Your company is seeking to employ a Financial Accounting Manager, and the leading candidate is currently “in transition”.  Human Resources has pegged the market value of the job at $ 75,000 (midpoint), but it’s known that the preferred candidate (Bob) will accept $ 65,000. A seasoned and experienced professional, Bob was previously paid $76,000 by his last employer, but was caught up in a restructuring staff reduction.  He’s been out of work for almost a year and is getting desperate.  Relocation is not an option, and he’s worried about feeding his family and paying the mortgage.

When the decision point arrives, other less qualified candidates are already making $ 70,000 and asking for $75,000.  Some hiring managers would look at this situation as a no-brainer.  “Let’s hire our “A” candidate and save $10,000 to $15,000” would be the smug decision.

That wasn’t hard, was it?   An exceptional candidate has been gained at a low ball price.  The manager deserves a pat on the back for saving the company money, right?  But, wait a minute.   Perhaps it should be a boot in the butt instead.  You make the call.

A savvy professional like Bob will have a sense of the competitive market, so he’ll be aware of having taken a significant pay cut to land this job.  So how excited will he be with the offer?  Today, he’ll be delighted and will celebrate getting a job and finally having money coming in again.  Tomorrow, not so much.

How long before resentment grows that he was taken advantage of – gotten on the cheap?  What will happen to his enthusiasm, engagement, morale?  What will he come to think of the company, never mind the hiring manager?

What is the likely future for Bob?

It is always safe to presume that how an employee is treated will become known; otherwise you’ll be stuffing skeletons into a closet – and you know how that trick never ends well.  So when Bob confirms the low ball treatment, what reaction can you expect?

• Angered by a sense of being taken advantage of he could continue with his job search – looking for a better opportunity – while still working for you

• His job performance will suffer, dropping from 110% to automatic pilot somewhere south of Satisfactory.  He’ll be going through the motions – not exactly the dynamo you thought you had hired.

• Bob’s attitude will turn negative and he’ll become another disengaged employee – critical of the company and management, doing no more than he must in order to get by

• And yes, he’ll ultimately quit, but on his terms and timing.  His anger will have kept simmering and he’ll likely feel little concern as to how his departure affects the organization.

What you have now is a bad hire, in retrospect; that situation is unnecessary and easily avoidable if you treat candidates fairly.  Look at it from the candidate’s perspective; when your back is to the wall and you feel your “rescuer” is taking advantage, that feeling causes a pit-of-the-stomach resentment that lingers and festers.  And it costs.

Let’s tally up the cost

The manager claimed a cost savings by the hiring decision.  But when you factor in the longer term ramifications of that decision, how do the initial savings hold up?

• The hiring decision saved $10,000 to $15,000 per annum by consciously underpaying the candidate

• What is the discounted value of a disengaged employee who doesn’t perform as expected or desired?

• What is the value of time lost when Bob quits and the job is vacant while a replacement is sought?

• What is the value of hiring a potentially more expensive replacement (plus agency costs) and perhaps relocation?

• What is the value of productive time lost while a new employee gets up to speed?

• Finally, what is the subjective value of a discontented employee in your midst, possibly poisoning other employee attitudes?

So the next time a hiring manager proudly announces how to save a bunch of money on a candidate who’s in transition, take a moment to think it through.  You may want to consider a boot in the butt instead.

When you’re trying to grab the attention of Senior Management, remember this; they like a good story, especially one with pictures.

If you’re addressing your company’s single largest expense, its employee pay programs, the pictures become charts & graphs that illustrate the points being made.

Pictures capture attention and build memories much better than text or even the spoken word.  Show a picture and the image is locked in, while reliance only on text is a risk.  The drone of dry prose can grow boring and is liable to lose the attention of all but your strongest supporters.

Attention grabbers that work: 1) speedometer style formats that graphically indicate the current situation against the target; 2) the green light, yellow light, red light approach, again to colorfully paint a picture that stays in the mind; and 3) pie charts, tables, even regressed lines that tell a story.

People remember images because they capture the imagination.  They have a harder time recalling (and taking to heart) what you said or what you wrote.  So concentrate on your supportive imagery.

Make the story a short one.  I once worked for a CEO who thought any proposal could be reduced to a single piece of paper, with plenty of white.  “If you need more than that,” he would say, “it’s not such a grand idea.”

You need a plan

However, before you settle on the visual format best suited to sell your case you should focus on the data points necessary to make that case.  Remember the old adage that a dream without a plan is only a fantasy?  If you don’t take action steps to convert ideas to reality, what you’ll be left with is smoke & mirrors – with no results to show for your efforts.

For those of you who have ever been on a diet, you treat it like a project plan, right?  Experts advise that participants write down everything they eat, have goals to strive for and milestones to gauge progress.  It helps to have a plan and to keep score – to know where you stand and where you’re headed.

To accomplish this you should create quantifiable metrics that will collectively illustrate the well-being of your compensation program(s) – and then establish baselines (current state) and targets for each performance indicator.  This key step will help you understand whether your costs are being contained and whether the ROI on employee rewards is at the level your company requires.

Commonly used HR metrics:

• Average salary / wage

• Compa-ratios (comparison of pay to a range midpoint)

• Count of employees per segment (hourly, non-exempt, professional, management)

• Average performance ratings

• Average annual pay rise for each performance rating

• Count and average promotional and “equity” increases

• Voluntary turnover (employees who decided to leave)

• Average employee age and length of service

We could go on and on, but you get the point.  Refine these and any other quantifiable factors by further segmentation – per salary grade, employee group, male / female, etc.  Make sure each metric is measurable, because accuracy counts.  A compelling argument demands precision.

To make these metrics work for you, to avoid a series of make-work arithmetic exercises that do nothing more than capture minutiae, be certain to measure what is important to your business – not simply what data you can capture.  Make sure the importance of the metric is clear to management (or can be made so).  Management needs to grasp the importance of success, to understand why the metric is important and what achievement would mean.

Once you have the right metrics established (collectively called the “dashboard”) and a baseline in place, you will readily see where the problems lie.  Then set specific targets going forward to improve these weak areas, creating periodic milestones to mark your progress.

What to look for

Every organization has different pressure points.  However, if your metrics data indicates any of the following situations, management should be informed.

• Average performance ratings that exceed how the business was rated

• A workforce where key segments are approaching retirement age

• Promotion and “equity” increase activity that overwhelms the merit budget

• Low compa-ratios that indicate you are not paying your salary ranges

• Any figure that is an unpleasant surprise

When you’re telling a story to management, make it compelling – with facts and pictures that feed off critical metrics analysis that form the pulse of your business.  Then bring home the sale by showing how to solve the challenges being faced – with practical strategies designed to end your story on a happy and successful note.

You’ve seen your company’s want ads and heard the pitch from your recruiters; you offer competitive wages to qualified candidates.  That’s got to be a strong hook for attracting talent, right?

Big deal.

Pay structures are updated based on market trends, so the opportunities offered employees support your retention and motivation strategies, right?

Not enough.

Most employees presume their company is already meeting (or aspiring to meet) the goal of competitive pay.  Companies routinely advertise the practice (“we offer competitive wages”) and candidates in return expect this of potential employers.  But what happens when your goal of offering competitive pay is finally achieved?  Are employees grateful?  Can companies rest in their efforts to attract, motivate and retain?

I’m afraid not.

What doesn’t happen when you offer competitive pay is that your recruitment problems do not magically disappear, your employees won’t be satisfied and your compensation programs have achieved little more than being average – and isn’t that a “C” grade in school?  Is that where you want to be?  As far as aspirations go, it’s only middle-of-the-road.

If your company does pay “the going rate”, that means that approx. 50% of the companies out there are paying more than you.  That’s what average gets you, with half doing more and half doing less.  Is that what your company aspires to achieve?

No one leaves your company for less money – so all you’ll hear from your employees is about how so-and-so is making more somewhere else.  And as employees only hear what supports their own notions –they won’t pay attention to the broader rewards package, just the points that confirm their opinion that your company isn’t paying enough.

The only way to avoid this scenario is being the premier paying company in your market / industry – and can you afford that cost?

Lest we forget, it’s important to differentiate between having a salary structure (grades, salary ranges and midpoints) that provides competitive rate “opportunity” and actually paying employees at those rates.  Some describe this as whether the company is “walking the talk”.  I recall a client proud of the fact that their salary ranges were continually adjusted to mirror market rates, but was later embarrassed to discover that actual pay practices fell well below their midpoints.

For their part, employees relate to what they are being paid, not the midpoint of a salary range or other such declared “opportunity”.  To them the company’s “competitiveness” is more illusion than fact; especially if they’re experienced and have been with you for awhile.  Thus the company needs to keep its focus on actual pay vs. opportunity pay.

Why don’t employers pay the “going rate”?  Typically it is not a strategy, but a series of practices that evolved over time.

• Some candidates will accept a lower rate than should normally be paid for their knowledge and experience, and managers tend to view this as a cost savings.  Though it is more like putting a skeleton into the closet and hoping it doesn’t jump out at you down the road.  One day these employees will change their minds.

• Once you’ve started down the slippery slope of paying some employees below market rates the practice is soon compounded by internal equity.  Managers don’t want to pay similarly qualified new people more than existing employees, so the new hires are offered below market pay.

• Pay-for-performance systems have a hard time keeping up with the increased marketability of employees.  A minimally qualified employee hired at the minimum rate will gain knowledge and experience (and thus marketability) faster than a company’s annual merit system can recognize.  This is compounded when you have to hire a qualified worker and discover that the market requires you to pay more than what you’re paying your more experienced employees.

So, what’s the answer?  Management won’t agree to become the premier payer in your area, so you should consider instilling flexibility into your pay practices.  Consider targeting key jobs (highly skilled, difficult to replace, etc.) and make sure those jobholders are well paid for the market.

Other positions less skilled and more easily replaceable could continue with your “competitive opportunity” strategy.  This approach is akin to ring-fencing key talent, protecting them against poaching while recognizing / rewarding those with the most potential impact on your business.

Bottom line?  Be careful when you claim how your company provides competitive wages.  You may not be correct, but if so – big deal.

In our last post we introduced you to step # 6 of the Seven Step Compensation Diet – the need to create quantifiable program metrics.  Such tools are used to help understand (measure) whether costs are being contained, where the problems areas lie and whether the ROI on employee rewards is at the level you want them.

At this point in your compensation diet you’re well on your way to establishing successful cost reduction / effective spend program(s), but your struggle isn’t over yet.  All can still be lost, as most dieters will attest, if you fail to stay the course.

Step # 7:  Stay the Course

Consistency of effort is the key to long term success, whether you are trying to lose a few pounds, save money for your company’s bottom line or build a more effective and efficient organization.

Your success will not be achieved via a quick-fix cure, but through the steady application (repeat, steady) of the constructive re-design steps we’ve been discussing.  You must keep firm control of both the gas pedal (keep moving, keep moving) and the steering wheel (minimize distractions).

By carefully applying each of these steps a side benefit will develop – that of a stronger trust relationship with your employees – demonstrating that management is intent on fair and equal treatment for all its workers.  That trust will take time to grow, and it needs to be nurtured through visible and repetitive actions that continue your message.  Like a steady drumbeat, the continued application of uniform policies and procedures will pay dividends that grow with time.

Your employees should also see that their senior management team is “walking the talk”, adjusting their own behavior to match that of newly trained lower level managers.  Leadership is critical to ensure organizational success, as a shared effort among all employees will invigorate and motivate group activity into doing the right thing.  Conversely, playing with internal politics, favoring special interests and / or displaying executive arrogance (us vs. them) will doom your dietary efforts as employees will lose faith with a message that’s only talk.

It is also worth noting that not everyone will agree that the steps you’re taking are the right choices.  Those who disagree will likely employ one of several tactics in an effort to render your initiatives ineffectual; you should anticipate such reactions and plan your counter-measures.

• The Naysayers – those who whisper dark thoughts in the hallways and cubicles, shaking their heads with the knowledge that “of course it won’t work”

• Passive Resistance – offering little in the way of upfront objections, these folks will not actively assist the process but will do what they can behind the scenes to delay, discourage and otherwise weaken your efforts

• This too will pass – especially prevalent with those who have been around for a while; these folks will sit back, offer neither help nor active discouragement, but will simply wait you out.  They figure that the existing culture will overwhelm your initiatives, especially if support is minimized

Forewarned is forearmed.  Enlist senior management for visible support from above, frequently communicate your positive messages to employees, reward performance over personality, be fair and consistent in your decision-making – and keep at it.

To close out the dietary analogy remember that most weight loss efforts do not work in the long term, mainly because the dieter is unable to achieve long-lasting behavior change.  We all want that quick fix diet pill!  Similarly, if your company is unable to change its practices it will suffer the same discouraging result (cost increases, inequitable treatment and worsening employee relations) as ruinous business practices creep back into play.  You might even be worse off than before.

Or not.  Make your choice.  Get out there and shake things up.  You can do it.  We’ve just shown you how.

In our last post we introduced you to Step # 5 of the Seven Step Compensation Diet – the need to set up a pay increase budget and stick with it.  Managers make fewer questionable reward decisions when funds are limited, when they are held accountable and when Finance is double-checking and reporting on transactions.

Hand in glove with this financial tool is the need to obtain Senior Management support for your program re-design strategies.  To gain their support you need to pro-actively make your case.

Step #6: Develop a Metrics Awareness Program

You can grab the attention of your senior leaders by telling them the story of their largest single expense item – your company’s reward program.  They will want to know whether that huge expense (40% to 60% of revenue) is being properly managed.  If there are challenges ahead, or a crisis at their doorstep, you will have their attention.  You will need to tell them what has happened, and why.   They will ask about implications (liabilities, competitive picture, morale, turnover, etc.) and what would it take to resolve the issues being faced.

You had better be ready.

To tell a compelling story that describes real or potential problems with your compensation program(s), you will need to present facts and figures.  You will need to be specific.  Suppositions, theories from management magazines or best guesses based on your years of experience will not make the sale.

You will also face the passive resistance of those accustomed to the laid back philosophy of “if it ain’t broke . . .”   Unless there’s a problem staring them directly in the face, management won’t recognize that the barn is on fire, or that it soon will be.  You will need to instill a sense of urgency by presenting evidence.

Specifics are listened to

To understand the plot points of your story you should establish a series of quantifiable indicators (metrics) that record the factors and activities that impact your compensation programs.  Some examples:

• Average salary / wage

• Compa-ratios

• Count of employees per segment (hourly, non-exempt, professional, management)

• Average performance ratings

• Average pay rise for each performance rating

• Count and average promotional and “equity” increases

• Voluntary turnover (employees who decided to leave)

• Average employee age and length of service

I could go on and on and on (we only have so much space), but you get the point.  Measure what is important to you.  The further refine these and other measures by breaking them down per salary grade, employee segment, male / female, etc.

Once you have the metrics established (collectively called the “dashboard”) and a current status baseline in place, determine where immediate problems might be festering.  I use a simple red light, yellow light, green light code to mark problems, cautions and thumbs up for each criterion.  Follow this by setting specific targets going forward to improve your weak areas, and create periodic milestones to mark your progress.

What to look for

Every organization has different pressure points.  However, if your metrics data indictaes any of the following situations, it’s likely a specific problem that your management would want to know about.

• Average performance ratings that exceed how the business was rated

• A workforce where key segments are approaching retirement age

• Promotion and “equity” increase activity that overwhelms the merit budget

• Low compa-ratios indicate you are not paying your salary ranges

• Any figure that is an unpleasant surprise

Having a series of quantifiable measures will give you a sense of direction, as well as a method to gauge your progress.  Lacking that, your activities would likely spin you around in a circle, achieving little but data collection.  You need to use the data.

Start the ball rolling.  Create quantifiable metrics that will collectively illustrate the well-being of your compensation program(s) – and then establish baselines and targets for each performance indicator.  This key step will help you understand whether your costs are being contained (your diet is working) and whether the ROI on employee rewards is at the level your company requires.

In our last post we introduced you to Step # 4 of the Seven Step Compensation Diet – the need to control the headcount and type of jobs in your organization.  Reward dollars can be maximized by operating a lean organization.  Only staff those jobs required for operational success.  At the same time avoid back door cost increases by refusing to play “title games” that add expense without providing a fair performance “return.”

Success here depends on your ability to track reward dollars and measure your spend against a plan.  To do that you need to have an allowance.

Step # 5: Have a Budget and Stick to it

Have you ever played the board game Monopoly?  Players start with a given pile of money and then it’s spend, spend, spend and hope for the best.  When it’s not your own money it’s fun to see what you can do, because it’s only a game, right?

When Managers have the Keys to the Kingdom though, the authority to spend the company’s money, it’s a different matter.  Your company probably doesn’t look at management spend on employees in quite the same manner as a wheedle-dealing board game.  The costs are real; the implications long lasting.  As management considers effective methods to rein in uncontrolled spending (cutting the fat), they should set up some form of restrictions to which managers must adhere.  No more strolling past Go and Collect another $200.  Thus the budget is born.

An established annual reward budget (pool of money) can be an effective gatekeeper and measurement tool for managers, limiting their largesse and forcing better decision-making.  On a regular basis they can also track the level of spend, as well as the corresponding progress toward adherence to an annual goal.  The basic tenet here: making a series of one-off decisions over time without having a cost meter running will drain your financial resources before your annual needs are met.

Chances are, you can’t go back for more money.

When under pressure Managers are notorious for first reluctantly agreeing to trim their merit spend (note the nodding heads and muted voices of support), only to circle back later with promotions, adjustments and job re-evaluations that more than replace the initial savings.  It is this form of passive resistance and end-around tactics that a fixed budget is designed to defeat.  If you factor in that Managers will always attempt to circumvent whatever system you put in place, you might be able to stay one step ahead.

So save yourself some angst by ensuring that your budget pool includes promotions and adjustments, as well as the annual merit increases.   Some use two separate budgets to better categorize and track activities.  But whatever the case, be careful to limit and track.

By the way, those granted the authority to spend the company’s money should be held accountable as to how that money is spent.  You can measure it.  Adherence to a spending plan should become an assessment factor in a managers personal performance appraisal, an objective indicator of the demonstrated ability to actually manage.

Finally, to ensure that you achieve greater management focus, ensure that the Finance function regularly monitors and reports on those activities (management spend decisions) that impact budget targets.  Managers who know how much money they have, and how much remains, are more careful with it.

If no one is watching, no one is caring.  It is not easy to become a lean organization, and even harder to stay there.

Many companies with international operations are reluctant to purchase compensation surveys covering their multiple countries, on account of the cost.  To them it’s like having to survey multiple USAs, no matter the headcount involved.  As discussed in an earlier post, Shock and Awe, the cost of these international surveys can be prohibitive.

For example, if the US-based Acme Manufacturing Company has operations in Germany, India and Argentina, survey costs for these three countries would be 2-3 times the cost of comparable US surveys.  As most compensation experts recommend using multiple sources to better gauge market trends, the cost factor very quickly becomes an eye opener.  The more countries you operate in – well, you get the point.

Hence the hesitation.

However, is putting off a competitive pay analysis a good business decision?   What is gained by keeping ignorant of whether your compensation packages are competitive or not?  Of course, by happenstance you may be lucky and are already providing compliant and competitive rewards.  More likely though, the odds favor that you’re either overpaying or underpaying your employees.

Long term Impact of the Status Quo

Let’s look at the scenarios that can be playing out while you remain unaware.

Over Payments:

• Where local compensation costs are higher than the competitive market, without a corresponding ROI in productivity or performance (more pay is not a 1:1 correlation).  You are wasting money.

• Most employees will not recognize that they’re being paid above average, so any presumed positive perception is only an illusion.

If you’re overpaying, but don’t realize it because you haven’t obtained credible survey data, you will likely presume that everything is okay.  In other words, you’ll think that your pay is on par with the market, when in fact you are paying at above market rates.  How much money (the differential) will you be needlessly paying out on account of this presumption?  Chances are, the cost of finding out – of potentially identifying a key problem – would be a small fraction of the money being misspent.  Is this an efficient use of your reward dollars?  I don’t think so.

Underpayments:

• Employees feel that they are not being compensated fairly

• Your ability to attract the right caliber of employee for your operations will be weakened by low compensation rates

• Employee engagement, productivity, morale, attendance etc. will be less than what they should be, feeding off negative employee perceptions

If you’re underpaying, but don’t realize it because you failed to obtain credible survey data, you may also blindly consider that everything is okay.  After all, anyone who leaves does so for more money, right?  But doesn’t everyone?  So you may not learn much through staff defections.  Have you considered the annualized cost of losing just one experienced staff member?  And should you lose more?

Choosing instead a course of hesitation and delay will not rectify any festering issues; they don’t go away or fix themselves.  Instead, your inaction will worsen the situation and make eventual corrections more painful.

Cost of doing business

Do you remember that ad line, “you can pay me now, or pay me a lot more later”?

While squirming to avoid costs the company might try to obtain free data off the internet.  Good luck there.  Pundits will tell you that the value of free data, even if available is usually less than what you paid for it.

Instead, ask yourself if you would spend a dollar today to save three tomorrow?  That’s the question you must answer, to gauge the economic value of knowing the competitive position of your international employees.

Your financial folks might see it another way.  They might see only a finite dollar amount being spent, against a “maybe” savings estimate.  They will ask you for guarantees you cannot give.  It’s not like buying a machine that will increase productivity, lower production costs, raise profit margins and lower the cost of sales – all measurable.

Would you pay to learn how competitive are your services and product lines?

To make informed and effective business decisions, management requires knowledge of present circumstances, the challenges being faced, the import of the status quo and the implications of change.   When dealing with the single greatest cost to your organization, employee pay, it would be well worth your effort to spend what is necessary to give senior management the proper ammunition for decisions that could drive the business forward.

Yes, it would be well worth the cost.

In our last post we introduced you to Step # 2 of the Seven Step Compensation Diet – the need to lay out in your mind the general theme of how you plan to reward your employees.  Without such a governing plan or broad strategy individual manager actions will continue to push your reward costs upward at a rate greater than anticipated or desired.

At the same time, if you don’t know where you’re going (i.e., the Yellow Brick Road), any path will take you there, and odds are you’ll end up right back where you started.  So you had better set up some signposts along the way.

Step # 3: Prepare Compensation Guidelines

By “guidelines” we mean a series of written policies, procedures and how-to instructions that guide your management in dealing with compensation / reward issues.  These compensation policies, programs and procedures should reflect and support the strategies you developed in Step #2 – The Strategy.   Commit them to writing and distribute widely to managers and employees.  Have everyone get the word and don’t let ignorance become an excuse.

This primer should be the policy and procedural instructions your managers will rely on when called on to make spending decisions.  Educating your managers on the tactical application of your company’s pay programs is a critical step; one that will help modify actions and decisions in a way that will support and encourage the enduring change your organization needs.

As you would anticipate, left to their own devises Managers tend to fill an information vacuum (no guidelines) with precedent-setting decisions that will increase costs, foster inequitable treatment and over time alienate segments of the population.  Guidelines (or rules, if you’re strict) serve to rein in these ineffectual leaders by establishing parameters to their freedom of action and limits to their authority.

While aberrant behavior by rogue managers will cost you in terms of money, morale, and productivity,  giving managers policies and procedures to operate by will save you money, as well as time and trouble.

A suggested Table of Contents might look like this:

• Compensation philosophy (Role of compensation function, pay for performance, compensation strategy [as available])
• Brief description for each of your direct and indirect pay programs
• Step-by-step instructions to process every type of pay change
• Approval process for every type of pay change
• Hiring, promotion and pay adjustment procedures
• Administrative issues (pay dates, overtime, new positions, job evaluation, etc.)

You should create a greater visibility for the inevitable exceptions-to-the-rule by establishing a one-up approval process.  Such a technique will highlight remarkable performance through transparency of reward.  If you include templates and sample forms you can help ensure consistency of message while assisting managers to administer the reward programs.

When you shine a little light into those darkened, special interest corners the employees will notice – and applaud.

Having a rulebook-of-sorts will also help provide standards and structure to your reward programs, which in turn will foster greater employee engagement.  As you begin to improve how reward programs are designed, implemented and now communicated you will inevitably:

• Reduce your overall labor costs
• Increase effectiveness of money spent
• Increase ROI of reward dollars
• Improve morale, engagement and productivity

Final note: Make sure that all managers receive a copy of the compensation guidelines, and then periodically update and use them.  Refer to them constantly and let employees see that they are to be followed.

Let no dust gather on these pages.

In our last post we introduced you to the Seven Step Compensation Diet – to strengthen the internal value of company reward programs while dampening the upward spiral of your labor costs.

Our 1st step focused on the need to identify the organization’s reward challenges (what must be changed) before beginning the effort to establish corrective action plans.  Now that we have taken a look at ourselves in the mirror and acknowledged the current state of flab and flaws we need to move forward to the next stage and start developing practical solutions.  We have to start the diet.

Step #2: Develop a Compensation Strategy

Solutions rarely arrive by whimsy or happenstance, except in popular fiction. In the real world they are the result of planning and forward thinking.  The same applies when the need is to improve your reward programs.  You begin this process by laying out in your mind the general theme of how you plan to reward your employees.  Then you word-smith clear and precise statements that describe your beliefs, and around which you will design, administer and communicate your reward programs.

How important is an effective reward strategy?

• Helps guide and inspire the workforce

• Provides specific, motivating direction for connected actions

• Identifies the focal points for your programs

• Positively brands the company and helps recruit better employees

Whether you choose a formal or informal approach (back of an envelope to a formal document posted on the wall) you should map out in broad terms a vision of how the Company should reward employees.  There is no need to be fancy here, but your series of statements should mark your organization as an advocate of certain Human Resource principles (pay-for-performance, competitive salaries, focus on internal promotions vs. hire, etc.) – to be communicated frequently, be easily understood and viewed by your candidates and employees as credible (trusted).

How does this help?  Like using a Carb counter or a calorie guide, when setting out the guideposts of your reward philosophy you establish critical “do’s and don’ts” and openly communicate your principles.  The organization plants a stick in the ground.  Be careful though, as this is something for both you and your employees to point at – for standardization, consistent treatment and, of course, precedents going forward.

Many companies are reluctant to formalize a transparent strategy (worries over gaining management consensus, strategic effort and required commitment to results).  Others equivocate and muddy the message through generic wording, lack of specific design elements and the look and feel of everyone else.  That result comes across like a vague Mission Statement; broad, aspirational phrases like market leader, shareholder value, supplier of choice, leading edge technology, etc.  Such prose is immediately forgotten by everyone.

Anecdotal examples to illustrate the difference of broad vs. specific:

• We will be market driven; market competitiveness will be given priority over internal equity

• We believe it’s important to share the cost of benefits with employees

• We will provide employees with the opportunity to earn above average compensation for above average performance

• Our compensation and benefit programs will be designed to be competitive within our industry and revenue size

• We reward employees on a pay-for-performance basis; general adjustments are to be avoided

At this early stage of designing reward program transformation you should ensure that senior management is not only supportive of your strategies, but engaged in achieving the vision.  You will need this air cover for the tough decisions and passive resistance to come.  If you cannot count on active and public support, it would be best if you stop your dieting plans here.  You either walk the talk or you sit down.

And yet, you still ask, what if we go without?

• Your largest single company expense would be left without a guiding principle

• Without a governing theme reward costs will rise at a greater rate than planned or desired

• Inconsistent or possible contradictory messages will continue to create difficulties and expense

So, what’s it going to be?

It is an easy thing to lead an organization when the good times are rolling, but during a recession – when challenges assail you from every direction – not so much.   To succeed, to lead under these circumstances will require not only possessing a particular series of technical and behavioral skill sets but the ability to apply them as well.  Effective cost cutting has become a business priority, as well as the imperative to continuously create more efficiency in company operations.  You need to trim down as well as trim back, but in a managed fashion that will strengthen your organization for the future.

When it comes to Human Resources and the management of your payroll dollars, you need to cut the fat and tone the muscles; you need to go on a diet.

In your personal life the decision to begin a weight loss / trim down regimen typically means that you have recognized a problem with your current life style and have committed to 1) stop certain negative-reinforcing actions (eating the wrong foods) and 2) instill a sense of discipline to follow new positive-oriented behaviors (portion control and exercise) that would lead you to a healthier tomorrow.  In a similar vein companies facing a legacy of wasteful spending and misused employee rewards require the same discipline to curtail ruinous business practices and embrace the need for new thinking.

In order to rectify costly and damaging practices that have built up and ingrained themselves over time HR management will need to change the manner in which they reward employees and exercise more prudent behavior – as if the funds came from their own pocket, versus a bottomless well or the company’s money tree.

So how do you do this?  Where do you start?  I suggest that if you follow the Seven Step Compensation Diet you will develop a more effective and efficient HR organization, one that maximizes employee reward dollars while keeping a close eye on the company’s business objectives.

Today begins a series of Compensation Café posts that will describe each of the seven steps your organization should take to turn your pay practices around.

Step #1: Look Yourself in the Mirror

People begin a diet because they need to.   The damning evidence stares back at them in the morning mirror, forcing an acknowledgment that something must be done.

Management and HR professionals face a similar wake-up call as employee-related problems raise their troublesome heads and demand attention; payroll costs grown out of control, an increasing turnover of key talent, lower productivity or perhaps evidence of worsening employee morale.  Something is damaged or broken within the organization, economic and human factor pain is being felt and the need to address the issues has become critical.

Sad to say though, that it’s usually a crisis springing up out of nowhere – not timely self-appraisal – that forces action to replace historic lethargy.  Advance warning for the unwary is a luxury that cannot be counted upon.

The likely sources of this pressing concern are systemic practices rooted in outdated or ill-monitored policies that have out-lived whatever usefulness they might have once claimed.  So ask yourself:

• Do you have an HR / Compensation policy manual?
• When was it last updated?
• Do employees / Managers read it / use it?

Or perhaps it is simply that senior management is shouting at you?

Whatever the catalyst, at this early identification stage you will have a sense of likely problem areas (i.e., out-of-date procedures, lack of standards, policy gaps, poor documentation, training issues, etc.).  Analyze the likely causes (the actions likely feeding the problem) and consider what practices or policies the organization should modify or stop outright, and what activities or programs you need to start.  Then write them down.  Identify those policies or practices that may be causing harm and need to be reviewed, and then which new initiatives would alleviate the problem and strengthen your organization.  You will need to focus on these weak areas, as such components of your pay program become the baseline for your future efforts.  Do not lose sight of them.

Knowing you need to take action is a big step, but only the first.

Next up – Step #2: Develop a Compensation Strategy