Roadblocks to Recognizing Low Performance

Talent management is crucial for business success. You want to incent your top performers and support, or possibly let go of, low performers. But, first you have to know which is which, and certain talent management challenges can get in the way of doing so.

Employee-Employer Communication: PayScale’s CEO Gives Advice

By Staff Writer

How do you design and present your compensation plan so that your employees feel motivated to perform better? This question has been debated many times here on Compensation Today. Today we hear from PayScale’s CEO Mike Metzger with some of his thoughts on the topic.

Meal Breaks: Issues When Employees Work Through Q&A

How should you deal with nonexempt employees who want to work through meal breaks to shorten their workdays? Should you allow this practice, or is it better to enforce your meal periods?

Want to Be a Better Boss? Good Advice for Success

I recently had the chance to participate in a virtual mentoring program through my alma mater. I was responsible for serving as a mentor coordinator and reviewing the exchanges between students taking an introduction to leadership class and working professionals who served as mentors. The discussion topics were all about leadership, which led to a lot of discussions about what makes a good leader. Although many would argue that there is a strong distinction between leadership and management, many of the exchanges revolved around what makes a good boss.

How to Manage Employees in a Partner Company

In the process of growing your business, you may one day sign a Master Service Agreement (MSA) with an outsourcing partner. There could be manufacturing, web design, content production or other skills that you don’t want to bother bringing in house. And, you may assume that you have laid out all of the details in the MSA so clearly that you’re assured success with this new partner. Is it that simple? Not likely.

Salary Madness: PayScale’s Basketball Tournament Predictions

By Staff Writer

Is someone in your office setting up a pool to predict the winner of the NCAA Division I Men’s basketball tournament? Maybe you’re rooting for the team with the best record in your favorite conference or are participating just for fun. While it may not make sense, PayScale welcomes you to follow our tradition of choosing the winner by our favorite factor: salary.

Help Your CEO Prep for the Board Meeting

By Staff Writer

We continue with our interview series with PayScale’s CEO Mike Metzger (see Helping CEOs with Compensation Planning) by learning what he has to say on the communication between an HR team and a CEO as they do annual compensation reviews and present their plan to the board.

Pay for Employees Performing More than One Job Q&A

If you have employees who want to work additional jobs for extra pay, you need to make sure you are paying them properly. Nonexempt employees may be owed overtime, while exempt employees generally can be paid the extra compensation without affecting their exempt status.

How to Help Your CEO with Compensation Decisions

Our recent 2011 Compensation Practices Survey revealed some useful facts about how compensation decisions are made at companies of all sizes. We noticed that small companies consistently listed the CEO as the person most responsible for final compensation decisions. So, we decided to interview our CEO, Mike Metzger, about how he approaches and likes to be helped with compensation decisions.