MSG Team's other articles

11358 Special Training Programs

Most of training is either technical or behavioural in nature, but there are still other trainings that are neither. These fall under the ambit of special training programs and are conducted with an agenda of smoothening the work process within the organisation. Workforce diversity can be both positive and negative for the organisation. Positive in […]

12309 HR Challenge: Both Ageism and Youngism are Forms of Discrimination at the Workplace!

What are Ageism and Youngism and Why They Matter to America Inc? Of late, there has been much discussion about how the Ageing Boomers are retiring, or on the verge of retirement, while younger Gen Zers are entering the post pandemic workforce, while the Millennials are settling into managerial positions. These workforce trends are indicative […]

10697 Prerequisites for a Performance Management System

Performance management can be regarded as a continuous process managing the performances of people for getting desired results. Performance management is beneficial to all the major stakeholders of an organization by clearly describing what is supposed to be done for attaining certain desired goals. Performance management is the heart of any HR processes in an […]

9623 How HR Managers Can Help Employees Avoid Burnout and Manage Stress

In the increasingly fast-paced and uber-competitive business landscape, stress and burnout are inevitable consequences for employees in organizations that have to adapt and respond to the external pressures through internal excellence. This means that the pursuit of profit-driven excellence creates a high-pressure working environment where burnout and stress often take a toll on the employees. […]

12452 Benefits of Job Rotation

Job rotation is considered as an effective tool for successful implementation of HR strategy. It is about settling employees at the right place where they can deliver the maximum results. In today’s highly competitive world, this can be proved as the best strategy to find the immediate replacement of a high-worth employee from within the […]

Search with tags

  • No tags available.

In the previous article (Part I) we looked at some of the components of compensation that are paid out to employees and the way in which these components are fixed by HR managers and companies. In this article (Part II), we shall look at some components of compensation like Basic and Variable Pay (including the sub-components of variable pay) and discuss how these are fixed by the firms when they sign off on the compensation packages to their employees.

To take the first component that is common to all packages at all levels (hence the term basic - however, it is not the same for all levels).

  • Basic pay is the base on which the compensation package rests. This is the equivalent of the base of the pyramid and the other components are usually fixed as a percentage of the basic pay. It is common to find components like HRA (House Rental Allowance) and Additional Pay as a certain percentage (say 20% or 30%) of the Basic.

  • There are many companies that have introduced the concept of Variable Pay where this particular component of the compensation is not fixed, but is a percentage of the Basic that is paid out according to the performance of the company, group and the individual. Hence, the term performance linked pay is also used for variable pay.

    If we take the three sub-components of the Variable Pay -

    1. The company performance linked pay is as the term implies paid out as a percentage of the Basic that is tied to the performance of the company as a whole. So, if a company performs exceedingly well in the given quarter, then the employee might get a large percentage (say 100% or 150%) of the base of the component. If a company does do not well or does only moderately better, then the employee might get a lower percentage of the base (say 50% or 75%).

    2. The group performance linked pay is paid out in a similar manner but the point of reference in this case is the performance of the group or the division in which the employee works.

    3. Finally, the most important sub-component is the Individual Performance Linked Pay that is paid out according to the performance of the employee and hence is entirely tied to the way in which the employee performs as determined by the rating that he or she gets at the end of the performance cycle.

The rationale for these components is that an employee would be better motivated to perform individually, contribute to the group to which he or she belongs and finally, perform well keeping in view the overall growth of the company. Hence, these sub components of compensation have been designed to spur the employee to excel not only in an individual capacity but as a team member and finally, a responsible employee of the company. The idea here is to discourage silo based performance and instead concentrate on all round performance.

In the articles to follow, we shall look at how employees can negotiate their compensation by following some tips that we shall provide.

Article Written by

MSG Team

An insightful writer passionate about sharing expertise, trends, and tips, dedicated to inspiring and informing readers through engaging and thoughtful content.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Corporate Strategies to beat the Downturn: Cutting Slack and Layoffs

MSG Team

Compensation and the IT Sector

MSG Team

Compensation Management and Globalization

MSG Team