Carefully read the project scenario describing the MicroPharm organization. MicroPharm realizes that a compensation plan has to be created to support its continued growth and strategy. You have been hired to lead the project team and are responsible for developing a set of compensation and benefits recommendations. For this week’s assignment, your job is to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to be used as a proposal for MicroPharm’s General Manager. Your presentation should include a strategic compensation plan focusing on internal alignment, job evaluation, and external competitiveness. You will combine this week’s proposal to create a final proposal in Week 5. The ultimate goal is developing a comprehensive compensation and benefits program for the MicroPharm organization. For your PowerPoint presentation, follow presentation guidelines using headings and bullets; use the notes section at the bottom to describe your ideas in greater detail. Your presentation should provide the rationale and research to support all recommendations so the MicroPharm GM can easily see the issues you have identified and the proposed strategy to meet objectives. In addition, your presentation should follow all APA citation guidelines. Part 1: Strategic Goals and Mission Statement

•Identify a list of at least 5 relevant questions to ask MicroPharm’s General Manager (GM). These questions should address what you identify as the major concerns/problems discussed in the project scenario.

•For each question, discuss the GM’s potential response and use these responses to create MicroPharm’s strategic objectives. Your focus should be on the key internal alignment issues and externally competitive factors relevant to implementing a strategic compensation and benefits system.

•Outline a set of strategic compensation goals and plans for internal alignment. Include in your discussion the impact of potential relevant legislation on the MicroPharm organization.

•MicroPharm’s current Mission Statement focuses on one area of the company, bioanalytical services. From the key objectives you’ve identified above, prepare a comprehensive Mission Statement in which MicroPharm’s stated goals align with the strategic objectives. Part 2: Benchmarking, Job Evaluation and Compensable Factors Benchmarking is a process in which organizations evaluate aspects of their processes in relationship to the best practices of similar companies. Job evaluation is the process of systematically determining the relative worth of jobs to create a compensation job structure.

•Research and discuss the job evaluation practices followed in two separate organizations similar to the MicroPharm organization. Discuss evaluation approaches such as traditional models: classification or point plans and more recent approaches: competency models.

•Based on your benchmarking research, recommend the most appropriate method of job evaluation to use at MicroPharm for each of the major occupational groups employed—administrative, scientific, managerial, technical, and sales. Provide support from your research for choosing each method.

•A compensable factor is any job element that is considered essential to properly evaluating the amount of pay that should be part of employment. Propose a list of compensable factors for possible inclusion if MicroPharm were to use a point-based approach. Next, develop and contrast this list with a list of competencies for use if MicroPharm were to adopt a competency or skills-based model.

•Discuss how the approach to job evaluation you recommend for MicroPharm will likely impact job performance, and address key HR and compensation issues. Part 3: External Competitiveness, Pay-Mix and Wage Surveys

•Outline the relevant markets for each of the major occupational groups at MicroPharm: scientific, administrative, sales, management, and technical staffs.

•Provide a set of recommendations enabling MicroPharm to determine an externally competitive compensation system. The policy must serve the diverse needs of each of the major occupational groups listed above. Discuss the following: Based on the relevant markets for each occupational group, should MicroPharm lead, match, or lag competitors? Why? Should the values and expectations of the employees shape policy recommendation? How? Consider compensation data to determine rates for each of the occupational groups at the U.S. and international locations.

•Specify a pay-mix policy on external competitiveness in terms of total compensation, indicating the suggested balance across base pay, incentives, and benefits to be used for each occupational group at MicroPharm. Indicate the policy mix expectations; for example, sales staff might receive 40 percent of total pay in base pay, 20 percent in benefits, and 40 percent in sales commission. You may want to include a pie-chart to illustrate your proposed pay-mix (See Exhibit 7.9, p. 203 in the textbook). Your discussion should provide the rationale for these recommendations so the GM can easily see the alignment issues you have identified.

•A wage survey is a way to obtain the data necessary to set an organization’s pay policy relative to that of its competitors. Discuss how MicroPharm should use wage surveys to determine base salaries. Include information from your research regarding selecting the appropriate wage and salary surveys.

•Conclude by discussing how decisions and recommendations on external competitiveness help MicroPharm align compensation policies with strategy. Indicate how these policies are likely to impact job performance. Submit your answers in a Microsoft Powerpoint document. Your Powerpoint presentation should be 15-20 slides in length. Utilize the notes within Powerpoint to include speaking notes around the content presented. The Powerpoint presentation should follow all APA guidelines.