A remuneration system typically comprises three main elements: base pay, benefits and performance-related pay. In designing any remuneration system careful attention should be paid to three key considerations: first, the relative role that each of these three components will play in total remuneration; second, the practices that will be drawn on to configure each component; and third, the target level of total remuneration for each position. Any discussion of remuneration practice must consider what, for most employees, is the primary component of their total remuneration, namely base pay.

The geomagnetic field is generated by complex motions of electrically conducting liquid iron in the Earth’s outer core. It has been studied for centuries at observatories and for decades from orbiting satellites. Outside the Earth, the magnetic field deflects the solar wind, a stream of charged particles from the Sun, thereby shielding the planet from harmful radiation. Some radiation penetrates deep into the outer atmosphere, where it ionizes air molecules. These cause the aurora and also form spherical shells of ions encircling the Earth that produce their own magnetic fields. We have learned about the magnetic fields of the other planets from earth-bound observations and from space missions. The geomagnetic field provides an important tool for exploring the mineral wealth of our planet. We learn how to interpret the shapes of the magnetic anomalies of simple geometric bodies, including block models of oceanic magnetic anomalies.

The shape of the Earth is determined primarily by two forces. Gravitational attraction, directed toward the center of the planet, results in an almost spherical shape. The Earth’s rotation produces a centrifugal force away from the rotation axis that flattens the sphere to a rotational ellipsoid. Differences in internal mass distribution produce bumps and hollows in the ellipsoid, forming a smooth but uneven surface called the geoid. Gravity at any place acts in the vertical direction, which is everywhere perpendicular to the local geoid. We explain how the gravitational attractions of the Moon and Sun deform the Earth’s free surface, creating tides in the oceans and in the solid planet. The Earth’s ellipsoidal shape allows the gravitational attractions of other planets to modulate both its rotation and its orbit cyclically with periodicities of 21,000 to 405,000 years, which are correlated to long-term climatic changes.

This is a book about two of the core activities integral in the field of human resource management: managing employee performance and managing how employees are rewarded. As we shall see throughout the book, there is a close and complex inter-dependence between these two activities; so much so that it makes little sense to consider them in isolation from each other. Equally, while the book’s central concerns are with performance and reward practices and processes, attention is also paid throughout to recognising and analysing the interconnectedness of these and other aspects of human resource management. Performance management systems provide inputs into other HR functions such as training and employee development, as well as evaluating HR decisions such as recruitment and selection.

The concept of ‘total reward management’, which was canvassed in chapter 1, acknowledges the growing importance of benefit plans in strategic reward practice, particularly in attracting and retaining high capability employees with specific demographic characteristics, such as women professionals, experienced older workers of both sexes, and younger workers, such as ‘Millennials’ (born between 1985 and 2000) and ‘Generation Z’ (those born since 2000).

Whereas benefits were once the least glamorous of all aspects of reward management – and were literally referred to as ‘fringe’ reward practices – many organisations now consider them to be an important means of gaining a competitive advantage in labour markets where key ‘talent’ is in short supply. As the workforce becomes more diverse and as the level of employee education and reward expectation rises, financial and non-financial benefits are assuming an increasingly critical role in the reward management system’s ability to attract, retain and motivate high-potential and high-performing employees.

The lithosphere – the thin outer shell of the Earth – is stronger than the underlying mantle. Geodynamic activity driven by heat in the planet’s interior has caused it to subdivide into a number of thin plates, several hundred to several thousand kilometers in horizontal extent. They are in constant motion at speeds of a few centimeters per year. The relative motion at plate margins where they adjoin results in tectonic activity, characterized by earthquakes and volcanism. We distinguish three types of margin – spreading centers, subduction zones, and transform faults – and describe the seismic, gravity, and magnetic data that characterize them. We explain how reconstructions of plate positions in the geological past are obtained and what they tell us about the planet’s geodynamic history.

Gravity measurements are made with a gravimeter at geodetically located places on land or on gyroscopically stabilized platforms in marine and airborne surveys. In airborne and satellite surveys, gravity gradiometers are used. We explain these instruments and how gravity data are reduced to the reference ellipsoid by correcting for the latitude and altitude of the measuring site and the attraction of surrounding topography. A residual gravity anomaly is due to subsurface structure. We distinguish two types of anomaly: free-air anomalies are not corrected for local rock densities, which are needed to define Bouguer anomalies. The interpretation of local anomalies is facilitated by modeling the gravitational attractions of simple geometric bodies. Regional gravity anomalies help us to understand the geological processes at mountain chains and plate boundaries. Isostasy is an important dynamic process, by which the excess mass of a mountain is compensated by a less dense subsurface structure. Vertical crustal movements occur when isostatic equilibrium is disturbed.

Having laid out all the pieces of the performance and reward puzzle, it is time for us to consider how to go about assembling these elements into a coherent whole. In previous chapters, we have offered you some insights as to how the practices referred to in the chapter might support certain strategic priorities rather than others. In this chapter, we detail common approaches to assembling the various concepts, practices and strategies explored previously. In developing an integrated, strategically aligned and psychologically engaging performance and reward system, we need to remember that nothing is ever ‘finished’ and that change is the great constant. Accordingly, we examine the requirements for performance and reward system review, the steps involved in system change and development and challenges that may be encountered along the way. Although our approach here is primarily prescriptive in nature, we also draw on a range of insights from the research literature that has been referred to at various points throughout the book.

Just as air acts as the carrier of sound waves, the Earth supports the propagation of seismic waves, which are excited, for example, by earthquakes, eruptions and explosions. In human history, high-amplitude seismic waves and related events such as tsunamis have brought more destruction than any other natural phenomenon. However, seismic waves also transmit information about their source and about the medium through which they propagate. In this chapter, we introduce the basic elements of seismic wave propagation, starting with a description of different wave types that are distinguished by their propagation velocities, polarization directions, and the regions of the Earth’s interior through which they travel. We will learn how seismic waves interact with heterogeneities, i.e., how they reflect, refract, and convert into each other. This will allow us to decipher the wealth of information transmitted by these waves in order to construct images of the deep Earth’s interior.

Large earthquakes are among the most energetic phenomena observed on Earth, surpassing the biggest nuclear explosions by orders of magnitude. The family of earthquakes is very diverse. It includes natural events that occur within seconds along the boundaries of tectonic plates, slow earthquakes that last for days or weeks, swarms of thousands of little earthquakes beneath volcanoes, and clusters of earthquakes induced by industrial activity. Though individual earthquakes cannot be predicted with current methods, long-term seismic hazard can be estimated in order to inform building codes and to prepare the population. Seismic waves emitted by earthquakes travel through the Earth, thereby acquiring information about its internal structure. Seismic tomography based on earthquake recordings draws the image of a very dynamic planet, featuring cold lithospheric slabs that descend deep into the mantle, and narrow plumes that transport hot material toward the surface.

The practice of recognising and rewarding the individual performance of employees is not only becoming more common but also more varied in form. It ranges from the traditional merit-based pay increments to a suite of non-cash reward programs that claim to provide a cheaper and more effective means of rewarding desirable performance and fostering employee satisfaction and engagement. This chapter provides an overview of these practices, starting with merit pay. Merit pay is the most widely applied of the individual performance pay plans, and takes two main forms: merit increments and merit bonuses. We then consider some of the oldest and most enduring of all performance pay plans, results-based individual incentives. Also known as individual ‘payment-by-results’ plans, these include piece rates, task-and-time bonus plans (where employees are rewarded for completing a specified volume of work or a task in less than a ‘standard’ time), sales commissions and bonus payments to individuals for achievement of goals.

The Earth’s internal heat drives geodynamic processes. A primordial part results from cooling of the originally molten planet and part is produced by radioactivity. Temperatures inside the Earth are below the melting point in the crust, mantle, and inner core, but are above the melting point of liquid iron in the outer core. Heat is transported by conduction in the crust, mantle and inner core, and by vigorous convection in the outer core. Deformation of the solid mantle by viscous creep provides a mechanism for mantle convection. We examine the factors that control this process, which provides the power for plate tectonic motions at the surface. The heat flow on continents arises largely from radioactive decay in crustal rocks, but in the oceans results from cooling of lithospheric plates during sea-floor spreading. Plumes of hot mantle material are a possible magma source for volcanic hotspots.

In this final chapter, we explore emerging trends – the new horizons – in business, technology and society with a particular focus on how these developments are influencing ideas, practice, employee experience and academic research in the field of performance and reward management. We begin with emerging trends and practices that have already begun to impact the design of performance and reward management systems and academic research in the field. We focus on three interconnected global trends that have already started to change performance and reward management practice; an impact that is very likely to increase in the years ahead. The first of these trends is the technological revolution associated with ‘Industry 4.0’; the second is the economic disruption and employment uncertainty associated with what has come to be called the ‘gig economy’; and the third is the social transformation flowing from generational change around the world.

Sometimes employee performance will be below that established or expected by the organisation in the first stages of the performance management process. In this chapter we examine how to diagnose the causes of underperformance. Having identified the primary causes of performance deficits, we then investigate the mechanism through which an employee is given feedback about their performance (the formal performance ‘review’). We focus on the provision of negative performance feedback: why it is problematic for supervisors and employees as well as tactics for the effective delivery of negative feedback. The chapter concludes with a discussion of performance development strategies and practices. We examine mentoring and coaching and their impact on employees and organisations.

The rocks and minerals that make up the Earth’s crust and mantle have variable electrical properties. This characteristic is made use of in important methods of surveying, to research the structure and properties of the interior. Natural and induced electrical currents conform to the underground pattern of electrical resistivity. We describe how this can be used to locate anomalous regions with mineral enrichment or that have environmental importance. Electromagnetic methods, employed on the ground and from the air, are particularly important in mineral exploration. Ground penetrating radar has become an important tool of environmental and archeological research. These methods are limited to the top several hundred meters of the crust, but magnetotelluric methods can probe deeper into the lithosphere and mantle. The high-frequency variations of the magnetic field induce currents in the solid Earth and in the oceans, delivering valuable information about the electrical conductivity in the upper mantle.