We get some rules to follow, that and this, these and those - no one knows (Queens Of The Stone Age)

The book I'm reading (Evidence-Based Reward Management) poses some interesting and pertinent questions.

Before I get to them - they make the point that:

The tendency is for organizations to ignore research evidence and base their HR and reward policies on generalized 'truths' that have little foundation in that evidence.

That would certainly be my experience thus far. I have seen or heard no research based evidence advocating a reward policy, nor have I seen or heard any rationalisations about why we need one.

Some of those questions:

• How effective will the performance related incentive scheme be?
• Will it add value?
• What would happen if we swapped from an individual incentive scheme to a team emphasis?
• How do rewards affect the levels of engagement and performance of the employees?
• In fact, do we have any evidence whatsoever that our pay and reward arrangements make any difference?

That last one's a doozy isn't it?

Ehrenberg (1990) answers this when he says, 'There is very little empirical evidence on whether compensation policies have their intended effects either at the individual or corporate level.'

Food for thought surely...