CASE STUDY 7

Read the CASE: XCEL ENERGY PAYS FOR EMPLOYEES WHO EXCEL at the end of Chapter 12. Answer the three questions at the end of the case in a 2 page paper. Follow the project guidelines below. Project Requirements: 1.Complete a 2 page paper APA format, not including the title page and reference page 2.Include at least two references from your reading assignments or other academic source to reinforce and support your own thoughts, ideas, and statements CASE: XCEL ENERGY PAYS FOR EMPLOYEES WHO EXCEL The management of Xcel Energy, an electricity and naturalgas utility based in Minneapolis and serving eight states, believes in linking rewards to performance. For example, an incentive plan called Xpress Ideas pays employees an immediate bonus for submitting beneficial suggestions. The company’s employees loved the idea; in one year alone, they submitted 6,133 suggestions, and most of them were implemented—and rewarded. The downside of this plan is that Xcel Energy hadn’t set up a system for measuring whether the rewards were worth the money—more than $427,000 for the 6,133 ideas. So the company is trying to tie future rewards more closely to its strategy by focusing more on merit bonuses paid for a combination of individual, group, and corporate performance. The company’s strategy is to be a top utility by “continuously improving our operations to be the lowest cost, most reliable and most environmentally sound energy provider.” If Xcel can excel at its merit-pay program, it will be far ahead of the average company. Typically, corporations try to keep everyone satisfied by spreading a rather small pool of merit pay fairly evenly across all employees. Recently, the average share of the payroll budget devoted to merit pay was just 4 percent. With a budget that size, at many companies, a top performer might get a bonus that is just 2 percentage points higher than that of an average worker. The average and poor workers might be happy, but the best people might actually be annoyed. One way Xcel is addressing this challenge is to channel more of the merit-pay budget to nonmanagement employees. Managers’ merit increases are limited to 2 percent, freeing more money for everyone else. Then it is urging managers to give bigger raises and bonuses to the best employees. Chief financial officer Ben Fowke says this arrangement is intended to “send a signal about how you can be rewarded if you’re a performer.” Xcel is also considering a long-term incentive plan for nonmanagement employees. Managers already can earn bonuses in the form of stock shares. The company may extend the stock plan to employees who are not managers. 362 PART 4 Compensating Human Resources As Xcel develops these programs, it is keeping issues of fairness in mind. An unfair compensation arrangement will fail as an incentive for good performance. One outcome is that when rising health care costs forced Xcel to begin deducting more for health insurance from employees’ paychecks, the company also cut some perks for its executives, including medical coverage without a deductible, free financial planning, and home security systems. Michael Connelly, Xcel’s vice president of human resources, explains the decision this way: “Employees understand that executives are going to be paid more, but they also respond well when they see a company being consistent in its actions.” SOURCE : Roy Harris, “Just Rewards,” CFO, February 2007, pp. 71–74; and Xcel Energy, “About Us,” Xcel Web site, www.xcelenergy.com , accessed February 25, 2008. Questions 1. Based on the information given, do you agree with management’s conclusion that merit pay can support Xcel’s strategy better than paying for suggestions? Why or why not? 2. How might Xcel continue to encourage suggestions as it aligns incentive pay more closely with its strategy? How do you think employees might react to these changes? 3. Imagine that Xcel has asked you to be a consultant advising on how to improve its merit pay system. Make three suggestions for ensuring that merit pay at Xcel is effective as an incentive.
 

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Week 8 legal

Per the text, computers are playing an increasingly important role in the practice of law. Successful paralegals must be comfortable with using electronic databases and research tools.

 

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:

1.      Discuss a paralegal’s ethical obligation to conduct competent electronic research. Provide two (2) examples of the potential consequences of inept electronic research practices.

  1. Determine whether or not traditional reference materials (e.g., State and Federal Reporters, West’s Encyclopedia, etc.) can be as current as electronic resources. Provide two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages to using traditional resource materials.  
  2. Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

  • Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
  • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. 

 

 

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Managerial Accounting #2 nPlant and Intangible Assets

Exercise 9.15 (page 418)

 

I split this up from the other one on purpose you will have the scanned documents shortly.

 

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Create a UML Activity Diagram Software engineering assignment help

Create a UML Activity Diagram for the Wilderness Weather Station that tracks the flow of weather data from the Satellite box into the archival database. This diagram does not need to account for error handling or human intervention. I expect this will contain a minimum of 20 elements and will span all three sub-component of the Wilderness weather station. Label each sub-component in some way – such as a color, a number, a different shape, or something. Whatever you do, do so in such a way that it is easy for me to see “this is part of the satellite box” and “this is part of the control panel”.

 

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please see attached

The World Bank is currently advising newly industrialized countries on how to encourage growth and they have asked for your help.

  • Using the Internet, library and/or other resources, research and briefly explain 2–3 methods currently being used to encourage economic growth for the typical firm in Hong Kong and for the typical firm in Singapore.
  • Which of these methods of encouraging growth would you suggest for the typical company in Hong Kong and Singapore? 
  • Explain the rationale for your choice.

 

 

 

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For the given function f(x)=(2x)/(x^2-x) find and simplify the following” f(3x)

For the given function f(x)=(2x)/(x^2-x) find and simplify the following” f(3x)
 

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A shipping company uss a formula to determine the cost for shipping a package: c=2.79+0.38p where c is the cost of…

A shipping company uss a formula to determine the cost for shipping a package:
c=2.79+0.38p where c is the cost of shipping and p is the nomber of pounds.
what is the cost of shipping a package that weighs 8 pounds?
a.$2.79
b.$3.04
c.$5.21
d.$5.83

 

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Spy 315 Week 4 Worksheet

Statistics for Psychology 6th Ed. By: Arthur Aron 

Chapter 7, 8, 9. 

Problems  CH 7 # 26, CH8# 12, and CH9 #14

 

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Appealing for Action Using Rhetorical Strategies assignment help

I need 2 or 3 paragraphs on the below topic AND replies to 2 peer posts.

As you prepare to make arguments in your Portfolio Project for a particular position, this is a good time to discuss the credibility of sources.

In this week’s discussion, answer the following:

  1. What specific facts are you required to know, share, and defend in your field? (I work in the IT field)
  2. What sources do you consider most credible when you defend facts and statements to someone who is questioning you about the accuracy of your claims?

Here are some examples: 

  • Secretaries have to create and keep track of schedules and other kinds of information, which they produce on request for clients or supervisors. 
  • Financial workers have to respond to auditors and advise clients about the best investment opportunities.
  • Sales people have to answer questions about products and defend their claims about quality and performance.
  • Tech support people explore facts surrounding each customer’s situation and troubleshoot using the process of elimination.
  • Managers have to know all aspects of a job and ensure production requirements are met by the people under their watch.

Remember to compose a substantive initial post and two response posts.

Peer Post 1:

I am a Director of Case Management in a hospital and am expected to know all current regulatory, conditions of participation rules and regulations.  This requires that I am involved with professional associations in this same field, and that I am intimately up to speed with the newest government / CMS rules.  Case Management guidelines are also inline with commercial insurance rules and regulations, so I am very familiar with and study The Joint Commission guidelines and regulations. There is a group of health and business professionals that run a website and magazine called The Advisory Board.  I have, for instance, just read a blog from a CEO of another organization regarding the bond rating and capital expenditures.  One of the questions that happens a lot in this day, is why are we so strapped as a hospital?  Why can’t we spend money on new printers.  This blog helped me formulate an articulate and educated response. (2016, advisory)

https://www.advisory.com/research/financial-leadership-council/at-the-margins/2016/09/why-liquidity-matters

https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/CFCsAndCoPs/Hospitals.html

Peer Post 2:

I work as a Lab manager/IT Technician for a research center for media and communication, in higher education.  We are located on the main campus for a local university.   Because we are working in higher education, the central IT is very particular about the security of their network.  Any computer that is going to be working with student information or connected to the network must meet certain criteria.  To make sure their criteria is met they have implemented campus wide regulations and network scanning systems to assure their criteria is being met.  Some of the facts I have to know are the required operating procedures and their purpose.  I have to know these things because some of the security measures do not apply to us, and would cause trouble with the collection of research data.  For example, one of the types of studies we do is eye tracking, while the participant is looking at the selection of images that the researcher has planned, the security warning will override the images and show up on the screen.  This renders the data collected useless because that security warning draws attention from the images the participant was looking at.  I apply for exemptions for these security measures, so I have to know the procedures and why they are there to show how those would hurt our research and why they do not apply to us.  

 

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