Employee Perceptions of Skill-Based Compensation in an Algerian Juice Company

Abstract

The management of salaries plays a vital role in achieving an organisation’s objectives, extending beyond recruitment, career planning, performance evaluation, competency assessment, and employee training. It encompasses the crucial responsibility of appropriately rewarding employees for their organisational contributions. Thus, compensation becomes a multifaceted element with both human and economic significance, presenting a complex challenge in organisational life and often becoming a subject of labor disputes. Despite the evolving economic landscape, the significance of the human element as a key factor in production and the influential role of wages in the lives of individuals and organisations remain substantial. In the Algerian context, many companies still adhere to traditional wage policies primarily based on job requirements and standardised pay scales, particularly within the public sector. However, this approach faces numerous challenges, hampering organisations from effectively fulfilling their roles and leading to a talent drain towards the private sector. These challenges primarily stem from organisational factors, such as declining wages and salaries that fail to reward workers for their performance and competencies adequately. As mentioned earlier, wages serve as crucial incentives for workers to fulfil their responsibilities. This article summarizes workers’ attitudes in an Algerian juice company towards the shift in wage policies that now prioritize evaluating skills. This new approach affects employees’ well-being within the organization and influences their task performance. Additionally, it brings about changes to long-established wage structures. Workers’ attitudes are influenced by socio-cultural factors resulting from social interactions and organizational culture. Within a company, these attitudes vary based on workers’ interests and perspectives on the desired change. While some workers support and embrace the new policy, others resist and reject it. Any organizational change the company introduces generates attitudes and behaviours that require careful analysis, as workers perceive such changes as threats to their accustomed organizational stability. Consequently, they exhibit specific behaviours and attitudes that reflect their opinions regarding the proposed modifications.