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How To De-Incentivize
By Ron | March 30, 2010
We can certainly learn from the government on how to de-incentivize people. For example, Roberta Hanson searched for work for 22 months. She finally landed a part time position which paid her minimum wage. Unfortunately for her, the State reduced her unemployment stipend from $483 per week to zero. Thanks to the system, Roberta took a drastic paycut by going to work and she regrets ever landing her job.
Although this is a national problem for our society, we in the work world sometimes de-incentivize our people. My boss and I used to lament the fact that half of our merit increases seemed to get a negative reaction from our employees. Because many employees (most?) believe that they are above average in their performance, any salary increase that doesn’t reflect that “fact” was interpreted as a “slap in the face.” Here are other examples from my historical perspective:
- new job assignments which didn’t meet the employee’s expectation regarding pay level
- a tuition refund benefit which paid for the employee’s college education, but a promotion didn’t materialize upon graduation
- promotion of an individual which didn’t match his contribution (in the minds of their peers)
- a bonus for a goal reached while everything else went to pot
- a poorly designed performance appraisal system which wasn’t properly matched to the comp program
The shame of it all, we actually spent money, a lot of it, to de-incentivize our people (not our intention, of course!). Over the years, I worked on fixing these problems, but I’m sure that these same issues still exist any many companies.
Topics: HR | 2 Comments »
March 31st, 2010 at 10:55 am
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June 10th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
I can totally relate to this. I have 15 years of experience and a Master’s Degree and was recently hired as a GS-11/12.
Two months later I was helping a new hire prepare for a Master’s Program for which the USAF would pay. I learned that they had less experience than I did, but they were hired as a GS-12.
Due to Time-In-Grade rules, I have to wait a year (or get a nearly impossible to acquire waiver) until I qualify for a GS-12. Although this means I lose out on $10,000, I am cheerfully reminded that I will soon automatically be a GS-12. Then I would have to wait for a year to qualify for a GS-13 spot. The colleague will qualify about the time I become a GS-12.
Since I already have a Master’s Degree, I do not qualify for additional educational support. Help with my student loan? Huge resistance.
So the government is hobbling me and willing to pay more for less experience, ignore my education while paying for someone to come up to my level — oh did I forget to mention that I also teach college-level, business courses, part-time and have done so for 10 years?
It is not just my observation. I have received the highest annual reviews. And the same supervisor, who is powerless to help, acknowledges that I qualify to have been hired at the 12 level.