Compensation ROI (the Return on Investment of your company’s compensation and total rewards policies, programs, and practices) is often misunderstood and underappreciated. In fact, most employers and Human Resources professionals tend to view employees as an expense – a necessary evil, if you wi...
Read More
“Understanding how to use compensation and total rewards as a competitive advantage has never been more important!” This statement, from the Foreword by United Way of Central Indiana’s Chief Talent Officer Nancy Ahlrichs, helps explain why I wrote my new book: Compensation Sense 101 – Common...
Read More
Employee retention is essential to workforce stability and prudent compensation management regardless of labor market conditions. But when the labor market is tight in a robust economy – when employees are more likely to look for better paying or more satisfying employment elsewhere – employee r...
Read More
Call it a perfect storm: As employee “quits” reach high levels in a strong economy while gender pay equity issues come to the forefront, employers are finally getting serious about their fair pay practices. Here’s how these factors are converging and what that convergence means for employee co...
Read More
When demand for workers goes up (in a tight labor market due to low unemployment), entry-level wages rise. Perhaps that’s no surprise. What might be surprising, however, is that many employers are aggressively vying for workers by offering more than double the federally-mandated minimum wage. Add ...
Read More
Compensation communication is too often an afterthought in many organizations. The resulting mystery surrounding compensation and total rewards can lead employees to perceive that your compensation practices are unfair, not industry-competitive, nor in their best interests. Of course, it doesn’t h...
Read More
In business, keeping score is important (think earnings reports, balance sheets, market share, etc.) – and yet not many companies know what a compensation scorecard is, or why it matters. Simply put, a well-crafted and comprehensive compensation scorecard not only describes your company’s variou...
Read More
An employee incentive plan can motivate and empower both employees and management. It can nurture teamwork. And most important, perhaps, at least for the company’s bottom line, is that it can boost productivity and profits. Yes, an employee incentive plan can accomplish all this and more IF it is ...
Read More
With five different generations in the workforce, it can be challenging to understand and balance their diverse expectations when it comes to total rewards. These rewards include everything an employee values in the work relationship, including compensation, benefits, work/life balance, performance ...
Read More
Workplace harassment – which is not necessarily limited to sexual harassment – is being recognized as far too commonplace. It seems like every day, another high-profile person admits, or is accused of, improper behavior, misconduct, or worse. Now, the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have given voi...
Read More
Gender pay equality remains elusive more than 50 years since passage of the Equal Pay Act, and nearly 10 years since the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became law. And despite widespread awareness of the “gender pay gap”, many companies continue to do little to resolve the inequity. This inaction c...
Read More
Ready or not, Generation Z employees are entering the workforce; and they bring unique skills and characteristics that will impact productivity, compensation, and total rewards. Let’s look at what sets Generation Z employees apart from other workers, and how these differences can help you attract,...
Read More
When it comes to managing employee rewards, every year has unique forces, factors and strategies for success; 2018 employee compensation and total rewards are no different. But let’s imagine we are 10 years into the future, or 20 or 25. What will we see as the characteristics that defined and dire...
Read More
The revised overtime rule proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL) under the Obama administration has been struck down by the same U.S. District Judge who put its implementation on hold in November of 2016. Let’s look at what was at stake in the revised overtime rule, what happened to it, and wha...
Read More
Pay differentials – when used properly – can be an important part of a successful employee compensation program. In fact, using pay differentials can signal your employees that you recognize variances in work conditions and are willing to reward employees who accept less desirable positions, shi...
Read More
The realities of compensation for millennials can be surprising, simply because this group is newer to the workforce. Lacking years of deep “real world” experience, millennials might be surprised by many aspects of current compensation practices and standards in today’s workplace. With that in...
Read More
Compensation satisfaction is extremely important to U.S. workers, but actual satisfaction in that category falls far short of the desire. This is according to a recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The 35 percentage-point gap regarding compensation was the largest not...
Read More
Compensation budgeting is often misunderstood, underemphasized and oversimplified. Many employers tend to factor in only an employee’s annual salary and benefits when considering personnel costs. But this shortsighted approach can lead to a budget shortfall and employee dissatisfaction – two cri...
Read More
Compensation discrimination can be costly – not just for victims of the practice, but also for organizations that must defend themselves against such claims. For example, Google recently found itself on the defensive after the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) claimed the tech giant discriminated aga...
Read More
Compensation communication can be a critical link toward improving employee morale, performance, overall satisfaction, and company loyalty – and yet it is often an afterthought. Let's take a look at how damaging poor compensation communication can be, and how to use it effectively to motivate and ...
Read More