Achieving alignment: system review, change and development

In_ the past, ~anaging employee performance and reward was a relatively uncomplicate~ affa1r. On the performance management side, it was a matter of requiring ~uperv1sors to assess each of their subordinates once a year using a simple rating scale mstrument, perhaps with a few management-imposed objectives included for good m~asure. On the remuneration side, the focus was on developing and maintaining a ~ob-based base pay and benefits structure d1at tempered external competitiveness wnh a degree of attention to internal equity. In the more complex traditional pay systems, there may also have been an element of individual performance-related reward perhaps in the form of assessment-based merit increments or one or other of the tradi: tiona! forms of payment by results, possibly co-upled with a modest level of coUective short-term incentives in the form of profit-sharing. Underlying all was an accent on the maintenance of a traditional top-down management culture, a mechanistic organisational structure and a stable relational psychological contract.