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Merit Award Program

Student's name

Course

Instructor

Due date
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Merit Award Program

The state merit award program is not conducted in the best way. The 2% merit increase

for the state employees is correct, but the merits' distribution should not be left to the agency

heads. If the head units are allowed to allocate the merits according to their judgments, they may

be biased or have a misunderstanding with those under their team. It is challenging to distribute

the merit, especially if the largest bargaining unit is subjected to it(Shields et al., 2015). I don't

feel the idea of the merits being left to the head of the teams to allocate them is a good one.

When determining merit pay, the organization's budget should be considered. It will help one

understand what they can pay without going over budget. Performance scorecards can also be

created to determine eligible employees for the merits(Gallus & Frey,2016). These will assist

you in determining whether the employee was a high performer who exceeded their objectives

and went above and beyond what was expected of them.

In our case study, the merit pay program is confusing because the president says that all

the employees are qualified for merit. In contrast, three junior officers say that the recently hired

guards are the ones who qualify for the merit ( Ohren & Reese,1990). A better way of

determining those qualified for merit must be implemented. The organization must develop a

procedure to select eligible candidates for merit.

The best merit plan adopted is the pay-for-performance plan. A straight percent

distribution approach should be incorporated into the program. A merit matrix should be set

using a straightforward percentage tactic where increases will be based on performance (Shields

et al., 2015). In addition to performance, maximizing the merit raise budget can be a viable

option. This method also eliminates pay range outliers, a problem sometimes associated with

allocating raises based on performance (Gallus & Frey,2016). The final piece of the plan is a
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formal communication to ensure that the employees know how the merits are distributed and the

increase calculated.
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References

Gallus, J., & Frey, B. S. (2016). Awards: A strategic management perspective. Strategic

Management Journal, 37(8), 1699-1714.

Ohren, J., & Reese, L. (1990). Collective Bargaining and Merit Pay: A Case Study. Public

Administration Quarterly, 230-244.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., ... &

Robinson, J. (2015). Managing employee performance & reward: Concepts, practices,

strategies. Cambridge University Press.