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Getting that much-awaited raise  (View Comments)

Ankita Shreeram

Posted On Wednesday, December 09, 2009 at 12:29:10 PM

Organisations these days are resorting to creative methods of conferring increments

The annual or bi-annual performance appraisal reviews that take place in every organisation are the most crucial hours for any employee. After all, those are the only means of getting to a fatter pay packet. It is every employee’s grouse that increments just aren’t proportional to the amount of work that they put in. Thankfully, many organisations these days are willing to consider individual demands and are offering performance incentives apart from the customary increments.

Most organisations award increments once a year. “Giving increments is generally an annual exercise but depending on the situation, we might look at compensation in between also for certain cases,” says Sandeep Tyagi, General Manager – HR, Haier Appliances India. Infogain Corporation conducts bi-annual performance reviews but increments remain an annual process. “We have performance reviews every six months but increment is given once a year. We have performance reviews twice a year keeping in perspective the fact that people often forget the job done in the first part of the year,” says Punkaj Shankar, Global Head– HR & RMG, Infogain Corporation.

Ugam Solutions takes into consideration certain other factors as well. “Ugam follows a ‘Pay for Performance’ system i.e. an employee is paid depending not only on his/her individual performance but also the performance of the organisation and after benchmarking the pay against industry standards for a similar role. Therefore, after considering all these criteria, if we see that the employee has performed very well or the industry benchmark is higher than what the employee currently receives as compensation and if the company has performed well in a financial year, we grant a raise to the employees,” says Dharmesh Mistry, Vice President and Chief Talent Officer, Ugam Solutions.

There is no question of ‘applying for a raise’ in most companies. “That is the organisation’s prerogative. There is the annual performance appraisal which takes care of raises,” says Tyagi. “Employees do not apply for a raise,” states Mistry clearly. Infogain has a slightly more flexible approach. “As in any other organisation, we have levels. Since we’re an IT firm, there’s the software engineer, the project manager, the senior project manager and so on. Each level has a salary matrix or band put in practice. So when a person gets promoted he has to comply with the next level of compensation,” says Shankar.

Of course, there are certain exceptions where the employee might be given an increment even at other times in the year. “In case the employee gets relocated on transfer or he or she gets promoted, or their role gets changed, then we relook at the compensation,” says Tyagi. At Infogain, an employee can apply for a raise if he or she wishes to. “In a company like ours, things are quite transparent and the salary bands are known to everyone. Whenever there is an individual aspiration that he or she deserves a higher compensation and is not getting it just because of their level, they can simply write to the Project Leader. The PL in turn approaches his Practice Head who gets the HR into the picture. The IT industry is very dynamic. There are always cases of modification irrespective of the performance review cycle,” says Shankar.

So how does the HR handle a disgruntled employee? “During the salary review of the employee, we make it clear that their raise depends on the aforementioned factors. Obviously, we also reward better performing employees with a better raise than others. If an employee is not granted a raise or a lesser percentage than they had expected, they are usually already informed that their performance is less than expected and how they can improve in future,” says Mistry. “That generally happens when the performance is not good or the employee’s role or position itself is getting abolished. Then we discuss the situation with the employee, go over the various options available, and convince him or her on the actual situation,” says Tyagi.

Thus, even while increments remain largely an HR prerogative, employees can take advantage of open communication systems to have their demands heard. 

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