Jumat, 15 Oktober 2010

Salary and Compensation Trends for Forward Thinking Organizations

By Susan M. Heathfield

 
How to research salary, salary calculators, salary surveys, salary comparisons, basically, all things salary, online, is one of the most frequent requests for information received by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This makes sense when you consider the importance of salary to attract talented people, retain key employees, and maintain an excited, motivated workforce.
Given the shifts occurring in attitudes and practices about salary and compensation, this is not surprising. Organizations are struggling to keep up with changes in salary and compensation thinking.
Gone are the days when organizations gave equivalent increases to all organization members. These salary increases, in the one percent to five percent range, sent the wrong message to underperformers. They left organizations with too small of a budget to adequately reward their top performers. While many companies still use this as their salary criteria, forward thinking organizations are thinking about salary and compensation in a very different way.
According to an article on the SHRM website (you must be a member to access), to get the attention of your better performing staff members, you must offer a variable pay rate of seven to eight percent, in addition to their base pay. A system that rewards better performers cannot reward all staff members alike. In addition to sending the wrong message, your pool of money is not unlimited. You must use your compensation as one of your most important communication tools, to send a message about your organization’s expectations and goal achievement rewards.

Current Compensation Thinking

My current thinking about salary and compensation includes the following components.
  • Organizations need to develop a compensation philosophy and direction in writing that is reviewed by the Board of Directors and agreed to by your managers.
  • Particularly in an entrepreneurial, market-driven company, the compensation philosophy needs to include a method for grouping similar jobs for purposes of broad banding, since promotional opportunities are limited.
  • It should include a responsible, measurement system for awarding variable pay. I recommend less emphasis on increasing base pay, and more emphasis on distributing gains via bonuses that reward actual goal attainment.
  • Goal attainment should be rewarded for both individual and organizational goal achievement to foster teamwork and eliminate the “lone ranger” mentality.
  • Real goal achievement is attached to outcomes or deliverables that are measurable or offer a shared picture of what success looks like. They should not reward checking items off a “to-do” list.
  • As the cost of benefits has increased, their place in a total compensation package has increased in importance. Shifting the costs of some benefits to employees is a last-option scenario.
 

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