Evaluating Compensation Strategies Essay Example for Free

Evaluating Compensation Strategies Essay Within this business report, I have analyzed three different employee compensation strategies that I feel could be well executed within our organization. Employee compensation is key to recognizing and rewarding our employees for their performance and contributions to the overall company’s success. Because it is a signficiant factor, we need to carefully evaluate the three options in my report. Compensating our employees using the base salary approach is a well accepted strategy. This approach provides for a set salary that employees will earn based on their job coding. Factors such as merit or tenure will have no impact on someone’s base salary. This is a stable compensation strategy leveraged within similar organizations and an approach most employees feel comfortable with as it’s very cut and dry. The downside of using this approach is that there is little room for growth and salary increases and which can be de-motivating. Performance-based compensation is quite a popular and also another well accepted strategy. In this strategy, employees have direct control over how much they are paid. Having control really helps to motivate employees to work harder and achieve new financial goals and maximize their own income. Having an organization that is a high performing organization helps to make an organization more competitive. The downside of this approach is that you create a more competitive environment that may impact employee-to-employee relations. Lastly, I reviewed a longevity-based salary strategy. In this strategy, compensation is strictly based on an employee’s length of service, seniority or tenure. There are different ways this pay can be administered. Employees can get an annual bonuses based on their employment anniversary date or monthly bonus amounts added to their take-home pay that would reflect their length of service. This type of strategy encourages employees to remain loyal employees in an organization. The immediate downside to this approach is that employees aren’t motivated to achieve more or produce increased quality work since it’s more about time put in vs. quality. After reviewing the three strategies outlined above, I am recommending that we move forward and implement a performance-based compensation strategy for our employees. This strategy will create a workforce of highly motivated, performers that are excited and engaged to succeed. Employees will be excited to ramp up their income and their excitement and achievements will help support the company’s goal of increased profit. If our company has highly driven employees focused on producing quality work, the company will benefit in the short term and long term. Introduction The Human Resources department was asked to research possible compensation strategies for our manufacturing organization. I’ve created a report that shares my research and findings for three different compensation strategies: Performance-Based Compensation, Salary Compensation and Longevity Compensation. In my report, I have compared these strategies, pointing out where they are different including the pros and cons to each strategy in order to determine the best approach for the 120 total employees on our payroll. Compensation is a key factor that impacts employee satisfaction while also having a direct influence on how successful the overall organization can be. I’ve conducted thorough research on this topic so that the management team can have a more robust understanding of these three strategies and to decide on a strategy to implement. My research below will start with salary compensation which can easily be defined as a set monetary amount that an employee receives for the work that they do based on their specific job classification/coding only. I’ll follow that with performance-based compensation which pays and rewards employees based on their individual performance which allows for individual growth. Lastly I’ll provide research on longevity pay which focuses on additional pay or wage adjustments based solely on an employee’s length of service. It is crucial to understand each of these strategies and how they will impact our organization if they were to be implemented. Research Findings I’ve completed extensive research on various compensation strategies within similar types of organizations and have arrived at three specific strategies that our organization should consider adopting:  ·Salary Compensation  ·Performance-Based Compensation  ·Longevity-Based Compensation 1.Salary General salary compensation refers to an amount of money that you pay an employee for the work they do without consideration for quantity or quality of the work performed (Entrepreneur Media, Inc., 2013). By law, employers must compensate employees for work that is completed. If an employee is compensated by a salary, employees are compensated differently from those that may have an hourly compensation rate. Employees that are hourly employees get paid based on a rate multiplied by the number of hours that they work. When they work over and above the amount of hours for the day/week, they receive extra, additional compensation (Grace, 2012). In contrast, a salary compensated employee gets paid the same salary, a fixed amount of money and is not impacted by the amount of hours an employee works. Salaried employees are not required to keep track of the hours they are working because they do not quality for nor are they paid for any overtime. They are expected to complete their work regardless of the amount of time it takes them. Employees who are paid a salary are given the expectations that they need to complete the entire job in order to earn their compensation. This compensation differs from both hourly paid employees or performance-based paid employees. Employees are able to really count on this compensation and a consistent pay strategy is important to retaining good employees (Ojimba, 2004). Analysis Employees that are compensated through a salaried compensation strategy have a very stable compensation to rely on. There are no real surprises or swings in the amount of money an employee receives. Compensation is not impacted by the quality of the work produced or the quantity produced. Employees would have the opportunity to budget themselves or at least have a decent time predicting what type of income they can expect since it will always be the same without much changing from year to year. This strategy may allow for employees to develop the impression and mindset that they don’t have to do more or produce increased quality work. They could take away that what they are doing today is enough and not strive to help the company with increase sales or various other goals. 2.Performance-based A performance-based strategy is become a trend in today’s organizations and leveraged as a way to incent employees to strive to increase their production or improve the quality of their work. Why would an employee want to do that? Because they are financially incented to do so! All companies need to remain competitive and control internal costs and budgets. Performance-based compensation really partners with an organization to do just that. This type of strategy is really attractive because they are friendlier to corporate budgets than other methods of compensation. Pay increase are only given out at designated times during the year so budgeting in advance is easier, etc. If production and quality goals aren’t met, money goes back into the budget for the next possible review period (Fox Lawson Associates, n.d.). Additionally, strategy helps to provide a win-win situation for both the company and the employees when properly administered and rolled out and the structure really can help to motivate employees to work harder and that benefits them and the company both. When developing this type of strategy, reasonable goals and performance incentives would need to be developed. In today’s environment it would be wise to tie pay to performance as a way to accelerate employee output. This approach is a very common way for organizations to increase productivity and influence potentially a more competitive environment with employees always striving to do more and therefore earn more. Performance-based compensation programs also help retain top performers, better align labor costs with productivity and reinforce the company’s objectives (Richter, 2002). You attract a different level of employee with this approach. For employees to be successful and feel happy in this type of structure though they need to have a desire for more pay, have confidence they will receive more pay if they improve or increase their individual performance and trust that the organization will administer the policy and compensation plan fairly across the board. Studies have consistently shown the recognition for a job well done is the top motivator of employee performance (Dorf, 2011). Analysis Though research it is clear that this type of approach includes many benefits both to the employee and to the organization. Creating a more motivated workforce that is focused on a goal to provide quality production benefits everyone. If our employees can see that their performance directly impacts their personal bottom line they will become more focused, work harder and constantly push their peers to meet them at that level. Job security has to be considered here too – a company with this type of approach is more streamlined and efficient creating a more competitive organization and helping to protect and preserve the company and its reputation. 3.Longevity-based Longevity-based compensation is a compensation strategy that more mirrors a type of contract where the employer will pay the employee a compensation based on their length of service or seniority. In researching this approach, many companies offer many different types of strategy around this. Each organization up front provides a document or â€Å"contract† to the employee that outlines this system specific to their organization. These types of documents include things like the dollar amount to be paid or the percentage of increase based on years of service. Information is also included on the schedule of payment so that employees really know what to expect. Employees see this type of strategy as a way of paying for their loyalty as an employee – a way of giving them their due for sticking with them (wiseGEEK, n.d.). Typically with this approach the adjustment made is often in the form of a percentage of the employee’s annual salary or rate of pay. Based on why the amount is given it becomes clear that an employer is recognizing their time and loyalty to the overall organization. The real problem with this specific approach is that you essentially are awarding someone just for being on staff or holding down their position for yet another year (Agency Management Roundtable, 2012). Analysis – I think this type of compensation program may have made sense for employees that may be â€Å"Baby Boomers† as loyalty was crucial and something employees really set out to demonstrate, but not something that is realistic in today’s environment. While rewarding employees for their â€Å" time served† there is no real focus on the quality of their work during that time nor is there any reward for their contributions or added value.

Are Some Human Rights More Fundamental Than Others Philosophy Essay

Are Some Human Rights More Fundamental Than Others Philosophy Essay In general, its a very complicated question , whether we should consider some human rights more fundamental than the other ones and to follow this argument. Disagreements over this matter, whether certain human rights are more fundamental than another ones , have occurred over past decades between countries with different political ideologies. But, in any case, this argument shouldnt be accepted as abuse towards the other ones. This comes from the fact, that these more fundamental rights are the basis of human rights in general, also the basic for other less fundamental rights. However, each democratic republic should be based on the support of all kind of rights not making a distinction between them as more or less fundamental. In the scope of each person concerning this matter I think that it is to be a private concept. And each person , most likely each human being has dignity and value  [1]  . And one of the ways that we are able to recognize this fundamental worth is to acknowledge and to respect a persons human rights first of all. Human rights are concerned with equality and fairness. Its very necessary to recognize their freedom to make choices about their life and also develop their potential as human beings. They are about living a life free from fear, harassment or discrimination. Meanwhile , there is a number of basic rights that people from all over the world have agreed on, such as the right to life  [2]  , freedom from torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment  [3]  , rights to a fair trial  [4]  , free speech and freedom of religion  [5]  , rights to health, education and an adequate standard of living. These human rights , that are considered to be fundamental , are the same for all people everywhere male and female, young and old, rich and poor, regardless of their background where they live, what they think or what they believe in. So, this is the main reason that makes human rights universal and at the same time also fundamental. Among all these fundamental rights , there are some that have a description whether something is lawful or not: for example, some rights may be laid down in law. Consequently if one has a legal right to something , so he may be able to defend it in the court. Besides, in many situations rights exist but are not covered by law . In this case we deal with rights that are often called moral rights and are based on peoples sense of what is fair or just. In other words, we can say that these moral rights are also the part of fundamental human rights. For example, the freedom from torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment can mostly be covered as moral right. As we know, Human rights are not a new invention. The discussion of this idea can be traced back to the ancient civilizations of Babylon, China and India. However, a significant development of in Human rights took place in the 18th Century , during a time of revolution and emerging national identities. It was the American Declaration of Independence that was based on the understanding that certain rights, such as life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, were fundamental to all people. At that time indeed we can say, that just these rights could be considered as more fundamental. But at the same, having a look at this concept in the context of other rights, its obvious that all the rights should be considered as fundamental. I would like to mention, that by saying fundamental rights I mostly consider just these rights, too, in particular the right to life and liberty, because these are just the basis of other rights. Besides, the growth of totalitarian regimes in the 20th Century and the atrocities of World War 2 made the protection of Human rights an international priority. This was a significant opportunity to make an attempt in the sphere of developing a comprehensive statement of Human rights, which was finally made in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (The UDHR). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was unanimously adopted by the members of the United Nations (among those also the Republic of Armenia since 1995), on the 10th of December in 1948. Human rights, in general, cover every area of human life and activity. And thats the reason why we call them fundamental. They include civil and political rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom from torture. They also include social and cultural rights, such as the rights to health and education. Certain rights apply to individuals are known as individual rights. Others apply to groups of people, such as women and children: these are consequently called collective rights. This classification above is made in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Having a look at the UDHR, we can notice that the rights and freedoms are classified to three forms. They are : Civil and Political rights  [6]  : they attempt to safeguard the individual, alone and in association with others. Economic , cultural and social rights  [7]  : they require governments to help their citizens to participate fully in society , such as the right to work and education. Solidarity rights  [8]  : they reflect the emergence of developing countries and their call for a global redistribution of power and wealth. These rights include the right to political , social and cultural self-determination and the right to economic and social development. The classification to three forms of rights may itself cause a reasonable conflict in the matter, if which of the forms of rights is considered to be more fundamental than the other forms. In particular, its another question whether one of these forms of rights could take priority over the other ones. The main thing is that forms of rights , and accordingly the rights included in them are equally important for all human beings. And we should not say, that one of them must take priority over the others. The statistics shows that in recent decades there has been a tremendous growth in how we think about and apply human rights ideas. Thus, this has had a lot of positive results such as the knowledge about human rights, which can empower individuals and offer solutions for their specific problems. Besides, all kind of human rights should be considered as fundamental, as they have an important role in the sphere , where people interact with others at all levels in society in the family , schools, the workplace, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Therefore it is vital that people should strive to realize what human rights as fundamental rights are, and what kind of role they have in their life. This surely will help them to promote justice and the well-being of society. The main subject is that whether any rights are more fundamental than the others. The conclusions on this cant be unanimous, since disagreements over this have occurred over passed decades between countries with different political ideologies. These disagreements refer not to particular rights, but to the forms of rights (i.e. the classification of the rights), which is the same. However, over the last decade there finally has been a broad agreement between members of the United Nations, that human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. In other words, all rights are equally fundamental and important, necessary in creating a strong and healthy society. So, Im finally coming to the conclusion, that all rights are equally fundamental. We should not make a distinction between them, classifying them to more or less fundamental. All democratic republics, among which is also the Republic of Armenia, have asserted in their Constitutions , that a person , his dignity , fundamental rights and freedoms are higher values  [9]  . This also is fixed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular, it says, that All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood  [10]  . We should take into consideration, that the Declaration neither segregates any rights nor stresses the priority of other ones. This means nothing, but only that all rights are equally important and fundamental. This idea is persisted in our Constitution due to Republic, as he is the one, who is responsible for our rights and does his best to protect them. This is one of the main functions of our Republic the protection of our rights!

Essay on Internet Privacy - Ethical Issues Raised by Privacy Service Pr

Ethical Issues Raised by Privacy Service Providers      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstract:   This paper examines the use of Internet technologies (specifically SafeWeb.com) to counteract invasions of personal privacy and censorship.   The paper begins by exploring the methods by which governments, corporations, and commercial agents invade personal privacy.   It also discusses Internet censorship on the corporate and governmental levels.   It then proceeds to discuss SafeWeb.com, a technology that allows Internet users to surf the Web privately and view censored content.   The paper finishes by exploring some of the ethical issues raised by Internet privacy and censorship in specific relation to SafeWeb, concluding that the application of SafeWeb in circumventing the authority of governments and corporations is inherently unethical.         Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Part of the allure of the Internet has always been the anonymity it offers its users.   As the Internet has grown however, causing capitalists and governments to enter the picture, the old rules are changing fast.   E-commerce firms employ the latest technologies to track minute details on customer behavior.   The FBI's Carnivore email-tracking system is being increasingly used to infringe on the privacy of netizens.   Corporations now monitor their employees' web and email usage.   In addition to these privacy infringements, Internet users are also having their use censored, as governments, corporations, and other institutions block access to certain sites.   However, as technology can be used to wage war on personal freedoms, it can also be employed in the fight against censorship and invasion of privacy.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Network technologies have allowed for an unprecedented invasion of persona... ...nomist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=471742>. Cooper, Charles.   Saudi Arabia's Battle of the Bits.   2001.   ZDNet.   Feb. 20, 2001.   Tanaka, Jennifer.   The Secret (Server) Service.   2001.   AdWeek.   Feb. 20, 2001.   . The 20 Enemies of the Internet.   1999.   Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.   Feb 20, 2001.   . Sussman, Leonard R.   The Internet and Press Freedom 2000.   2000.   Freedom House.   Feb. 20, 2001.   . Graham, Robert.   Carnivore FAQ.   2000.   Feb. 20, 2001.   . Conrey-Miller, Andrew.   The Pros and Cons of Employee Surveillance.   2001. Feb. 20, 2001. .

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During our history there have been many important governments in the world. Out of these governments, the Hammurabi’s and Thucydides are very strong governments. These governments are well known for their strong leadership and firm relationship between the people. On the other hand, the Magna Carta is the evidence of unsuccessful events of king john. The Hammurabi’s code was an important code in the 18th century BC of the Babylonian empire. The ruler of the Babylonian empire was Hammurabi, one of the great King at that time period, from 1792 to 1750 BC. The main aim of Hammurabi was to unite the Mesopotamia empire, which he did under his rule from about 1800 to 1750 B.C.E. In view of achieving his goals, Hammurabi formed a legal set of codes called the Hammurabi’s law code. Hammurabi wanted these codes to be visible to all, therefore these codes were carved apon a black stone monument, eight feet high in public view so that everyone will be able to see it and understand the rules of it. There are 282 laws which include harsh laws, where punishment was severe. Most of the laws were punishable by death. These laws regulate the organization of the society. Even if a judge makes a stupid or careless mistake, he will be expelled for lifetime and heavily fined. Also, the witness who testifies falsely shall be killed. A good example is the â€Å"An eye for an eye†, it states that if a man put out the eye of another man, his eyeball shall be put out. If a person was caught stealing he shall be put to death. Some laws, even with children were dealt very brutally. If a son strikes his father, his forehead shall be cut off. If a slave says to his master, you are not my master my master if they convict him, his master shall cut off his ear. If ... ...lso established equality before the law. The Magna Carta is considered as a turning point because it promised fair laws. These laws show what the government does for the people and what rights and responsibilities the subjects of these governments have. Hammurabi and Thucydides were important leaders in the 18th century an 5th century BC. They were great leaders and well known for being idealized leaders. Hammurabi and Pericles had control over their government and guided for the development. On the other hand, the Magna Carta was a document that was forced onto King John of England to stop abusing his powers with the people of England. It is very clear that Hammurabi and Pericles was powerfull leaders. Overall the Magna Carta, Hammurabi and Pericles funeral oration are more or less the same. All the three governments deals with power, authority, money, war even aft

Book Review :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Facing Death, Finding Love: The Healing Power of Grief and Loss in One Family’s Life was written by Dawson Church. 1994. 140p. Aslan Publishing. Dawson Church is a publisher, editor and author. Previous books he has authored or co-authored include The Heart of the Healer and Communing with the Spirit of Your Unborn Child. He works as CEO of Atrium Publishers Group – a book distributor- and lives with his wife and two children in Lake County, California.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dawson Church starts out with his acknowledgments of appreciation to all the people that have supported him in the writing and publishing of this book. The introduction by Church’s editor, Hal Zina Bennett, Ph.D., reflects the truths revealed in the book’s contents as reminders that in opening our hearts and minds to the greatest mysteries of all – the vast mysteries of life and death – we discover a love that is as powerful in the receiving as in the giving, transcending all our deepest and most grievous emotions. Maybe the best way to describe and sum up the contents of Church’s book that readers are about to discover is as follow†¦   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"It is perhaps in grief that we discover the force that carried us once again into incarnation, the reason we incarnated in the first place. It is in the tearing open of heart that we discover how guarded our lives have become, how small a cage we have traded off for safe ground. We see how our work is to be more loving, to live more fully in an often confusing world.† Church uses nine chapters together with his afterword and appendix A: Grieving Rituals as well as appendix B: Connecting With the Soul to cover all the contents of this book.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter one – The Death – starts out with the vision that death can come very unexpectedly to anyone at anytime or any place when one least prepares for it. Death to Church and his wife as well as to many people in the world are hard to recognize and deal with. He keeps come up with questions such as â€Å"We felt him kicking just last night. What could have happened between then and now? We didn’t feel any struggle. Surely he would have alerted us if something were wrong? He could have communicated his distress, and we could have known and perhaps done something.† Church couldn’t get over the unexpected death of Montague because he thought that no way it could possibly be happened when he and his wife did not neglect any aspect of caring for the infant in the womb.

Business Requirement Analysis Essay

Introduction On my paper, I will be discussing the analysis of an e-commerce function of General Electric website. I chose to do General Electric because they are well established and have diversified services, technology, and manufacturing. General Electric is a company that is committed to being an industry leader world side and is striving to be the example for the world to follow its leadership of its businesses. Currently Forbes has ranked GE as the world’s second largest company with over 287,000 employees around the world. Jeffery Immelt is the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of General Electric. He was selected by the General Electric Board of Directors in 2000 after Jack Welch retired. Before Jack Welch retired, he announced that General Electric will become the leader in global internet business. He saw what the internet is capable of and saw that it was critical for General Electric to lead the pace in the internet business. During Jack Welch tenure, he has developed values that are taken seriously within the General Electric organization. Jack Welch used what he called the 4 E’s of leadership, which are Energy, individuals with energy love to â€Å"go, go, go†. These people possess boundless energy and get up every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy people move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world, Energizers, know how to spark others to perform. They outline a vision and get people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get people excited about a cause or a crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right, but quick to except responsibility when things go awry, Edge, those with edge are competitive types. They know how to make the really difficult decisions, such as hiring, firing and promoting, never allowing the degree of difficulty to stand in their way, and Execute, the key to the entire model. Without measurable results, the other â€Å"E’s† are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productivity are not the same and are capable of converting energy and edge into action and results. Jack Welch took twenty years to develop his leadership model. For General Electric to have a successful implantation of the e-commerce tactics, they had to overcome some cultural issues. General Electric had also to ensure that their operations would run smoothly and to be able to build good relationships with their customers. What General Electric has done in the past was they would keep a large sales staff to help customers with their purchase of General Electric products. With the introduction of the internet and General Electric new e-business, the sales staff had become worried that they might lose their jobs because of the internet and they feeling not needed. What General Electric did to help overcome this misconception, they offered bonuses to anyone on the sales staff that helped the customers buy over the internet. They help make the staff understand how the internet can benefit them and the company as a whole and this calmed down the sales staff. With the sales of home appliances, it has become a very completive market with sales and reduce pricing on most to all appliance that anyone sales and a web presence is essential to have within this market. In today’s market though, having just one centralized website will not due and General Electric understood this and General Electric wanted to give each store the ability to sell on the internet to their customers in there general location. With each store having its own website, they should be able to manipulate the website to reflect their own personal pricing of the appliances along with advertising and home delivery terms and conditions. General Electric decided that the website drive by the postal code, meaning customers find their local General Electric store by their postal zip code. Once you are on that particular website, the website offers the traditional search and select stores, gives product details, you can compare modes and so on, but you would be offered that particular store price and specials. The websites for the stores have an user friendly, easy to use website editor where the store can change the data to reflect their current prices and sales and they can change their store banners and graphics. With this type of interface, store owners are able to reflect their website to exactly what is happening in the store. The two requirements that I have selected from the list is as followed: 1) Develop and implement a new website or enhance an existing website to include customer service. This might include features for self-service or use of real-time customer support. 2) Add Internet-based advertising capabilities such as pop-up ads, banner ads, and pop-overs. Now what we will do is discuss the two topics in more detail. The first topic I picked was Develop and implements a new website or enhances an existing website to include customer service. This might include features for self-service or use of real-time customer support. With today’s completive and customer driven market, whether you are a local small town shop or a huge e-commerce business, customer satisfaction is your number one priority as a business. Customers rules that market and the key to be successful and to grow in this world today, your business needs to provide the best customer care money can buy and you need to have better customer care then your competition. With e-business, it can be tough to make it customer friendly because of the lack of face to face contact, but to make e-business customer friendly, it will be necessary to upgrade or enhance the current webpage for the company with a dedicated page for customer support. This page needs to be easy to find on any page within the website and it should be easy to read for the customer with numbers and addresses clearly labeled for customer support. There are several features that helps with the organization and layout of the webpage to make things easier for the customer to na vigate. The first feature should be to make sure there are multiple selections for the customer to have to reach the customer service if there are any issues that should arise. The second feature would to include a customer satisfaction form where they can send information about the experience and/or troubles with the products. The third feature is a new feature that is making its way into the e-commerce market and that would be a live chat. With a live chat, customers can get real time customer service and assistance with the issue they are having with customer representatives. The company should be able to provide these options to the customers with a customer support staff that is experienced and able to resolve the issue for the customer. Just as with the phone support, any support that is requested on the website should be handled and resolved quickly and with accurately. This would be the same for the staff that is online helping to resolve issues, they all should understand the company, policies, products, and services and they should have to keep getting refresher training throughout their time with the company. With web chat, it can be very difficult to get logged on and get help and this can frustrate the customers even more before they even get any help. to keep this from happening, the web chat should use the best web technology so that the customer can log on easily and get into a chat session. The chat window should not take much time to load and there should be little wait time to reach a representative. The customer support staff should be provided with CRM software to make sure that all problems are understood and that all the information they need to solve the customers issue are within hands reach. The use case for the customer service process 1. Customer calls the toll free number, fills out an online survey, or logs into the online web chat 2. The customer then lets the customer support knows there grievance/issues with the company or product. 3. If this customer is on the phone, the phone representative will have CRM software so that they have the information available to them. If the issue requires the representative to find out additional information, then the representative will place the customer on hold to get the answers to solve the issue and then get back with the customer. If the customer submits an online form, the representative handling the form will get the issue/problem resolved as quickly as possible and email the user with the solution to resolve the issue. If it is a chat session, the representative will help the customer as soon as they let the representative know the issue. They will also use CRM software to help the customer or get help from their fellow co-workers. 4. Once the issue or problem has been resolved, the representative will ask the customer if all issues or questions have been taken care of. If the customer stats that they have had all there issue resolve, the task is complete. The reason for such an in-depth customer service section and service are because customer service is because customer service is the driving key for any company’s success for its e-business and is vital for the company to continue to enhance its corporate image by providing the best customer service. The second topic that I picked was to add Internet-based advertising capabilities such as pop-up ads, banner ads, and pop-overs. Another important factor that is missing in internet advertising is search engine optimization; I will include this component within this category. Search engine optimization has become the most important component to internet advertising and without search engine optimization; no business will stand out in the hoard of businesses out there that is using search engine optimization. What search engine optimization does is it helps your website get to the top of a list within search engines. When using internet search engines like Google.com, we type in what we are looking for and a long list of search results that come back. The sites that come first have better search engine optimization technique then the sites towards the bottom, thus making them the first sites that are seen by the customers. To put it plainly, search engine optimization techniques are tools that help your website to become the first choice to appear, in turn increasing the traffic to your website which helps enhance your brand name which will increase your web traffic even more. There are several internet and marketing programs which will help with your search engine optimization but the most popular one today is Google’s Ad words program. When using this service, it will allow your website to be among the first few search results on a search engine such as Google. Use case for advertising and marketing process. 1. The prospect types their inquiry within a search engine such as Google.com or Bing.com 2. The search engine results appear for the inquiry, which will also display the company’s website link within the first few results as long as the search inquires is related to the company. 3. Once all the results have displayed, the customer then clicks on the company’s web link and reaches the homepage for the company. 4. Once the customer has directed their attention to the company’s website, the task is successfully completed.

Human Resource Management and East Midlands Ambulance Essay

1. Executive summary The purpose of this report is to investigate the human resource management (HRM) problems that the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) is experiencing. One of the issues EMAS is experiencing is paramedics possess a lack of motivation and commitment to the job consequently causing a rise in absence. This is caused by the new budgets cuts enforced on the NHS and is impacting on the paramedic’s working life such as, cancellation of allocated break times. Another problem they are facing is the human resource department has been downsized therefor there is one HR manager and adviser covering 3 counties. This is causing work relations between HR and line managers to break down due to not enough HR staff to support every individual station. It is recommended that HR should allocate time to each station to support managers and employees and directors come to an agreement to give employees their breaks. There is additional web information to support the concepts chosen to analyse the problem. These are www.telegraph.co.uk/article/absenteeism and www.thefreelibaray.com/psycologicalcontacts. 2. Problem identification and analysis The new budget cuts to the National Health Service (NHS) are causing many  changes throughout the organisation; one sector of the organisation being highly effected is the Ambulance service. Throughout the East Midlands Ambulance Service many cost efficient changes are taking place, however they still have to meet the same standards of performance to meet their annual targets so that they will receive the same budget for the service next year if the targets are not met the budget each year will decrease. Major changes to EMAS include: * No allocated break times and lunch times. The directors say paramedics are to have their breaks and lunch aboard the ambulance between jobs ‘’when they get a minute’’ however due to the increase in emergency calls, reports revealed that some paramedics were not having lunch at all throughout a 12 hour shift. This is a breach of not only their written employment contract but their psychological contract as well. * Human resources has been downsized, there were HR managers and advisers for every county over the east midlands. The new change saw one HR manager and one HR adviser covering 3 counties and researched showed that employees felt like they had no one to turn to for advise as there HR department was far too busy for individual employee needs. This is making it very difficult for the HR department to focus on what is demotivating the employees causing absenteeism. Even though there have been many other changes to EMAS these are the priority because the result of these changes has had an immense impact on absence and sick leave, as employees are not satisfied with the new conditions to their job description. The new changes to EMAS are causing a vast chain reaction throughout the organisation mainly because most of the changes are hugely breaching employee’s psychological contract. The terms they were expecting to have when they were first employed by EMAS has now been removed for example if a paramedic were to smoke there breaks they used to get off the ambulance for refreshments etc. have now been removed they are expected to remain on board the ambulance. Such a breach would have a massive impact on their commitment to the job as they would feel that the employer has been disloyal to them and not having care for the job would lead them to take unnecessary time off. The HR department cutbacks have had a big impact to not only employees but their line mangers to. HR are finding it difficult to attain any spare time to meet with the managers to discuss recent  problems/procedures therefore all the contact is being made thought documents and letters leaving the managers confused about dealing with their team. The managers are being put under a great deal of stress as their employee expectations have been disregarded. Managers expect to have the HR department at hand for advice on employee problems and procedure. Not having this is not the job expectation they had when they first started. 3. Recommendations Solutions to these problems are very complex and the most obvious solutions are obstructed by the budget cuts. Yes the HR department need more advisers covering each county but unfortunately that cannot occur, instead propose a new system as to where the HR department travels to each station, maybe 1 district a day, to assist the line managers and provide them with up to date policies and procedures. They could also enlist employee time to discuss and problems they are facing and offer advice. This could help to build the relationships that are currently being strained. Also arranging for back to work interviews and help schemes for absentees could help to make them feel more empowered and feel the organisation really needs them back to work giving the employee a sense of purpose. As for the impractical break times for paramedics, give them a designated time to eat their lunch and have their breaks in a suitable environment, whilst one team is having a break have another standing in but make sure that whether on a break or not they must always make themselves available should they be needed. A breach in written/psychological contracts like this is unacceptable for the organisation to enforce upon the employees. The research carried out by Steers and Rhodes (1978) on absenteeism is what this organisation should follow because the employee’s ability to do the job is becoming complicated by a breach in job expectation, not resting on break creating role stress etc. therefor rescinding the employee’s motivation to work. Studying this research could open up compromises for the managers and their employees. Information The web page studied to back up the concept of absenteeism is www.telegraph.co.uk/article/absenteesim on the 26/11/2012 showed that the main cause for absenteeism was work related stress. This web page has been  selected to back up the concept of absenteeism because work related stress can be through unsatisfied job expectation and losing commitment to the role maybe through breaking of a psychological contract. This information was also backed up by the web page www.ukessays.co.uk 26/11/2012 which proves the information is a reliable source. The second concept chosen in this report is psychological contracts and web page chosen is www.thefreelibrary.com/psycologicalcontracts 26/11/2012. This page studied what would be a breach of a psychological contract. This information came from an article written by Pittensburg State University and has been back up by other sources mentioned in the article therefore is a reliable source. References Pittensburg State University. (2010). Psychological contracts. www.thefreelibrary.com/psychologicalcontracts. Last accessed 26 Nov 2012. Preston, D (2012). Book 2 An introduction to human resource management in business. p9-22. Steers, R. M. and Rhodes, S. R. (1978) ‘Major influences on employee attendance: a process model’ Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 63, No4, pp. 391-407 The Telegraph. (2011). Absenteeism. www.telegraph.co.uk/absenteeism. Last accessed 26 Nov 2012. UK essays. (2003). concepts of absenteeism. www.ukessays.co.uk. Last accessed 26 Nov 2012.