Organisation Background
During the period of 2008 – 2013, I had the opportunity of working as a senior consultant in a local technology consulting firm in the U.A.E. For the sake of confidentiality I shall be referring to this organisation as “ABC Technologies”. Having around 40 employees, ABC Technologies was one of 13 companies under a mother group, constituting of 3300 employees and a turnover exceeding US1.5 Billion.
Their consultants were assigned to projects across 7 different countries, yet the company had no offices outside the U.A.E. Being a relatively small company (in terms of head count and revenue turnover) compared to others in the group, ABC Technologies does not have a dedicated Human Resources Management (HRM) function, and was referring to the Group HRM for all employee matters, including resourcing, learning & development, performance management, and employee rewarding.
Being employees in a consultant firm, majority of the consultants had needs that were different from the rest of the employees in the group. The nature of the work mandated the company not only to hire exceptional employees, but to retain them as well. The recruitment process attracted and hired very good consultants, who with time become less productive and efficient due to the way the company rewards them. Employees always complained about gaps between their needs and management offerings. They also felt that the effort they put into the job, especially with the continuous travelling and long working hours, was not “rewarded properly”. The management on the other hand always insisted that it does take an extra step towards employee satisfaction and motivation, yet the performance of the business was clearly impacted by lack of motivation.
Throughout this paper I will discuss the Employee Reward at ABC Technologies. The issue around that will furtherly be elaborated in