough and address all components of the discussion question in detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Do the following when responding to your peers:

• Read your peers' answers.

• Provide substantive comments by

o contributing new, relevant information from course readings, Web sites, or other sources;
o building on the remarks or questions of others; or
o sharing practical examples of key concepts from your professional or personal experiences

• Respond to feedback on your posting and provide feedback to other students on their ideas.

• Make sure your writing

o is clear, concise, and organized;
o demonstrates ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and
o displays accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Assignment 2: Case study-Paid Time Off (PTO) Policies

PTO policies have become good tools for HR staff to use in terms of organizational incentives. Use the Argosy University online library and your textbooks to read about PTO policies. Now, let us go back to Company A and Company B from Module 1.

While reviewing the information from the two merged companies, the HR Director has found out that each company has two different PTO policies.

Company A has a PTO system in which employees are given 30 days of paid time off each year, which accumulates at the rate of 2.5 days a month. Under this policy, vacation and sick leave are all rolled into one paid leave and any absence whether scheduled, such as vacation, or unscheduled, such as sick leave, are taken from the accumulated leave the employee has earned.

Company B has a more traditional leave system in which employees are given 12 days of vacation, 10 days of sick leave and 10 holidays. The company is closed on those holidays. Vacation is accumulated at a day per month. Sick leave has an unlimited accumulation, but unlike vacation would not be paid out upon termination of employment.

Since the employees of the merged company will be working side by side, the HR Director has asked you to review the situation and make recommendations for a solution.

Instructions:

As an HR Director prepare a report addressing the following issues:

• Identify any additional information you would need to recommend a solution, and explain where you would likely find that information.

• Discuss any issues you would likely encounter if you were to merge the PTO system to a traditional leave system. Explain which issues would be difficult to solve and why.

• Explain any problems you see with leaving the two systems in place, and identify which system would be assigned for new employees.

• Make a recommendation for one common PTO system. Explain your system and why you think this system is the best system for the company.

Include two to three scholarly references in your response.

Write a five-to-seven-page memo to the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Apply APA standards to citation of sources.