Author: crystals

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR, is an HR consultant and freelance writer who lives in Philadelphia. Crystal has a particular interest in issues that affect American workers and toils under the philosophy that “HR is not for wimps.” She also partners with HRCVision, a full-service HR consultant practice specializing in leadership and diversity training. Contact her via her personal blog,HR BlogVOCATE or at crs036@aim.com.

Why Is It So Hard to Address Gender Pay Equity?

April 4th is Equal Pay Day, and PayScale will be hosting a Facebook live stream discussion about the challenges facing women in the workforce, including pay equity. But wait a minute. It’s 2017. Why is pay inequity still a thing? The Equal Pay Act of 1963 became law in, well, 1963, and the...

Link pay to performance. Like…seriously this time!

Crystal Spraggins, SPHRWhen PayScale asked more than 5,500 business leaders the main reason their companies adjusted pay in 2015, 52 percent answered "employee performance."

Fair Pay Employees Header

Fair Pay Employees Header

Paying employees right: What’s the big deal?

By Crystal Spraggins, SPHR and Katie Bardaro, Director of Analytics and Lead Economist at PayScaleThe President’s proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are still under review, but that doesn’t mean you should forget the whole thing (tempting though that may be). Managing pay reactively generally doesn’t result in the best decisions.

The low down on employee turnover

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR According to PayScale’s 2015 Compensation Best Practices Report, the top five reasons for turnover in 2014 were: Employees seeking higher compensation (20.8 percent)Personal reasons (20.6 percent)Employees seeking advancement elsewhere (17 percent)Termination due to poor performance (16 percent)Employees seeking different company culture/expectations (9 percent)

The low down on employee turnover

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR According to PayScale’s 2015 Compensation Best Practices Report, the top five reasons for turnover in 2014 were: Employees seeking higher compensation (20.8 percent)Personal reasons (20.6 percent)Employees seeking advancement elsewhere (17 percent)Termination due to poor performance (16 percent)Employees seeking different company culture/expectations (9 percent)

Here’s why CEOs shouldn’t read performance reviews

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR I have no idea what it’s like to start and then grow a company to the point of needing your first, and then your tenth, and then your hundredth employee. However, I do know this—somewhere along the way, the successful entrepreneur may find she has become the bottleneck to a...

Money as a powerful demotivator (don’t let this happen to your employees)!

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR A friend recently confided her salary to me, and I was shocked at how little she makes. I know my friend is worth a lot more, and I’m pretty sure her organization could pay more.

Managing the non-cooperative employee

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR If you’ve been managing for more than a minute, you’ve probably encountered the non-cooperative employee.

Why your holiday party sucks

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR Thanksgiving is over, and that means we’re all free to focus on those other upcoming holidays—whatever they might be for you.

The top 4 problems with pay for performance

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR Pay for performance or performance-related pay, as it’s also called, is a relatively simple concept. Under a performance-related pay philosophy, employees are offered financial incentive for meeting certain predetermined and quantifiable goals.

Autocrat, Democrat, or Servant: What’s your leadership style?

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR Every leader has a leadership style. And leadership styles have consequences. According to PayScale’s 2014 Compensation Best Practices report, most employees leave their jobs for “personal reasons” or for higher pay. Pay is important, of course. Despite how much we may like our jobs, if our employers couldn’t pay us,...

Why you need a code of ethics policy

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR In “We Should Speak Up About Ethical Violations More Often,” Joseph Grenny makes a somewhat surprising claim. Whistleblower laws aren’t the way to more ethical companies, he says. Instead, leadership needs to develop a culture that encourages employees to speak up—as a matter of course—about all the “minor” transgressions...

How to stop nitpicking and lead your team to better performance

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR NIT-PICK (v.) to be excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential details (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nitpick) The problem with the nitpicking manager is that he often lacks self-insight. In other words, the nitpicking manager doesn’t view his behavior as unhelpful. And that makes perfect sense, because if this manager viewed his behavior as...

Managing the insubordinate employees: Best practices

Employees with putrid attitudes who won’t and don’t follow instructions are a real drag on workplace productivity, because even if they’re kind of, sort of doing their jobs, the effort required to manage them relative to their output is a sorry bargain

The dangers of paying employees more than they’re worth

Crystal Spraggins, SPHRBelieve it or not, it’s entirely possible to pay employees too much money. Even in this economy, it happens. It happens when employee performance consistently fails to meet expectation yet raises continue; when employees stay in entry- to mid-level positions too long; when employees reach their level of incompetence...

Five good reasons why every organization needs a troublemaker

Crystal Spraggins, SPHR When is the last time you crafted a job posting that included the phrase “Must be a troublemaker” under “Requirements?” Probably never, right?Well, why not? Your organization needs a few troublemakers. Here are five good reasons why.