Mapping Compensation

Wall-Mart has a lot of these affairs in common with Microsoft, although Wall-Mart tries to collapse the low at times by cushioning their employment scheme with a discount card or special privileges. Most of the employees at Wall-Mart start at around $8. 80 an hour, but that is just the bow pay. If an employee does well within the company, over time, Wall-Mart will steadily increase the employees paycheck, depending on his or her performance of their duties that year. That is where the performance-based pay that is similar to Microsofts strategy comes into play. If an employee does well, he or she will get a raise.If non, then the raise will not happen. A lot of people who discover to work at places standardized Wall-Mart expect instant gratification for their accomplishments, but they will not know it. An employee must work hard to earn the raise given to him or her at their time of the year. In Figure 2. 8 in the text, Microsoft and AS be compared and contrasted in a compens ation map. On Microsofts side, there seems to be a very low focus on work/ life story balance, and the alike(p) can be said for Wall-Mart. If an employee accepts a shift at Wall- Mart, he or she had better show up, or risk be fired.Wall-Mart is very strict in this area and does not accept a lot of excuses as far as frequent family emergencies or problems. From somebody(prenominal) experience, if there is a death in the immediate family, Wall-Mart will charter for a copy of the death certificate as proof that the employee is not lying. This is a bit disturbing and could be considered offensive to some. Another use point from Figure 2. 8 is that Microsoft puts heavy emphasis on hierarchy. Wall-Mart and Microsoft address this part of their strategy. Wall-Mart believes that the basic employees make Asia pay, while the managers and those on lucre receive higher pay.However, there is a price to being on salary versus being an hourly employee. As an hourly employee, the shift is wo rked within the hours specified, and the trade is done. There are no established hours for salaried managers at Wall-Mart. rough have even worked 80 hour weeks in the busy gruntle just to try to keep up with customer satisfaction. One thing that does differ between the two compensation strategies is that Microsoft puts a medium greatness to sharing gathering success, while Wall-Marts strategy is more about the individual.There are really no groups per SE within Wall- Marts hierarchy, just groups of employees who perform the same job. There is no focus on group success, or group incentives. There are the occasional pep talks in which the managers try to get their employees motivated, but really, the employees would rather be working than sitting in a meeting. It seems that Microsoft values group success, but it also values the individual as well, offering incentives for jobs performed. These companies seem very different from the outside, but when an within look is taken, there are more molarities than can be seen from the outside.