Paper Example: The Recommendations for the Rewards of Delta Airlines

There are two methods that the management of Delta Airlines used to determine the right fit of the rewards that they planned to introduce for the organization's workforce. The first step was conducting an internal survey using questionnaires for the employees, and focus groups for the management and influential employees (popular employees of the company). The internal survey was meant to determine the 'drivers' of the employees, focusing on their ideal working environment, and preferred incentives to improve their performance levels and ensure that they are more committed to the organization (Greene, 2018). It was important to determine the things that the employees were looking for in the organization i.e. what they hoped to achieve both in short and long term such as better pay, career advancement, and achieving work-life balance as this would help in the determination of the most appropriate incentives for Delta Airlines workforce.

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Secondly, there was an external assessment to determine what the rivals of Delta Airlines were doing to attract, recruit and retain their employees. Also, Delta Airlines was keen on identifying factors, or work environment situations that were contributing to the staff of other companies, especially their main rival Alaska Airlines to leave the organization. The external survey was conducted by reading news articles covering the airline industry and also recruiting and interviewing former employees of their rival companies who were seeking for better work situations than was the case in their previous places of employment (Greene, 2018). The results from these two methods played a critical role in determining the total rewards that will be used in Delta Airlines.

Collection of Data

Based on the approaches that were identified in the previous section, three methods were used in the data collection process. Firstly, the employees were provided with 5-point Likert scale questionnaires collected data on employees' drivers and working environment. Secondly, there was a focus group consisting of the human resource staff and popular, or influential employees whereby there were discussions on the type of incentives that were a fit for the current and future employees of Delta Airlines given the work dynamics, the performance of the company, what is being done by their rival companies, and what a majority of employees what from the company. The discussion was video recorded, there was the development of transcripts, which were analyzed, and helped in the decision-making process. Finally, the external survey involved reading news articles that focused on the airline industry and interviews on employees who had previously worked for Delta Airlines rival companies.

Identification of Current and Potential Employee 'Drivers'

During the data collection and analysis process, it was determined that the employees of Delta Airlines can be divided into three segments as listed in table 1 below:

Table 1: Employee Segmentation and Main Drivers

Employee segmentation assisted Delta Airlines be aware of its current and future employees based on their preferences, KSAs such as teamwork, great communication skills, professionalism, great customer service, friendly and positive, caring and understanding, and work incentives that will be ideal for them and inspire them to stay with the organization and perform at an optimum level. For Delta Airlines to manage to identify its employees' requirements, it was also able to identify the ideal rewards, or incentives that it can accord its employees divided into three segments as shown in table two below:

Table 2: Total Rewards Rewards Description

In this section, the researcher through the use of a task list provides a breakdown of the required steps that contributed to the implementation of the total rewards program at Delta Airlines. The task list is as follows:

Delta Airlines identified that it had an impending challenge in attracting, recruiting, and retaining top KSA employees after breaking its merger with Alaska Airlines. It felt that both existing and potential employees would receive better offers from its rival companies, and therefore, it saw the need to come up with an effective total rewards program that will be beneficial to its organization in terms of reducing employee turnover and improving employee performance.

Delta Airlines has a competent human resource management staff, which was used to conduct an internal survey of the company to get the employee drivers and conduct external surveys, especially targeting their rival companies to influence their decision on the company's total rewards program (Williams, 2009).

The internal surveyors conducted an employee segmentation for categorization purposes. Three segments were identified- Secure Progress, Flexible Support, and Team Success. Employee segmentation assisted the surveyors to identify the popular employees who were recruited for its focus group initiative.

The collection of data was achieved through the use of questionnaires, focus groups, individual employee interviews and use of secondary sources such as relevant news articles (Williams, 2009).

There was an analysis of the data using different methods such as factor and regression analysis for the 5-point Likert questionnaires and content analysis for interviews and focus group data.

The next step was an interpretation of the data by identifying the relevant rewards for Delta Airlines as has been stated in table two in the previous section.

The internal surveyors conducted an estimation of the total costs of the implementation of the total rewards program and identified rewards that could be immediately implemented because of their cost-effective measures such as performance management appraisals, flexible working arrangements, family discounts for the employees, and introduction of mentorship programs (Williams, 2009).

The internal surveyors prepared PowerPoint presentations that they presented to the leadership and human resource management. They provided the expected total costs, risks involved and expected opportunities for this program. They also identified the metrics that will be used to assess the success of this program, which is: low employee turnover, the achievement of work-life balance, and improvement of KSA levels and work performance.

The next step was assigning the implementors of the total rewards program, and it was agreed that the departmental heads were in the best position because of their regular interaction with the employees to identify the employees who were fit for rewards, especially performance appraisals. The other implementors were human resource staff (Williams, 2009).

The final step was communication to the employees on the total rewards program. The different communication methods are explained in the next step.

Communication of the Changes to the Staff

For the total rewards program to be implemented successfully, the employees in the organization have to be aware of the existence of the reward, and the parameters that have been set for them to benefit from them (Kaplan, 2005). This is achieved through using an ideal communication program whose goal is not only to inform the employees of the existence of the rewards but also educating them on the true value of the total rewards package. Communication of the total rewards assists the organization in terms of assisting the employees to be more appreciative of the programs that are being introduced in the company, increase their level of appreciation, employee satisfaction, and reduce turnover rates (Black, 2007). Different communication methods will be used by the organization to communicate the total rewards program to the employees. These are the presentation to the employees by the departmental leaders during their meetings. Delta Airlines also sent e-mails to the employees informing them of the total rewards program.

Metrics for Evaluation of the Success of the Metrics

Table 3 presents the metrics that will be used to evaluate the success of the total rewards program based on the three categories that were developed for the total rewards program.

Table 3: Metrics for the Evaluation of the Success of the Total Rewards Program

References

Black, A. (2007). "Total Rewards." Benefits & Compensation Digest. Vol. 44, Issue 11, pp. 32-36. Excerpt from the book Communicating Employee Benefits, Changing Methods and Changing Minds and Effective Benefits Communication.

Greene, R. J. (2018). Rewards Management. Rewarding Performance, 39-66. doi:10.4324/9780429429019-4

Kaplan, S. (2005). "Total rewards in action: Developing a total rewards strategy." Benefits & Communication Digest. Vol. 42, Issue 8, p 32-2.

Williams, S. (2009, April 23). How to Create a Project Plan Timeline. Retrieved from https://careertrend.com/how-4927759-create-project-plan-timeline.html