Organization is an important element for efficiency and competitiveness, especially in a changing environment.
In this sense, it is necessary that the aspects of revitalization, updating, activation and renewal of companies are involved in organizational development through technical and human resources, highlighting the need to avoid corporate decline and obsolescence, making use of their processes in order to produce change results within the organization so that they can achieve their business objectives.
This is how public or private organizations at the global, national or regional level require three basic resources: material resources, physical resources and human resources, to achieve both the goals and the objectives set.
It is evident that for the development of the same, the human factor is essential, since it forms a group of people who give their work, talent, creativity to achieve the objectives, they are the thinking agents, capable of observing and proposing improvements to the processes.
The difference between both types of organizations lies in their final objective, while public companies work in order to achieve benefits at a social, educational, and cultural level, being managed by national or regional government entities, private companies have a lucrative purpose.
In any organization, Human Resources management has among its functions and responsibilities the recruitment, selection, training, security and development of personnel, through subsystems of Personnel Administration that are integrated to achieve the goals; in the same way, they help to guarantee a constant supply of personnel capable of carrying out the activities corresponding to each position.
In this sense, there are many factors that affect personnel or human resources, firstly because the man presents some characteristics in his organizational behavior, such as proactivity, socialization, manifestation of needs, for this he perceives, evaluates, thinks, chooses, and it manifests capabilities, in short, it is a complex being. In addition to this, there are differences between business and individual objectives, which must be harmonized to achieve success. In this regard Chiavenato (2000) refers:
On the one hand, the institutions recruit and select their human resources to achieve with them, and through them, organizational objectives (production, profitability, customer satisfaction, cost reduction, etc.), Individuals seek to achieve salaries, benefits, job security and stability, adequate working conditions, professional development (p. 19)
Indeed, the benefits that the individual aspires from the organization are channeled by it through remuneration and compensation policies, in addition to other types of incentives, highlighting salary, a fundamental aspect in the employment relationship. According to Chiavenato (2000), "salary can be considered in different ways: payment for a job, a measure of the value of an individual in an organization, a measure of hierarchical status in organizations" (p. 415).
The complexity of the definition arises from the intangible nature of an individual's worth and organizational status, also from the subjectivity involved in quantifying a person's effort.
Likewise, the same author points out that: "Salary is the remuneration in money or its equivalent that the employer pays the worker for the position he holds and for the services he renders during a certain period" (p.404).
That is why the determination of wages is complex; there are many factors and variables that have different effects on them. In short, a worker receives financial and non-financial compensation from the organization. The first can be direct or indirect, the direct being the salary he receives, the indirect ones are made up of the clauses contained in collective agreements, benefit plans and other social services offered by the institution, the second referring to recognition, self-esteem, security at work and prestige.
Faced with the pressure of the cost of living and inflationary rates, organizations have found it necessary to establish incentive plans or programs to compensate their workers, these plans must be framed within the company's salary policy, which is defined by Chiavenato (2000) as “the set of principles and guidelines that reflect the orientation and philosophy of the organization in regards to the remuneration of its employees” (p. 414).
In this sense, the programs are the union of the objectives, policies and goals established by the organization, for this to exist it must be planned in advance in order to have a clear vision of what is desired. The National Institute of Educational Cooperation - INCE Venezuela, (2000) defines them as “a set of methods, policies, procedures, rules, task assignments, steps to follow, resources to be used and other elements necessary to carry out a certain course of action". (p.6).
Incentive programs depend on each institution and cover the financial and non-financial, direct and indirect aspects of remuneration, which seek to motivate the worker to continue providing maximum efficiency to the company.
Therefore, the objective of incentive programs is to create an equitable reward system for the organization and workers, for its implementation. Chiavenato (2000), points out that these “must be adequate, equitable, cost-efficient, safe and acceptable for workers” (p. 446). In this way, the balance and success of the organization will be achieved in terms of remuneration policies and incentive plans, which are strengthened when the worker is considered as the fundamental element of it.
It is worth mentioning that incentive programs maintain great importance in the area of human resources administration, taking into account that human capital is an important part in the operation of any organization.
Incentive Programs
The arrival of companies to the structuring of incentive programs or plans is recent as a result of an awareness of the company's social responsibility and driven by a series of factors, such as the attitude of the employee regarding benefits, union demands, labor legislation and social security, competition between companies to maintain or attract human resources, wage contrasts generated indirectly with the market through competition between prices of products and services.
Most important objectives of an incentive plan are:
- Reduce staff turnover Raise workforce morale Enhance job security
Economic Aspects and Social Aspects of Incentive Plans
The aspects that an incentive plan in a public or private company intends to cover can be economic and non-economic, the first have to do directly with aspects covered with money or its equivalent, the second with other types of benefits, such as aspects They seek to provide security and comfort to the worker and their family group, as a means of dedicating all their effort and attention to their work tasks and responsibilities, and correspond to the non-economic benefits contemplated in the incentive plans. These benefits in turn can be of three types:
- Assistance: They seek to provide the employee and his family group with a certain degree of security in cases of unforeseen needs. Recreational: They seek to provide conditions of rest, fun, recreation and mental hygiene, to the worker, and in many cases to their family group. Supplements: They intend to provide the worker with facilities and comforts to improve their quality of life
In this way, incentive programs seek to motivate the worker with benefits that reward their effort.
Dissemination and compliance with incentive plans
Achieving plans or programs in a public or private institution is the challenge that human resources management face every day, working in a system where everything is regulated by laws and regulations, collective contracts, agreements, whose compliance is beyond their hands..
The first step is to make known to all workers, in addition to their responsibilities, the rights that correspond to them as a result of the contractual and legal conditions and provisions established by the same institution.
However, compliance with the incentive plan will depend on a series of criteria, such as:
- Program cost Ability to pay Real needs Power of the union Public relations of the institution Level of social responsibility Reaction of the workforce.
Principles that must be met to make an incentive plan feasible
- Principle of return on investment: No incentive can be offered if it will not bring in return increases in the performance and efficiency of the institution. Principle of mutual responsibility: The success of the incentive plan will depend on the investment of the institution in benefit of the workforce and the benefits that it will give the institution reflected in performance and productivity. The calculated cost of the incentive plan must have a solid financial base that guarantees its permanence over time and avoids labor and political conflicts.
Other principles that must be met is meeting the real needs of the workforce as well as benefiting as many individuals as possible.
Type of Incentives that can be granted in Public or Private organizations
Recognitions in the labor field are incentives that reward the worker's effort, seniority and dedication, among other factors. So these consist of incentives to stimulate certain types of behavior.
In this way, the recognition and reward systems that are granted to the personnel of a public or private company allow positive behaviors to be rewarded in the members of an organization.
Thus, for example, among the types of economic recognition for the worker are salary increases, bonuses and, among the non-economic, welfare, recreational social support, among others.
These are explained below
• Salaries
It is an economic benefit, the basic point of remuneration and is represented by the money that the worker receives for the services provided to the institution.
• Bonds
They are another type of economic benefits, represented by annual premiums, pensions, salary supplements, bonuses, loan plans, reimbursement of medical services and medicines.
• Non-economic benefits:
They are granted through support for the comfort and safety of the worker, such as dining room service, nurseries, medical and dental assistance, among others.
• Social Support
It seeks to provide security and comfort to the worker and their family group, as a means of dedicating all their effort and attention to their work tasks and responsibilities, and correspond to the non-economic benefits contemplated in the incentive plans. These benefits in turn can be of three types:
• Assistance
They seek to provide the employee and his family group a certain degree of security in cases of unforeseen needs, such as. Medical assistance - hospital, dental assistance, accident insurance.
• Recreational
Seek to provide conditions of rest, fun, recreation and mental hygiene, to the worker, and in many cases to his family group.
• Supplements
They aim to provide the worker with facilities, comforts and utilities to improve their quality of life, such as: transportation, dining room at work, parking, mobile schedules, consumer cooperatives, banking agencies in the workplace.
• Training
Training can also constitute an important incentive for the worker, since in this way the organization itself gives them the opportunity to prepare more adequately for the functions they perform.
In this sense, it can be said that human resource development policies must include: The creation and development of conditions capable of guaranteeing good progress and organizational excellence, by changing the behavior of the members.
Thus, training in every organization is important since it guarantees the best performance of workers.
In organizations, training allows the achievement of the efficiency of its effectiveness. An effective organization is one that meets its objectives, that is, one that produces the goods and services that society demands, and an organization is efficient if it uses the minimum amount of resources necessary to produce those services.
According to this, training plays an important role in organizations, as it helps the worker to better perform their work, which means efficiently meeting all the organization's objectives.
In this way, through training, they want to improve the conditions in which the work is carried out by the staff, in conjunction with the teaching it represents, in order to fulfill the assigned tasks in a more efficient way.
Thus, the training is aimed at the technical improvement of the worker so that he performs efficiently in the functions assigned to him, produce quality results, provide excellent services to his clients, prevent and solve potential problems in the organization in advance.
In this way, training allows the worker's profile to adapt to the profile of knowledge, skills and attitudes required in a job with a view to achieving better performance.
To conclude, all the theoretical aspects stated above allow us to see that it is not an easy task to achieve an adequate organizational climate, where salaries and other incentives motivate the workforce, keeping it motivated, harmonizing the interests and objectives of the organization with those of its own. personal.
However, the great importance of incentive programs within any type of organization (public or private) must be taken into account and that it is worth designing and putting them into practice and carrying out their monitoring and review to quantify the benefits that such programs have brought the organization.
