The company I chose to research to evaluate their pay structure was Nike since this is a very well known company and one that I have personal connections to. Although a job-based structure and a person-focused pay structure would both be beneficial to the company, because of the value that the company places on its employees’ growth in the company, I believe it would be more beneficial for them to lean towards a person-focused pay structure.
As defined in the book a person-focused pay structure rewards employees for the acquisition of job-related knowledge (Martocchio pg. 189). I think this description represents a pay structure that Nike would be after. After researching more into Nike’s benefits and compensation, I found that their main goal for these components was to enable and support their employees to realize their full potential physically, mentally, or financially (Nike Benefits). One area of their benefits program that supports the person-focused pay structure is the continuing education element. This could be in school or at work as they have tuition reimbursement that pays for courses that will benefit the employee’s current or future roles within the company (Compare…). They also have mentoring and coaching programs and leadership programs that aid in developing skills in these regions as well.
A person focused pay structure would also be more beneficial to the company overall since their reasoning for adopting this strategy could be the global competitive advantage that it could provide their company (Week 5 Person-focused structure lecture). Since Nike is a multinational company engaged in the manufacturing, design, development, sales and marketing of footwear, apparel, accessories, and services, having a competitive edge is essential to their business model. This is why they may choose this pay structure since it could increase the productivity of their employees in multiple areas of their company in order to keep a competitive advantage. Although they could adopt a job-based pay structure in order to easily compare their pay to that of the market, it may be challenging to compare to market competitors on a global scale and set a reasonable pay level that could compete with global competitors.
Sources:
“Compare NIKE’s Employee Health Insurance and Benefits.” Benefits Pro, https://www.benefitspro.org/reports/5166-compare-nike-s-employee-health-insurance-and-benefits
Martocchio, Joseph. J., Strategic Compensation: A Human Resource Management Approach. Pearson
“Nike Benefits.” Nike https://jobs.nike.com/benefits
