Creating the right compensation plan depends on having current data. One of the key pieces of the compensation puzzle is the rate of wage growth in the local metropolitan area. The most recent release of The PayScale Index shows the rate at which wages grew from Q2 2011 to Q2 2012. The results show considerable variance among the top metros. Read on to learn which are leading and which are lagging.

By Tripp Ritter, PayScale.com

Save Yourself Some Pain and Read On
Did you miss last week's hugely popular PayScale webinar? The one in which Stacey Carroll, PayScale's Principal Consultant, detailed the big mistakes companies make in compensation decisions? Well don't worry, we've got you covered. Read on for highlights and then, when you are ready to learn, listen in on the recording.

by Laleh Hassibi, Sr. Manager Content Marketing, PayScale.com

A new snapshot of Gen Y workers by PayScale reveals quite a bit. We’ve all seen the movie Failure to Launch and know someone just like that—the slacker who is still living at home. But are they really slackers? Possibly, they’re just under-recognized achievers. PayScale's recent research shows the latter is much closer to the truth. Gen Y tends to be very ambitious and highly educated. In fact, almost 97% of them have at least an Associates degree. Gen Y individuals with MBAs outnumber those with no higher education. Not only that, they tend to focus on ambitious majors like Neuroscience, Bioengineering, Entrepreneurial Studies, Chinese and Sports Management. Slackers? Not exactly.

By Tim Low, VP of Marketing, PayScale.com

You can’t swing a dead cat these days without hitting a mention of the cloud.There’s a reason for that. Cloud technologies, applications and vendors are treating HR and business customers to a whirlwind of innovation not seen in, well maybe never.  

No animals were harmed in the
making of this blog post.

Two recent articles are great ways to start to understand the direction HR technology is heading and the impact the cloud is having on organizations. In a great piece in CFO Magazine, David McCann writes about A Cloudy Revolution for HR Tech Arena. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in starting to understand the state of HR technology and the rapidly-evolving apps that are fast becoming must haves for businesses of all sizes.

Compensation is More Than a Paycheck

By Tripp Ritter, PayScale.com

Employees join and stay with companies for more than just their paycheck. They care about what the company offers in total. It's a combination of factors that make a company the right place for them. Sure, the paycheck is a key part of compensation and it is the one that we talk about the most, but it is not the only element in a compensation strategy. Smart companies come up with a thoughtfully-constructed package of pay and benefits to make sure they have the right mix of employees for business success.

What's the Best Choice? It Depends.

Should an HR professional seeking to gain a higher salary invest time and money into earning an MBA, a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) or Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification, or just working hard on the job? According to new research by PayScale, the answer depends on your job role. For HR specialists, senior HR managers and HR directors, earning either a certification or MBA is usually better than not, but one is often better than the other.

Be Smart about Compensation With Good Data

We're the experts in compensation data, so it's no surprise that we field compensation questions from private corporations all day long. What's new is that more and more non-profit organizations are coming to us make sure they find safe harbor in their executive compensation decisions. They look to us because our data and tools can help prevent the imposition of severe tax penalties applied by the IRS to punish executive compensation they deem excessive.

You Can't Hit Your Numbers Without Your Top Performers

Note: This is the first of a series of posts geared towards CFOs, finance and how HR can work effectively with Finance.

Retaining talent is one of the most important tasks for C-level executives today. Losing top performing employees can severely weaken a business, and recent research shows that high performing employees are the ones most likely to be seeking work elsewhere. Keeping hold of top talent, as well as keeping them away from your competition, is a matter of avoiding common compensation mistakes and developing an effective compensation strategy.