As I start to write, I'm humming the Beatles tune of a similar title in my head. Their lyrics were  poetic and prophetic, even when it comes to matters of the heart at work, because money can't buy workplace love.

That's not to say that many a manager and employer haven't tried to use money to counter other deficiencies in treating/managing/leading/recognizing/rewarding their workforces, but it rarely works as intended. In today's world of commonplace mass layoffs, "doing more with less" and "working smarter, not harder" a few extra bucks isn't going to buy a Whole Lotta Love (I'm starting to hear another classic coming on..., but I digress).

Don't get me wrong; people work for money, and so market competitiveness, especially for base pay, is critical to the ubiquitous "attract, motivate and retain" objective we often hear mentioned. (Base pay is mostly for the "attract" part, and to a slightly lesser degree the "retain" element; not so much for the "motivate" part, but that's a post for another day). Because cash compensation is so important, it's critical to make sure the cash elements of your rewards programs are competitive with the relevant external labor markets in which you compete for talent.

But if you think you can buy workplace love, engagement, loyalty, or commitment, you're mostly dead wrong. Some people can be bought psychologically, but not that many (excluding politicians, of course!).

Substantial research confirms the disconnect between money and commitment or engagement at work. For instance, a recent study conducted by WorldatWork (membership may be required to view study results), in collaboration with the  Hay Group and others, confirms that indeed, non-pay elements of the total work experience are the key drivers of employee commitment and engagement.

The study, a survey of hundreds of compensation/rewards professionals, reports that organizations realized better outcomes in their efforts to "engage" employees if non-HR employees were also involved in the development of reward and engagement efforts.  Regarding key reward elements, "non-financial rewards, as opposed to financial rewards, are viewed as having more impact on employee engagement," says Tom McMullen of the Hay Group.  He goes onto say that "quality of work, career development, organizational climate, and work-life balance have a greater perceived impact on employee engagement than financial rewards." 

The perceived quality of managers and top leaders are also more important than financial rewards on impacting engagement.  "Quality of leadership has a profound impact on employee engagement and motivation" says Paul Rowson of WorldatWork, who also says that "organizations must think it terms of total rewards and not just financial rewards if they are to enhance employee involvement, commitment, job satisfaction - and performance."

Assuming your compensation levels are already competitive, the next time a weak manager seeks approval to use increased pay to enhance retention or morale, maybe we should be thinking about fixing the manager, rather than throwing money down the drain of worker discontent, especially with their management and/or leadership.

You may have heard the phrase that employees join companies, but they leave their managers - this is so true (just think about the last really bad manager you worked for).  Of course, some will leave for more money or opportunity elsewhere, for sure, but when people are poorly treated and/or managed, virtually all of them want to leave!

Once your workforce is paid fully competitively, additional reward dollars would be better spent on programs and actions that enhance culture, employee commitment and engagement, and ones that strengthen your management and leadership.

Don't try to buy employee love and loyalty; earn it instead.  It's cheaper, and more effective.

Doug Sayed is principal and founder of Applied HR Strategies, Inc., a Seattle-based compensation consultancy, and developer of the StrategicPay Series, a series of hands on, "do it yourself" guides for developing your own strategic compensation programs.

A couple of recent posts via the excellent Compensation Force blog and the Ohio Employer's Law Blog really got my attention.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals made a decision on Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemptions for sales persons that could potentially affect thousands of employers, eventually.

Until now, determining exemption status for sales professionals was fairly straightforward. The short and simple version is that "outside" sales persons who work primarily in the field (outside of the office) and who engage in selling maybe classified as exempt, while "inside" sales is virtually always non-exempt from the overtime provisions of the FLSA.  Sometimes where the distinction is not so clear, some sales persons can be classified as exempt under the administrative exemption of the FLSA, so long as the employees in question have significant discretion and independent judgement in their roles (it's more complicated than that, but this is Cliff Notes version).

First some background: Jon Hyman, in a post on his great Ohio Employer's Law Blog, calls the 33 page opinion (Novartis Wage and Hour Litigation) a must-read for any business that employs salespeople and pays them as exempt.  Here are the highlights of Jon's post:

Outside sales exemption: The (Novartis) sales reps do not qualify for the outside sales exemption because they do not actually sell any products. Instead, in their brief sales calls on physicians, they merely promote their employer's product. The physician cannot neither buy directly from the rep, not commit to making a purchase. In sum, where the employee promotes a pharmaceutical product to a physician but can transfer to the physician nothing more than free samples and cannot lawfully transfer ownership of any quantity of the drug in exchange for anything of value, cannot lawfully take an order for its purchase, and cannot  lawfully even obtain from the physician a binding commitment to prescribe it, we conclude that … the employee has not in any sense … made a sale.

Administrative employee exemption: The sales reps do not qualify for the administrative employee exemption because their jobs lack the exercise of discretion and independent judgment. Specifically, the court pointed to the reps' lack of any role in planning marketing strategies or formulating the core messages delivered to doctors, inability to deviate from the promotional core messages or to answer any questions for which they have not been scripted, and quotas for doctors' visits, sales pitches, and promotional events.

At this point you might be thinking to yourself "So what? We're not a pharmaceutical company!"  If you leave it at that, you'll be missing some potentially important distinctions here.  For instance, what about "relationship selling," where the primary role is to get other companies/customers interested in your product or service, but the sales person doesn't really sell, directly at least? What about account managers, who often have the primary role to manage relationships with existing customers, but may do little or no direct selling? What about product "evangelists," that are common in software and other technology companies?

If you have exempt sales persons who may not explicitly meet the sales exemption test of the FLSA, or if you're not sure, you should contact your labor/employment attorney for a qualified opinion in light of this game-changing court decision.

Now that the economy and labor market has started to (weakly) recover, does this mean that it's back to business as usual for rewards professionals?  The short answer, in my opinion, is no.

Not that we won't be performing many of the same activities that we have for years, but ongoing trends, along with the devastating impact of the 2008-2009 recession, have combined to create the perfect storm for potential change in the ways we look at base pay management, variable pay, and qualitative or non-financial rewards.

Just as many economists feel the recession has led to some fundamental changes in consumer behavior, I believe that some fundamental changes in in the way that various forms of rewards are utilized are already underway.  For instance, a report done by Hewitt last year, predicted that over the next decade variable pay budgets will continue to rise (to 16% of payroll, up from about 12% today and half that back in the early 90s), while base pay increase or "merit" budgets will continue downward, from close to 4% prior to the recession, to about 2.5% to 3.0% today, and to about 2% in 2020. While no one knows if these specific numbers will hold up 10 years out, I believe they have nailed the general trends with their predictions.

Over the next decade employers will continue to endure painful benefits costs increases (healthcare reform or not, medical costs are rising out of control), crowding out potential spending on other rewards programs, especially for base pay increases.

Base pay is destined to be a serious pinch point for both employers and employees, as companies strive to keep fixed cost increases moderate, while employees lament the lack of pay growth. Between the long-term shift towards more variable pay, the cost squeeze created by ever-increasing healthcare costs, and the weak labor market (and predicted to be weak for some time), base pay has no where to go except barely up. Some pundits also see a change coming in the way merit pay is doled out.  For instance, see "Paying it Forward:Ideas Beyond the Traditional Merit Matrix" by Ann Bares via the Compensation Cafe.

To augment the lack of excitement at the base pay level, many savvy employers are paying more attention to qualitative rewards, i.e., rewards that are not based on monetary payouts, but more focused on addressing other "higher order" needs (in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), such as building a culture of appreciation and recognition, offering greater opportunities for training and skill development, offering greater work schedule flexibility and other work-life fit options, and in enhancing the overall culture of the organization in ways that are more employee friendly.

There are not going to be a lot of fixed dollars to throw around in the next few years, and so it will be incumbent on organizations and rewards professionals to make better and more creative uses of the various rewards alternatives available to them.  Motivating and retaining workers has never been "just about the money," but that concept will prove to be even more relevant in the 2010s.

Doug Sayed is principal at Applied HR Strategies, a Seattle area compensation consultancy, and lead author of the StrategicPay Series Base Pay Toolkit, a guide for helping non-compensation experts to develop their own strategic compensation programs.  Doug is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) with over 25 years of HR and compensation experience, and a Master's degree in HR management from The Ohio State University.

A recently released study of board of directors compensation by Hewitt details the shifting trends of board compensation over the past few years.

The study reveals that about 42% of director compensation is in the form of "retainer" fees (non-contingent compensation paid for membership on the board, typically paid in for the form of cash), about 15% is in the form of meeting attendance and/or committee fees, while the remainder (43%) is in the form of equity/stock.  See the chart below for a graphical view (thanks to Hewitt and the Compensation Force blog for the graphic).

Other Interesting Information:

The study, which focused on public companies (the only ones required to report this kind of data) also reported that:

• About two-thirds of companies in the study had stock ownership retention guidelines that require board members to retain a certain amount of stock (commonly as a multiple of their annual retainer).
• Committee heads typically receive additional cash retainer compensation (the median was $10,000 annually for audit and compensation committee chairs).  This data has remained fairly stable for the past two years.
• Most retainer fees are paid in the form of cash.  A small minority of firms pay in the form of stock or via a stock/cash mix.
• Additional retainer fees are typically paid to "lead directors" (the lead non-employee/independent director) and non-employee board chairpersons.

The report summary is nearly 70 pages in length, so if this is a topic of interest to your work, please click on the link for more information.

This guest post was written by Shannon Swift of Swift HR Solutions.  Thank you for your contribution Shannon!

You are the CEO, COO,CFO  or VP of Finance, or VP of Operations. You have a full plate, but you are also responsible for Human Resources.  Am I right?

As a VP of Operations you have projects to implement and an office to run.  As the CFO or VP of Finance you have a top line to watch and a bottom line to manage.  As the COO you have everything already mentioned and more than likely a sales organization to oversee.  And as the CEO you have it all and much, much more, as the buck stops with you.  So who has time for Human Resources?  Who has time for all that touchy, feely stuff?  Heck, who even has time to think about any of it today as we are all trying to do more with less?
 
You do, and you have to.  Why? Because, as the VP of Operations, you need strong, competent people to implement and manage those projects.  As the CFO or VP of Finance, you need a critical eye to examine ways to cut costs related to things like benefits and insurance without damaging morale, and someone to keep you compliant to avoid costly litigation and fines.  If you are the COO, you need everything already mentioned along with a solid strategic partner to help you with organizational design to put  the right people in the right places to ensure all are successful and, in turn, the Company.   And if you are the CEO, you need an experienced confidant and candid partner to help you through everything from layoffs to acquisitions and board meetings to executive coaching.  You need to know that every issue related to the success of your company that involves your people (which is nearly every one) is covered.

So, has your view of the value and need for Human Resources changed?  Been updated?  Been confirmed?  What do you need to know to put the right Human Resource program in place for your company?  Well, let's start with the stage of your company and go from there.

Top 5 things you need to know about Human Resources if your company is between 2 and 20 employees:

1.       Implementing best practices and philosophies early is the key to growing your company the right way.  What we mean here are things like foundational areas such as hiring practices, compensation and benefits philosophies, culture and values, etc.

2.       Ensure your benefits are in place and fit your company culture and budget.  A good Human Resource professional can help you do everything from implementing your first benefit package to evaluating an existing one to ensure you are getting the best value for the benefits you are providing and offering.

3.       Compensation is key to attracting and retaining the right people. Having a strategically thought out plan that fits your company's stage of growth, funding, and product stage, and is also competitive with the market, is key to keeping the team happy, as well as your investors.

4.       You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  Be sure that you have an orientation program that helps people quickly come up to speed on all the things they need to know to get started successfully.

5.       Have solid tools in place and an experienced resource to reach out to when you are in need of Human Resource support.  Attorneys are expensive, and don't necessarily fit your culture.  Accountants are not normally well versed in Human Resource requirements, so you need someone on your team who is focused on Human Resources and has the best tools to support you.  Utilizing a product like SwiftHR®-in-a-box affords the appropriate level of HR tools and resources needed in a cost-effective way for even the earliest stage employer

The Top 5 things you will want to consider if your company has more than 20 employees:

1.       If you currently have someone internally managing Human Resource ask yourself if they are tactical, strategic, or both.  If you have an Office Manager, for example, focused simply on tactical execution of the HR function, you likely are missing out on a number of important issues around such areas as compensation (including equity), benefits design, organizational design, leadership and executive coaching.  You may find that adding senior level Human Resource expertise leads to HR practices that more fully support business objectives and facilitate effective organizational growth.  This is a position ripe for outsourcing if you're not ready to absorb the cost of a full time professional.

2.       Make sure all of your executives and management are on the same page.  A good way to test this is to ask each what the mission of the Company is, along with the foundational values that drive the Company's behavior.  Will the answers be the same?  Ask them what the key business initiatives today are and what their role is in ensuring they are met.  Will they know?  Strategic Human Resources can help to ensure that these are clearly articulated and that all parts of the organization are aligning in the same direction.  Having everyone on the same page will allow the company to move toward success much faster and easier, and with fewer hiccups.

3.       Evaluate your compensation and benefits practices to make sure you have a defensible structure with strong evidence of internal equity.  Ensure that your capitalization table is up-to-date and that your underlying compensation philosophies are resulting in consistent hiring and merit procedures and outcomes.  Compensation is an emotionally charged area and one ripe for compliance and litigation problems.

4.       Review your Organizational Chart.  Look for areas that no longer make sense, or may indicate potential problems are looming.  Common problems include too many direct reports (i.e. > 5-7), a strong individual contributor who has somehow managed to build a large base of direct reports but has no leadership or management skills, functional sub-groups under the wrong group, "holes" in a department, or "equal partners" with no clearly defined authority points.  Keeping an eye on the organizational chart of a rapidly growing business and making corrections before they're needed is essential to effective execution.

5.       Know what your people care about. When you started out, the team was all young, single, and didn't care about things like health benefits or EAPs or even having a 401(k) plan.  Does the group still look the same now, 2 or 3 or 4 years down the road?  As demographics of the team change, the package offered should reflect the members you're trying to keep on board, and also those you're trying to recruit.

So where do you start in regards to getting your Human Resource initiatives on track or in place?  The best place to start, if you are an established company, is with a complete Human Resource Assessment.  This process and resulting document will help you determine and address areas of non-compliance, both state and federal, and will also identify areas of deficiency in best practices and gaps in your HR program.  Another consideration in your evaluation of how you're doing as an employer is to invest in a culture assessment.  What aspects of the Company and their job are important to your employees?  What do they say outside the company walls about the company? What would they do differently if they were in charge?  The answers to these questions are all things that help you as an executive anticipate and proactively avoid issues that could slow your company's progress down, or in the worst case scenario, bring it to a halt.
 
Tell us what you are doing to ensure Human Resources is a priority in your company.  What are you doing creatively that you can share with other executives?  What questions do you have that we might be able to answer?

Shannon Swift is the Founder and CEO of Swift HR Solutions, an HR Consulting firm that supports early and mid-stage companies in the Northwest through its talented Human Resource consultants and its SwiftHR® in-a-box product and surrounding services.  For more information contact Shannon at Shannon@swifthrsolutions.com or via phone at 888-768-5920  X701.

Corporate performance and CEO pay are poorly correlated, according to executive compensation expert Graef Crystal.

Crystal recently completed a study for Bloomberg News on the relationship between shareholder returns and CEO pay, and found that no matter how the data was sliced, the relationship was a poor one.  In other words, the relationship between what shareholders earn on their investments in a company and and what CEO earns is not a very good one.

By viewing the interactive graph at this link,  one can see that the link between pay and stock performance is a tenuous one. The data is based on over 2009 data from 271 large public companies that have already reported their financial results and their executive compensation.  2009 was a very good year for the most stocks, but a generally poor one for most businesses, so we should expect some divergences.

In periodic posts in the coming months we will look closer at this topic, as it's a "hot" one that won't seem to go away.

Upcoming StrategicPay Series Workshop:

Don't miss our upcoming intensive  1/2 day workshop "Utilizing Market Data and Conducting a Competitive Pay Analysis" on June 10th.  See here for more information.

Is it crucial to maintain a competitive pay posture to attract and retain high quality talent?  We think so (that why we spent over a year writing a book about how to do it!), and most HR and rewards professionals believe that as well.  But does paying competitively make your people happy, engaged and/or driven to perform?  Generally not, unless you're using a well-designed incentive program to drive certain behaviors (but that only addressees the behavior component).

Competitive base pay is absolutely critical to attract talent, and to maintain a basic level of satisfaction with the compensation that employees receive for voluntarily sharing their skills with your organization.  Beyond base pay though, what really drives motivation, worker engagement and the desire to stay with an organization are how you manage and treat them.

See the table below and tell me what you think of the difference is between an employee who is willing to stay with your organization because they are basically satisfied (but not terribly engaged) vs. an employee who really wants to stay with your organization and believes in it (i.e. is engaged).

Source: Employee Hold'em, 2009

The data above is from a large study done every two years or so by by an organization that focuses on employee engagement, and the results are clear: it's not just about the money!  In fact, we would argue that how you manage and treat your employees is more important than the money, assuming the money is about where it should be (you're paying at least close to or better than competitively).

With dollars scare these days (over 50% of employers gave 0% - or less - pay increases last year, and 2010 pay increase budgets are south of 3% for now), how you treat your employees is even more critical.  Hence, there is a growing movement towards more qualitative rewards (feedback/communication, appreciation, training, etc.) , as opposed to just quantitative ones (mostly pay and benefits)

We'll continue to bring you more information and data on this large topic of worker psychology, qualitative rewards and employee engagement in the coming months.

Don't miss an opportunity to sign up and participate in these upcoming events:

Compensation, Rewards & Employee Engagement Trends - 2010 and Beyond (approved for 3.5 HRCI Credits)
Date: May 13th, 2010 8:00 AM to noon
Location: Bellevue Harbor Club
Cost: $295.00
Register for this Event

Organizations are struggling to keep up with changes in salary and compensation trends. As the economy recovers, what is the future of pay and employment? What can employers do to retain and re-engage talented employees? In this half-day session, participants will explore 1) the latest compensation trends and future rewards thinking and 2) the elements of a successful employee engagement and recognition strategy. Participants will take away low-cost tools, ideas and resources to build a culture of appreciation within their teams and organizations. Workshop instructors include StrategicPay Series creator, Doug Sayed and Chief Motivation Officer, Theresa Chambers of Recognition Works. The program will be held at the Harbor Club in Bellevue from 8am to noon. The program includes a continental breakfast, parking validation, as well as a discount coupon to purchase the Base Pay Toolkit worth one-half the tuition cost alone, if interested.

 
Utilizing Market Data & Conducting a Competitive Pay Analysis (approved for 3.5 HRCI Credits)
Date: June 10th, 2010 8:00 AM to noon
Location: Bellevue Harbor Club
Cost: $295.00
Register for this Event

This half-day program will focus on how to conduct a market-based pay analysis, including selecting and using pay data sources, grading jobs into a salary structure and evaluating how the company measures up.  This is an advanced, in-depth course.  Participants will walk away with a working knowledge of the subject matter, as well as the tools and templates to execute in their company.  The cost includes a continental breakfast and parking validation, as well as a discount coupon to purchase the Base Pay Toolkit worth one-half the tuition cost alone.

There have been so many fundamental shifts in the workplace and the employee-employer relationship in the past two decades that it's not only time for workers to reconsider how they manage themselves and their careers, but also time for us, as HR and rewards professionals, to relook at how we face today's workplace realities, which include:

• The death of job security as we (and especially our parents) once knew it.
• Fundamental shifts in loyalties, and in some case of trust, in the employee-employer relationship.
• The realization that all employees are responsible for their own career and are in effect, the CEOs of  "Me, Inc." (In other words, employees are responsible for managing their own career and professional development, not their employer).
• The job description for CEO of Me, Inc., includes a line that job security is primarily the CEO's responsibility, not their employer's (see Ann Bares' recent post "A Fundamental Shift in Talent Management: Will 'Active Job Security' Replace 'Passive Job Security'?").
• That employers now, more than ever, are responsible for creating an environment where their Me, Inc. employees will choose to keep their skill sets and performance focus.

Since Me, Inc. employees are primarily concerned about "Me" (that's you, not me!), most Me incumbents want to know details on the fundamental question of "What's in it for Me?" in their employment relationship. (I call it the "WIFM question").

In the "old days," employees worked for employers, and employers controlled virtually all aspects of the employment relationship.  In return, employees showed up to work nearly every day, did their jobs and generally enjoyed high levels of jobs security. That was the implicit contract: I take care of you, and you take care of me...

Today, employees must take care of themselves (and hopefully most labor force participants have figured this out by now), which means that most insightful workers are now working for Me, Inc., even if they are doing so at an employer's place of business.  Today, it's far more important than in the "old days" for employers to provide the favorable set of conditions for Me, Inc. incumbents, and to do so in a way that is productive and fruitful for both sides of the employment relationship.  With most of the implicit loyalty out the window, the dynamics of the employment relationship have changed significantly. Employers need to provide a reason (and hopefully several of them) for high-performing Me, Inc. employees to stay with them.

Translating these shifts into newer ways of doing business as HR and rewards professionals means, among other things, that your mode of communications must be enhanced to address the WIFM questions and the win-win relationship between employers and Me, Inc. workers. For instance:

• Instead of just informing employees about your compensation and rewards philosophy,  communicate it from a partnership perspective and explain why and/or how your philosophy benefits them too (back to the WIFM question).
• Rather than just expecting performance, clearly define what performance means for each individual, and how it is important and beneficial for the business and the employee to perform well.  Create a "win-win" strategy.
• Explain the performance-benefit linkage (the performance WIFM) between how high levels of performance benefit the employee as well as the organization.
• Continue to communicate the employer-employee value proposition, addressing the WIFM questions and how the employment "deal" is a beneficial one for both employers and their Me, Inc. employees.

As we're discussed recently on the StrategicPay Blog, there are not going to be a lot of extra fixed payroll dollars to throw around in the next few years, and so it will be especially important to focus more on the psychological and qualitative benefits of working for your organization.  These include developing and supporting a culture of appreciation and accountability; having a well trained, high quality, appreciation and performance-oriented management team, and providing learning and growth opportunities for your Me, Inc. employees in residence. Training and coaching managers to utilize the right skills and mind-set for this type of management style (communicative, supportive, collaborative, and yet accountability-driven) will be critical to successfully managing in the era of Me, Inc.

Another way employers can help create a positive partnership is to recognize and value the inherent stresses impacting workers these days. In today's hectic world, with working parents and crammed schedules, workplace flexibility is an especially valuable workplace benefit that costs little to offer. Those employers that can provide a trusting but accountable environment and that can manage to job expectations, rather than managing to specific times on a clock, will likely see benefits in lower turnover and greater loyalty and engagement among their professional and managerial staff.   (Yes, you'll still have to manage to the clock for your non-exempt employees).

Of course, offering a competitive compensation and benefits package is still very important in the "attract, retain and motivate" equation.  More important than the minimal extra dollars that most employers will be adding to their payroll budgets in the next few years, however, is the way your employees are treated and managed. The days of the "we own you" approach to management are numbered. The days of "we work together for mutual benefit" is where the world of work is heading for high-performing organizations.

Doug Sayed is principal for Applied HR Strategies, Inc. and developer of the StrategicPay Series, a series of "do it yourself" toolkits designed to assist HR and compensation professionals to develop strategic compensation programs on their own.

The StrategicPay Series authors and selected expert guest presenters are offering several intensive half-day workshops for HR and compensation professionals/managers. For certified professionals, HRCI credit is pending for the upcoming events.

The cost of each session is $295, but there is a $50 discount (per session!) for those signing up for two or more. In addition, participants receive a coupon code for 20% off on the purchase of the Base Pay Toolkit, worth half cost of attending alone!

Compensation, Rewards & Employee Engagement Trends - 2010 and Beyond

With Doug Sayed, and Theresa Chambers of Recognition Works

Note: approved for 3.5 hours of HRCI credits!

Date: May 13th, 2010 8:00 AM
Location: Bellevue Harbor Club
Cost: $295.00

Register for this Event

Organizations are struggling to keep up with changes in salary and compensation trends. As the economy recovers, what is the future of pay and employment? What can employers do to retain and re-engage talented employees? In this half-day session, participants will explore 1) the latest compensation trends and future rewards thinking and 2) the elements of a successful employee engagement and recognition strategy. Participants will take away low-cost tools, ideas and resources to build a culture of appreciation within their teams and organizations. Workshop instructors include StrategicPay Series creator, Doug Sayed and Chief Motivation Officer, Theresa Chambers of Recognition Works. The program will be held at the Harbor Club in Bellevue from 8am to noon. The program includes a continental breakfast, parking validation, as well as a discount coupon to purchase the Base Pay Toolkit worth one-half the tuition cost alone.


Utilizing Market Data & Conducting a Competitive Pay Analysis

Note: approved for 3.5 hours of HRCI credits!
Date: June 10th, 2010  8:00 AM
Location: Bellevue Harbor Club
Cost: $295.00

Register for this Event

This half-day program will focus on how to conduct a market-based pay analysis, including selecting and using pay data sources, grading jobs into a salary structure and evaluating how the company measures up.  This is an advanced, in-depth course.  Participants will walk away with a working knowledge of the subject matter, as well as
the tools and templates to execute in their company.  The cost includes a continental breakfast and parking validation, as well as a discount coupon to purchase the Base Pay Toolkit worth one-half the tuition cost alone.
 

Compensation Trends & Salary Planning

Note: HRCI credits anticipated. We will apply for them as the date gets closer
Date: September 23rd, 2010 08:00 AM
Location: Bellevue Harbor Club
Cost: $295.00

Register for this Event

This program will provide an update on current market trends, including merit increase budgets, salary structure movement, etc., and instruction on salary planning, budgeting and merit plan design.  Participants will walk away with a good picture of the current market conditions and several ideas for merit plan design, as well as the tools and templates to develop, model and implement in their companies.  The cost includes a continental breakfast and parking validation, as well as a discount coupon to purchase the Base Pay Toolkit worth one-half the tuition cost alone.

The StrategicPay Blog would like to re-welcome two guest bloggers: Robert Spencer has worked on change programs achieving more than $1B in savings for clients.  The information in this blog is based on a book he is writing, Change Made Simple; he can be reached at r.spencer@comcast.net.  He is joined in this series by Christy Martin who is a compensation consultant in Seattle, Washington.  She can be reached at christymartin@mindspring.com.  This is the second of a three-post series on making organizational changes.


More Mistakes to Avoid for Successful HR/Organizational Changes: Mistake #2

There are 6 mistakes organizations must avoid to have more successful change:
1.    Focusing on the Top Team
2.    Emphasizing Motivation
3.    Avoiding Resistance
4.    Too Much Productivity Loss
5.    Poor Sequencing of Changes
6.    Too Little Leadership Continuity 

Mistake 2: Emphasizing Motivation

Most sophisticated leaders and their consultants like to kick off major initiatives with a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement about the value of the likely results.  For example, implementing new performance management programs or a new mix of compensation features.  Characteristic of this behavior is a one-way 'dialogue' that emphasizes the leader's point of view concerning the promised results and importance of the initiative.  Often this further manifests itself as placing a premium on the leaders themselves to be 'cheerleaders' for the change program; in other words, leaders who are adept at promoting and selling the change.  "Heck, everyone should want to do this!"

Compounding this tendency is the positive response it typically elicits.  Certainly any project team worth its salt will respond positively, and often the top couple of layers of the organization will mimic this, especially if the political winds are blowing in that direction.  When the leader is concerned with the possible response, those closest to her or him can be powerfully reassuring.

The problem with cheerleading is that it is rooted in the logical, not the emotional model, of the change process.  Because there are benefits, people should logically want to be supportive, and may be intellectually.  But when we look at communications from the standpoint of the emotional process it is clear that something is ending for many people and this suggests that at some point they will experience a sense of loss and personal concerns if the change is significant.

Looking deeper into who wants to change the most, you typically find the people who are most enthusiastic about a given change are:  new to the organization (<5 years) or their role (<2 years), have already transitioned to a project role, and/or have no clear influence in existing social networks that determine how things get done.   In other words, people in the organization (or among its consultants) who have little to lose or change will tend to be the most enthusiastic.  This phenomena was captured well by Norman Mailer when he observed, "A person only becomes a conservative when he has something to conserve." 

Instead of cheerleading, the most successful leaders engage in change conversations.  Do they still allow themselves to be positive and enthusiastic about the change – certainly.  But instead of delivering a monologue, they engage in a discussion about what in fact may have to end with the new initiative.  Further, they also recognize that defining endings involves a discovery process and patience; they allow time and provide different avenues to surface concerns, and allow people to change their minds as their personal understanding evolves.

Successful managers understand there are different communications styles and use this knowledge to tease out what is happening to people.  As an example, consider the experience of one turnaround manager in trying to increase employee productivity.  Once she had shared the business imperative, she then reached out to employees and line managers to get their views on the obstacles and opportunities.  Instead of focusing the discussion on where she wanted to go, she engaged others on what needed to be done and how best to resolve what were sometimes chronic delivery problems.  She respected their views and the way they presented them, making her change an opportunity to create engagement and a dialogue.  The result:  in four months she was able to institute change initiatives that increased throughput by over 40% and even had shop stewards sharing their ideas for ways to get further improvement.

Robert Spencer will share #4, too much productivity loss, of the six mistakes in an upcoming guest blog with his collaborator, Christy Martin, for The StrategicPay Series Blog.