Reward

For today's organisations, the problem of how to effectively motivate staff is becoming an increasingly important issue. As a result, businesses are now making frantic efforts to put in place effective rewards systems in order to motivate their employees to get the best out of them. Dictionary definitions of reward typically center on the idea of something given in return for good done, recompense, remuneration, or compensation for services. In line with this, performing certain behaviors becomes a means by which to obtain the reward, so the reward acts as an incentive. In this way, an employee does something in order to obtain the reward (Silverman, 2004).

A reward is an outcome that organisations give to employees when they work for their company and meet objectives, goals and perform well. Rewards consist of financial rewards and non financial rewards along with extrinsic and intrinsic rewards.
(Armstrong & Stephens, 2005) states that ' reward systems contain the following components including the policies, practices, processes, procedures and structures'. These components are important to organisations and help them to enact on them to have effective rewards.
(CIPD,2012) states "The term 'reward' is generally understood to over all financial provisions made to employees including both cash pay and the wider benefit packages such as pensions or paid leave etc. It may also refer to wider provisions for employees, with the term 'total reward' encompassing elements such as training opportunities or a congenial working environment in addition to pay and benefits.
(Ivy Business Journal, 2012) states 'Some rewards are"extrinsic" because they are external to the work itself and other people control their size and whether or not they are granted. In contrast, intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that employees get from doing meaningful work and performing well.

Tesco
Tesco has many ways of rewarding it employees and theses come in different forms such as:

Shares - Tesco give free shares to everyone who has worked in the organisation for at least one year. They 'share a proportion of our profit among our staff' based on salary. These shares are held in a trust for 5 years, and after that you can take them, tax-free. (Anon, 2009). On the basis of this, it can be seen that Tesco ensure fairness as all members receive a share.

Save as your earn scheme: Every October, members of staff who have been at Tesco a year get the option to save up to £50 every 4 weeks for either 3 or 5 years and receive a tax-free bonus at the end. Staff can use the savings and bonus to buy Tesco shares of up to 20% less than the market price, or simply take the cash.

Flexible Working - Tesco offers all its employees flexible working. They offer the opportunity to enable employees to work flexible such as changing the time /day of which they work and allow employees to take an unpaid career break of up to three years after you've been working for them for at least three years.

Staff Privilege Card - To reward employee's loyalty, after a year working at Tesco you will be given your privilege card. This loyalty card gives you 10% discount and clubcard points on most Tesco products. (Anon, 2009) eligible staff also have access to exclusive staff discounts with Tesco Personal Finance and Tesco Telecoms.

The reward for employees differs on the basis on whether you work full time and part time and the length of time in which which an employee has worked for the company. Those who are working full time and/or have worked there for a longer period of time time receive a more extensive reward package because they've contributed more to the organisations and this is the main way the fairness is ensure. Rewards such as privilege cards are given on a basis of how long a member has been working there for.

In a report by (Berry, 2007), Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy commented that, the staff are the main reason so many people choose to shop with Tesco. Therefore it comes as no set price as to the various packages that are available to reward employees for their hard work.

Chief Executives
The chief executive is the most important role in the management of an organisation (McNarmara, 2012). The definition of  'chief executive' depends on whether a business is a corporation or not, that is, whether it has a board of directors. In a form of business that is usually without a board of directors in a (sole proprietorship and partnership), the 'chief executive' is the singular organisational position (other than partnerships) that sets the direction and oversees the operations of an organisation.
 There is no standardised list of the major functions and responsibilities carried out by a position of a chief executive officer (McNarmara, 2012). The following list is on perspective and includes the major functions typically addressed by the job description of chief executive officers.
1) Board Administration and Support
2) Program, Product and Service Delivery
3) Financial, Tax, Risk and Facilities Management
4) Human Resource Management
5) Community and Public Relation
6) Fundraising (non-profit-specific)

Chief executives who receive large wages do not need to be paid large bonuses to show their commitments but if organisations have performed well, then receiving a bonus is a good thing to do as it helps keep the best people at the company. Another thing, is that the CEO should only be given limited bonus amounts as its not fair how other departments have to suffer.

Arguments For:
 - To motivate a chief executive a bonus is given as their job role is very pressuring and stressful as the job is a big responsibility and requires a lot of time and effort put into the work.
-  A chief executive contract and job description states they are entitled to a bonus on the basis that they achieve goals and objectives for the company.

Arguments Against:
- If the organisation is under performing that the chief executive is running and managing, its shows the chief executive cannot meet goals, run or manage the company properly so many people think that they should not obtain a bonus unless the company actually performs well and meets target.
- Some people believe the money going towards the bonus is being put to a bad place and person if the chief executive cannot run the company properly. The money for the bonus comes from tax payers and this annoys them when the money could be put to something else than to a person running and under performing a company.

Conclusion

In conclusion, i believe that Tesco offer a good reward system compared to some rewarding benefits packages to any other business in the retail industry. I think competitive, simple and sustainable staff reward help to build trust and loyalty amongst employees and assist with hiring and retention. There is the need therefore for employers to ensure that their reward systems are effective in order to get the best out of their staff at the workplace.




Bibliography:

Armstrong, M & Stephens, T. (2005) A Handbook of Employee Reward Management and Practice

Berry, M. (2007) 50,000 Tesco Staff in share-save Scheme Bonanza [Online] Available from: http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/02/09/39200/50000-tesco-staff-in-share-save-scheme-bonanza.html {Accessed on: 08/05/2012}

CIPD (2012) Reward and Pay An Overview [Online] Available from: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/reward-pay-overview.aspx {Accessed on: 08/05/2012}

IveyBusinessJournal (2012) Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards [Online] Available from: http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/the-workplace/the-four-intrinsic-rewards-that-drive-employee-engagement {Accessed on: 08/05/2012}

McNamara, C. (2012) Overview of Role of Chief Executive [Online] Available from: http://managementhelp.org/chiefexecutives/index.htm {Accessed on: 08/05/2012}

Silverman, M. (2004) Non-financial Recongnition - The most effective of rewards? Brighton, UK: International Employment Studies [Online] Available from: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pdflibrary/mp4.pdf {Accessed on: 08/05/2012}