Assignment 2: Compensation Policies LASA (CO 1, 2)

Assume you are leading a team of consultants hired by MPBS to help develop their total compensation plan.  MPBS wants to implement a compensation plan to support their business strategy. Your team has completed the preliminary review of the organization, including discussions with management, and compiled initial information about MPBS.  That information is detailed in the team report.

MPBS views their mission statement as the driver behind the alignment of policies, purposes and objectives of all operating units in the entire organization.   Your first task is to help the human resources department create a compensation mission statement as the first step in designing their compensation plan.  You are to consider the various factors affecting mission statements and objectives and then:

• Recommend a specific compensation mission statement and the specific objectives of the MPBS compensation system that aligns the compensation plan to the company’s mission and strategy.  Provide a rationale to support your mission statement and objectives.

Your second task is to overcome the past reluctance of top management at MPBS to have anyone put much effort into administrative detail.  They have generally opted for a quick and easy approach to policy and practice.  You should plan to educate the top management group regarding the need for more sophisticated and detailed approaches to compensation.  To do so, you must include answers to the following questions that were posed by the new HR manager.  Justify your responses using scholarly sources.

• What are the relevant markets that each of MPBS’s major occupational groups should be compared to?
• Should MPBS lead, match, or follow competitors? Why?
• How will decisions on external competitiveness help MPBS align compensation policies with mission and strategy?
• Why is it important and is it worth the effort and cost for MPBS to bother with specifying pay grades and pay ranges?
• If pay grades are used, is it better to have few or more grades?  
• How should the ranges vary by job type and level?
• How much overlap should be built into the grade ranges?
• In what ways might the plan MPBS develops and the related compensation policies impact job performance?

To complete this assignment, write a 5–7 page report in Word format and provide rationale and scholarly support.   Apply APA standards for writing style to your work.