Pay for Performance in America’s public schools is an extremely controversial issue. Although the process has made inroads in business and is a means to help determine promotions, pay, and retention it has not been so well received in the Public schholl systems. However, there are some successful examples where teacher pay has been linked to student test scores. In Minnesota for example, some districts have stopped giving automatic raises for seniority and base 60% of all pay increases on employee performance. In Denver, unions and school districts designed an incentive program where teachers receive bonuses for student achievement and for earning national teaching certificates. However, some plans have not worked. For example, Cincinnati teachers voted against a merit pay proposal and Philadelphia teachers gave their bonus checks to charity rather than cashing them. It appears that having teachers involved in planning the incentive system is one key factor to success. The same can be said for all incentive plans – if employees don’t buy into them, they will not work.

Questions to Research:

1. How could an organization measure the effectiveness of their pay-for-performance plans?

2. From an employee’s perspective, what are the disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

3. From an employer’s perspective, what are the disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

preview of the answer..

The term pay for performance is very familiar at workplaces. However, it tends to mean different to different people. The lack of clear understanding of this term is likely to hinder employees from meeting short-term and long-terms objectives. At the same time, it is also likely to inhibit employees from deriving satisfaction from their careers and roles at workplaces. For the management team, organization performance is defined through metrics that are reported to shareholders of a public company such as total shareholder return or earnings per share. This aspect enables the management team..

APA 2346 words