The Compensation Times

Resolution #7 – Link performance management programs directly to the expectations of the job as outlined in effective job descriptions. We’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating —  most people don’t like performance appraisals.  You can take your pick of these or many other reasons: It takes too long Parts of the forms aren’t […]

Resolution #6 – Forget last year, general increases and the “what have you done for me lately merit increase” approach and refocus individual compensation adjustments on what people should be paid now based on the job and their performance. Back in the old days, there was something called the “free market.”  People were paid for […]

Resolution #5 – Eliminate “across the board adjustments” and move to individual adjustments. Let’s just lay this out on the table – “across the board adjustments,” “general increases,” and “cost-of-living adjustments,” in the absence of a way of compensating for employee growth and performance – are simply a very bad idea.  While this may not […]

Resolution #3 – Reduce your reliance on market data in favor of an effective internal equity program. Let’s face it.  The human resources and employee compensation profession has lost its focus, as well as much of its credibility, in favor of the lure of gimmicks and black box internet technologies.  Over the last two years, […]

Just a few weeks back, one of our clients called us in, well, not quite a panic, but certainly with a bit of concern.  The subject?  The cost of hiring new accounting graduates was expected to increase nearly 5% for the spring of 2016. “Were we able to confirm this?” For accounting firms, this is […]

Resolution #2 – Build a program that will take compensation off the table — effectively making it a non-issue rather than a bone of contention. In his best-selling business book “Drive,” Daniel Pink makes a compelling argument that it is essential to “take compensation off the table.”  That means that you need a compensation program […]