Influencing Satisfaction - Control to care not to question the dare

Here I want to write about influencing satisfaction on salary hike.
To some extent I want to criticise too, thus some parts of this writing may infer conniption. So please read those parts with a pinch of salt.

I would like to start by citing a known case then the intended case.
Listed companies distribute lot of printed material along with dividend. Companies draft such material with an intention to influence the share holders to deal with prevailing business situation. Here the key is to bring the shareholders under their influence.

Here is the intended case. Employee’s performance is measured as confidential subject. Same goes with Team’s performance, Group’s performance and Business Unit’s performance. But organization’s performance is declared and published. How can an employee relate to million dollar balance sheet? Agreed it gives some fun in discussing about it at coffee table, but seldom influences an individual.

When an employee feels dissatisfied about increment, management convinces by saying that everyone was treated fairly so there is nothing they can do about it. But basis for that fairness will remain a mystery for that employee. And those who express negative feelings are marked as inconsiderate and immature to account for the situation. I know it goes on case to case basis but just hold it for the sake of criticism.

Here is the point of discussion. In first place, why leave the scope to feel dissatisfied and later expect them not to react about it. I guess it’s because of the fact that they were not prepared to deal with the situation. Are there any measures taken to influence the satisfaction level on salary hike. If no, why not. If yes, did they yield benefits so as to influence the majority. And what about improvements.

In traditional businesses performance is quite apparent. But that is not the case in coding workshops (software organizations). Employees seldom get to know about billing, capital expenditure, assets, salary budget etc... Many such details are masked from them. Here the key is to give them a feeling that they are not ‘completely’ masked. It is not too difficult to do this with a presentation. Content may not be descriptive but just need to make some sense.

To conclude following few points can be looked on in this regard.

1) “Prepare/Influence” an employee at every level - as an individual, as part of team, as part of group and as part of business unit to deal with the situation.
2) Discuss about salary budget on “qualitative” figures. Analyze it by performance of groups and teams. Present figures from previous years.
If management got content employees got caliber, they are not dumb they can understand basics of economics.
3) Prepare printed material to publish results at each level. Also handover that material along with hike letter.
4) Help those employees who express difficulty in understanding the content, if needed provide them with further reading material
5) Allow employees to express their dissatisfaction. Privacy is desired about salary but not about satisfaction. Conduct YES/NO kind of satisfaction survey. Publish the result of survey and guide employees to go with majority. If dissatisfaction leads, act on it and substantiate with “Industry Survey”.

Further we get to see mails stating “such acts are not acceptable and disciplinary action can be taken”. I guess every now and then one need not explicitly announce that they are capable of taking disciplinary actions. Just mention that relevant document (like Employee Hand Book) is modified and employees are expected to go through those sections.

Control to care not to question the dare...