TEAM PAY AT DARTFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL

SUMMARY: -
One of the smaller District (second tier) councils, Dartford Borough Council has about
300 employees. Due to the CCT process, which has left the council with a high proportion of
competent enabling employees, mostly managerial, supervisory, technical, and contract
management, this is significantly lower than the total in the 1980s.
A Performance Management and Performance Pay system was implemented in 1989 on an
individual basis at the same time as new employment contracts as a quick fix.
The completion of personal goals established at the start of the fiscal year could earn
employees up to 15% in performance pay.
The head of personnel and administrative services for the council was replaced in the 1990s by
a new human resource director.
The Council implemented a system centered on measuring staff team performance against set
team goals beginning in 1991. There was no set recommendation for squad size. In general,
they stayed in their functional positions, thus the Post Room team, for instance, had five
members, and the Highways Management team had fifteen. The council members, who were
divided into three groups, set the goals for the Chief Executive, Management Team, and
Directorate Management teams. targets for management, projects, and services.
Rewards should be tied to accomplishments rather than everyday tasks.
The Human Resource Director played a significant part in this situation by keeping a close eye
on the targets at the beginning of the year to ensure that they stayed largely within the original
parameters and that managers evaluated them every six months. If the team meets all of its
goals with a performance rating of one, this may be given (exceptional high performance). This
payment is based on the employee's grade's minimum salary point as of April of the prior fiscal
year.
There were significant signs that the personnel viewed it as successful and balanced. A survey
of the staff consulting group was conducted in the late 1990s, and their general opinion was
that the plan should be maintained. Individual PRP was greatly preferable to this. Although,
there are trade union representatives in the committee, there are no official negotiations
regarding the plan. A report by Price Waterhouse, the Council's external auditors, which
examined the effects of the scheme's various strengths and weaknesses, served as a second
source of evaluation. As a leading council on team compensation. Dartford was pleased with
their accomplishments but aware that every incentive and reward program needed to be
constantly monitored to prevent manipulation or staleness.

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Q1) Evaluate the benefits of paying for team performance against individual
performance in a local authority setting. Would your answer be any different if
the setting was a financial services company.
Team performance incentives: -

This pay plan financially compensates employees for the goals they meet as a
collective group, rather than as individuals.
Individual performance incentives: -
This pay plan financially compensates employees for the goals they meet as an
individual, rather than a group.
The benefits of paying incentives based on team performance rather than individual based
performance are as followed: -
1. Employees are often motivated by the fear of letting down their team members.
High performers will also talk to less-successful team mates to see where they need
help and provide assistance.
2. Knowing that performance is tied to payment, team members are more likely to find
ways to work together effectively as a group. There’s little room for in-fighting and
disagreements when all participants are working toward a collective, common goal.
3. Each employee brings a unique set of skills and experience to the table.
4. One team member’s weakness may be another’s strength, which creates an overall
balance.
5. Individuals who aren’t performing are usually put on notice by other team members
and are told that there input in the project is insufficient.
6. Easy to track
In financial service company it is better for the company to adopt individual based incentive
plan rather than group-based incentive plan. As targets are given out to individuals rather than
in groups. Also, it can remove any unfairness between hard working and lazy employees.
Incentives should be provided to whoever brings in greater money. For example, credit card
companies or banks, it is a job of a single person to get as many people as he can on credit card
plans and also get as many people as one can to open bank accounts in their finance companies
as they can.

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Q2) How would you deal with the situation where apparent performance and
team rewards for one team were substantially higher than all the other teams?
If one team is performing more than the other teams, this means that the other team
are either not motivated to work hard or don’t understand the rewards system. This can be
solved by the following method: -
1. Make sure employees know how the reward system works. Unclear incentives
guidelines can frustrate and alienate employees. Employees who are left in the dark on
selection criteria may perceive unfairness or bias when recipients are announced.
2. Tie rewards with employee performance. Employees should know that they will be
rewarded only when they can show significant performance and the with better
performance, they get better rewards.
3. Offer unique rewards. Offering a variety of unique and valuable rewards can incentivize
employees to work harder and smarter.
4. Recognize small and big achievements. Many times, companies only focus on major
accomplishments. Small achievers don’t get recognition which can demotivate them.
Rewarding employees on small achievements can motivate them to work even harder to
achieve higher rewards.

Q3) Analyze the system for measuring team success. Would you recommend
any further measures? would a third-party assessment be appropriate in any
circumstances?
According to a Harvard Business Review study published in 2016, the average employee
spends 50 percent more time in collaborative work than two decades ago, and 80 percent of all of
their time on the job in collaborative efforts. Deloitte has even defined the organization of the
future as “a network of teams” whose operating model is designed to drive greater collaboration
and internal agility. Clearly, team success is more important than ever.
As teams replace individuals as the core operating units of performance across organizations of
all kinds, you can measure team success, and it’s not as hard as you might think.
If your team is strong in all five of these areas, then it can be classified as a strong team

DIRECTION
Teams that score high on direction have a clarity of purpose that is shared among all of its
members. They are all moving in the same direction as a collective unit. They come across as
purposeful, priority-minded and collaborative.

CONNECTION

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Highly connected teams know that they can do more together than they can on their own. They
trust one another, have psychological safety and are open to productive conflict.

ALLIGNMENT
Aligned teams share a common understanding of the needs of their internal and external
stakeholders, and of the larger organization’s strategy. In addition, they are able to adapt to meet
changing needs without drama.

ATTITUDE
Teams that shine in the attitude department have team members who bring an optimistic, “can
do” attitude to work. Similarly, they don’t let obstacles or setbacks derail them. One way to
assess the strength of your team’s attitude is to look at how they approach risk.

PERFORMANCE
High-performing teams get things done. As a result, they deliver, meeting and exceeding their
goals and objectives.

Q4) Read the IRRS article on team rewards for the benefits commission.
Compare and contrast the methods of operation and the apparent success.
Rewarding an employee for outstanding performance or for sticking with the company
is a great idea. But alas, the IRS says the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made it a taxable idea.
While length-of-service awards aren't necessarily taxable, they must follow strict IRS guidelines.
Otherwise, they're taxable income to employees. The IRS says cash awards for exceptional
performance are taxable income to employees. Non-cash gifts given for length of service or
safety awards are acceptable, provided they're not too valuable. The IRS says if an employer
gives, say, $600 as a reward for exceptional service, it's taxable income that employers must
report on the W2 with the employee's regular salary. Recipients pay taxes on cash awards just
like they do on regular wages, commissions and bonuses. This doesn't apply until the employee
receives them. The California CPA firm of Wright, Ford & Young says some employers have
passed off cash gifts or significant non-cash presents as a personal matter. The business owner
really, really likes that employee, the argument runs, so the owner wrote them a check out of
friendship. If the company can prove the gift had nothing to do with business, that argument
will hold up — but the burden of proof is on them, and it isn't easy. IRS rules regarding taxes
applicable to employee gifts have been subject to numerous changes since the 1980s. In most
cases, employees receiving gifts have endured more taxation, while employers enjoy greater
tax deductibililty, along with more detailed bookkeeping and recording issues. Learning the
technical difference between "tangible" and "intangible" employee gifts helps you understand
many of the tax consequences. Tax issues with employee awards, like engraved plaques, are
more complex. While not treated as employee compensation, the IRS permits employers to

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deduct up to $1,600 per employee per year for the cost of company awards or trophies.
However, the IRS has a "maximum average" of $400 per award gift item. For example, a
company with a top superstar employee who wins seven separate awards in a year, costing a
total of $3,000, can still only deduct $1,600 of the gift cost for that employee. Employers giving
"awards" of gift certificates or gift cards, however, are subject to the intangible gift, or cash,
taxation rules.