Direct compensation refers to monetary benefits offered and provided to employees in return of the services they provide to the

organization. The monetary benefits include basic salary, house rent allowance, conveyance, leave travel allowance, medical reimbursements, special allowances, bonus, Pf/Gratuity, etc. They are given at a regular interval at a definite time. Basic Salary Salary is the amount received by the employee in lieu of the work done by him/her for a certain period say a day, a week, a month, etc. It is the money an employee receives from his/her employer by rendering his/her services. House Rent Allowance Organizations either provide accommodations to its employees who are from different state or country or they provide house rent allowances to its employees. This is done to provide them social security and motivate them to work. Conveyance Organizations provide for cab facilities to their employees. Few organizations also provide vehicles and petrol allowances to their employees to motivate them.

Leave Travel Allowance These allowances are provided to retain the best talent in the organization. The employees are given allowances to visit any place they wish with their families. The allowances are scaled as per the position of employee in the organization. Medical Reimbursement Organizations also look after the health conditions of their employees. The employees are provided with medi-claims for them and their family members. These medi-claims include health-insurances and treatment bills reimbursements. Bonus Bonus is paid to the employees during festive seasons to motivate them and provide them the social security. The bonus amount usually amounts to one months salary of the employee. Special Allowance Special allowance such as overtime, mobile allowances, meals, commissions, travel expenses, reduced interest loans; insurance, club memberships, etc are provided to employees to provide them social security and motivate them which improve the organizational productivity.

Indirect Compensation
Indirect compensation refers to non-monetary benefits offered and provided to employees in lieu of the services provided by them to the organization. They include Leave Policy, Overtime Policy, Car policy, Hospitalization, Insurance, Leave travel Assistance Limits, Retirement Benefits, Holiday Homes. Leave Policy It is the right of employee to get adequate number of leave while working with the organization. The organizations provide for paid leaves such as, casual leaves, medical leaves (sick leave), and maternity leaves, statutory pay, etc.

Overtime Policy Employees should be provided with the adequate allowances and facilities during their overtime, if they happened to do so, such as transport facilities, overtime pay, etc. Hospitalization The employees should be provided allowances to get their regular check-ups, say at an interval of one year. Even their dependents should be eligible for the medi-claims that provide them emotional and social security.

Insurance Organizations also provide for accidental insurance and life insurance for employees. This gives them the emotional security and they feel themselves valued in the organization. Leave Travel The employees are provided with leaves and travel allowances to go for holiday with their families. Some organizations arrange for a tour for the employees of the organization. This is usually done to make the employees stress free. Retirement Benefits Organizations provide for pension plans and other benefits for their employees which

benefits them after they retire from the organization at the prescribed age. Holiday Homes Organizations provide for holiday homes and guest house for their employees at different locations. These holiday homes are usually located in hill station and other most wanted holiday spots. The organizations make sure that the employees do not face any kind of difficulties during their stay in the guest house. Flexible Timings Organizations provide for flexible timings to the employees who cannot come to work during normal shifts due to their personal problems and valid reasons.

Salary-Surveys
Organizations have to bridge the gap between the industry standards and their salary packages. They cannot provide compensation packages that are either less than the industry standards or are very higher then the market rates. For the purpose they undertake the salary survey. The Salary survey is the research done to analyze the industry standards to set up the compensation strategy for the organization. Organizations can either conduct the survey themselves or they can purchase the survey reports from a reputed research organization. These reports constitute the last 2-5 years or more compensation figures for the various positions held by the organizations. The analysis is done on the basis of certain factors defined in the objectives of the research. Objectives of Salary Survey

To gather information regarding the industry standards

To know more about the market rate i.e. compensation offered by the

competitors

To design a fair compensation system

To design and implement most competitive reward strategies

To benchmark the compensation strategies

Types of Compensation Surveys There are two types of compensation surveys undertaken by the organizations.

Standard Surveys Standard surveys are undertaken by organizations on a regular basis. These surveys are conducted annually based on the organizational objectives. These surveys attempt to cover the same companies every year and provide the same time of analysis. The reports are published annually by the research organizations. The organizations willing to formulate their compensations strategies based on the surveys purchase the reports from the research organization. Custom Surveys At times, a few organizations need to know some specific information. The surveys which cater this need are known as custom surveys. The organizations either higher research organizations to conduct theses surveys for them or they themselves conduct

the survey by sampling few of the competitors on their own. These surveys do not have any time interval. They are undertaken as the need arises. They focus on important issues usually one or two. Survey Reports The survey reports consist of the analysis and conclusion drawn from the evaluative data based on the objectives of the study. The reports also include the data, facts and figures to support the analysis and conclusion. The supportive data and annexure provided in the report form the basis for the un-biased conclusion and validation of the analysis.

IMPORTANCE OF COMPENSATION
Payroll Home Compensation Importance of Compensation Compensation and Reward system plays vital role in a business organization. Since, among four Ms, i.e. Men, Material, Machine and Money, Men has been most important factor, it is impossible to imagine a business process without Men. Every factor contributes to the process of production/business. It expects return from the business process such as rent is the return expected by the landlord, capitalist expects interest and organizer i.e. entrepreneur expects profits. Similarly the labour expects wages from the process. Labour plays vital role in bringing about the process of production/business in motion. The other factors being human, has expectations, emotions, ambitions and egos. Labour therefore expects to have fair share in the business/production process. Therefore a fair compensation system is a must for every business organization. The fair compensation system will help in the following:
o

An ideal compensation system will have positive impact on the efficiency and results produced by employees. It will encourage the employees to perform better and achieve the standards fixed.

It will enhance the process of job evaluation. It will also help in setting up an ideal job evaluation and the set standards would be more realistic and achievable.

Such a system should be well defined and uniform. It will be apply to all the levels of the organization as a general system.

The system should be simple and flexible so that every employee would be able to compute his own compensation receivable.

It should be easy to implement, should not result in exploitation of workers.

It will raise the morale, efficiency and cooperation among the workers. It, being just and fair would provide satisfaction to the workers.

Such system would help management in complying with the various labor acts.

Such system should also solve disputes between the employee union and management.

The system should follow the management principle of equal pay.

It should motivate and encouragement those who perform better and should provide opportunities for those who wish to excel.

Sound Compensation/Reward System brings peace in the relationship of employer and employees.

It aims at creating a healthy competition among them and encourages employees to work hard and efficiently.

The system provides growth and advancement opportunities to the deserving employees.

The perfect compensation system provides platform for happy and satisfied workforce. This minimizes the labour turnover. The organization enjoys the stability.

The organization is able to retain the best talent by providing them adequate compensation thereby stopping them from switching over to another job.

The business organization can think of expansion and growth if it has the support of skillful, talented and happy workforce.

The sound compensation system is hallmark of organizations success and prosperity. The success and stability of organization is measured with pay-package it provides to its employees.

Compensation and benefits (abbreviated C&B) is a sub-discipline of human resources, focused on employee compensation and benefits policy-making. It is also known in the UK as total reward and as remuneration in Australia and New Zealand. Employee compensation and benefits are basically divided into four categories: 1. Guaranteed pay monetary (cash) reward paid by an employer to an employee based on employee/employer relations. The most common form of guaranteed pay is the basic salary. 2. Variable pay monetary (cash) reward paid by an employer to an employee that is contingent on discretion, performance or results achieved. The most common forms are bonuses and sales incentives.

3. Benefits programs an employer uses to supplement employees compensation, such as paid time-off, medical insurance, company car, and more. 4. Equity-based compensation a plan using the employers share as compensation. The most common examples are stock options. Guaranteed pay Guaranteed pay is a monetary (cash) reward. The basic element of the guaranteed pay is the base salary, paid based on an hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly or a monthly rate. The base salary is typically used by employees for ongoing consumption. Many countries dictate the minimum base salary defining a minimum wage. Individual skills and level of experience of employees leave room for differentiation of incomelevels within the job-based pay structure. In addition to base salary, there are other pay elements which are paid based solely on employee/employer relations, such salary and seniority allowance.

Variable pay
Variable pay is a monetary (cash) reward that is contingent on discretion, performance or results achieved. There are different types of variable pay plans, such as bonus schemes, sales incentives (commission), overtime pay, and more. An example where this type of compensation plan is prevalent is the real estate industry and real estate agents. A common variable pay plan might be the sales person receives 50% of every dollar they bring in up to a level of revenue at which they then bump up to 85% for every dollar they bring in going forward. Typically, this type of plan is based on an annual period of time requiring a "resetting" each year back to the starting point of 50%. Sometimes this type of plan is administered so that the sales person never resets and never falls down to a lower level. It also includes Performance Linked Incentive whcih is variable and may range from 130% to 0% as per performance of the indiviudal as per his KRA.

Benefits
There is a wide variety of employee benefits, such as paid time-off, insurances (life insurance, medical/dental insurance, and work disability insurance), pension plan, company car, and more. A benefit plan is designed to address a specific need and is often provided not in the form of cash. Many countries dictate different minimum benefits, such as minimum paid time-off, employers pension contribution, sick pay, and more.

quity-based compensation
Equity based compensation is an employer compensation plan using the employers shares as employee compensation. The most common form is stock options, yet employers use additional vehicles such as restricted stock, restricted stock units (RSU), employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), and stock appreciation rights (SAR). The classic objectives of equity based compensation plans are retention, attraction of new hires and aligning employees and shareholders interests.

Organizational place
In most companies, compensation & benefits (C&B) is a sub-function of the human-resources function. HR organizations in big companies are typically divided into three: HR business partners (HRBPs), HR centers of excellence, and HR shared services. C&B is an HR center of excellence, like staffing and organizational development (OD). Main influencers Employee compensation and benefits main influencers can be divided into two: internal (company) and external influencers. The most important internal influencers are the business objectives, labor unions, internal equity (the idea of compensating employees in similar jobs and similar performance in a similar way), organizational culture and organizational structure. The most important external influencers are the state of the economy, inflation, unemployment rate, the relevant labor market, labor law, tax law, and the relevant industry habits and trends.

Bonus plans
Bonus plans are variable pay plans. They have three classic objectives: 1. Adjust labor cost to financial results the basic idea is to create a bonus plan where the company is paying more bonuses in good times and less (or no) bonuses in bad times. By having bonus plan budget adjusted according to financial results, the companys labor cost is automatically reduced when the company isnt doing so well, while good company performance drives higher bonuses to employees. 2. Drive employee performance the basic idea is that if an employee knows that his/her bonus depend on the occurrence of a specific event (or paid according to performance, or if a certain goal is achieved), then the employee will do whatever he/she can to secure this event (or improve their performance, or achieve the desired goal). In other words, the bonus is creating an incentive to improve business performance (as defined through the bonus plan). 3. Employee retention retention is not a primary objective of bonus plans, yet bonuses are

thought to bring value with employee retention as well, for three reasons: a) a well designed bonus plan is paying more money to better performers; a competitor offering a competing joboffer to these top performers is likely to face a higher hurdle, given that these employees are already paid higher due to the bonus plan. b) if the bonus is paid annually, employee is less inclined to leave the company before bonus payout; often the reason for leaving (e.g. dispute with the manager, competing job offer) 'goes away' by the time the bonus is paid. the bonus plan 'buy' more time for the company to retain the employee. c) employees paid more are more satisfied with their job (all other things being equal) thus less inclined to leave their employer. The concept saying bonus plans can improve employee performance is based on the work of Frederic Skinner, perhaps the most influential psychologist of the 20th century. Using the concept of Operant Conditioning, Skinner claimed that an organism (animal, human being) is shaping his/her voluntary behavior based on its extrinsic environmental consequences i.e. reinforcement or punishment. This concept captured the heart of many, and indeed most bonus plans nowadays are designed according to it, yet since the late 1940s a growing body of empirical evidence suggested that these if-then rewards do not work in a variety of settings common to the modern workplace. Research even suggested that these type of bonus plans have the potential of damaging employee performance.