Guest Lecture Series “Industrial and Organizational Psychology”: Rewards System

Tuesday (26/5) an online lecture entitled “Industrial and Organizational Psychology” was held at the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada. This event is the 5th series of the Guest Lecture Series which has been taking place since February 2021.

This event was organized by the Faculty of Psychology, Gadjah Mada University in collaboration with the Regular Psychology Undergraduate Study Program, International Undergraduate Psychology Program, Human Quality Development Unit, and KBK Organizational Development and Changes. This event started at 13.30 WIB until 15.15 WIB and was attended by 245 participants from Psychology Undergraduate students at Gadjah Mada University.

The speaker at this event was Irwan Dewanto, Vice President Corporate HR of TACO Group. The title of his presentation was “Reward System in The Organization”. In his presentation, Irwan explained how the company gave rewards to employees in order to produce better performance and contribute positively to the progress of the company.

Total rewards are defined by Irwan as a concept that describes all the tools available to employers that can be used to attract, motivate, engage and retain employees. Each company has its own strategy in giving rewards to its employees.

The rewards provided by the company are influenced by internal factors, namely business strategy and the uniqueness of the organization’s culture. Both encourage better human resource strategies. Meanwhile, the external influences of giving rewards are the economic climate, labor market, culture, and applicable legal regulations.

In this event, Irwan also explained how the company’s strategy in designing the reward system was so that it was truly right on target and had a positive impact. The company always tries to provide rewards according to an objective assessment. Some things to consider are the right form of reward, to the right person, given for the right reason, and given at the right time.

Furthermore, Irwan also told how the role of HR in determining the amount of rewards given to workers. According to him HR must understand the labor market and be able to position itself appropriately between the union and the company.

Irwan also provides motivation for psychology students who are interested in becoming HR when they enter the world of work later. According to him, psychology graduates have advantages over graduates from other majors who compete for HR positions, namely the ability to understand, empathize, and speak in a language that can be understood by each stakeholder.

“So you don’t just have to be able to test, recruit, assess, that’s not it. In my opinion, the competitive advantages of psychology graduates are the ability to empathize and understand the stakeholders,” said Irwan.

The event went smoothly from the beginning to the end of the event. The presenters also interactively answered questions from students who attended the event. This event is expected to provide understanding to event participants about the reward system within the company as well as to motivate psychology students so that they do not hesitate if they want to have a career in the field of human resources.