Compensation trends: Modern perspectives on pay

Advantages and Disadvantages of Broadbanding

<h1 class="subhead">The Advantages and Disadvantages of Broadbanding</h1> <p>Broadbanding is the term applied to having extremely wide salary bands, much more encompassing than with traditional salary structures. Whereas a typical salary band has a 40 percent difference in pay between its minimum and maximum, broadbanding would typically have a 100 percent difference. Most of the time, creating enormously large bands is done as a measure to support a restructuring. It combines and consolidates the number of levels or job grades. This article will discuss the advantages of broadbanding in an overall compensation strategy, as well as the disadvantages.</p>

Salary by Location

<h1 class="subhead">Why Geographic Differentials Don’t Work</h1> <p>For years compensation professionals have used geographic differentials to make decisions about what to pay jobs in locations where they may not have salary data. The theory stands that if you don’t have data for one location, you can use data from another location and adjust it based on the cost of labor in the two cities. While this may be a better option than making decisions without any data on salary by location – it’s not much better.</p>

Employee Pay for Multiple Jobs

<h1 class="subhead">Pay for Employees Performing More than One Job Q&amp;A</h1> <p>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.</p>

Creating a Merit Matrix

<h1 class="subhead">How to Create a Merit Matrix</h1> <p>When is it time for your organization to allot its merit budget, how do you best support the decision makers? Consider creating a merit matrix. A merit matrix is a great tool that can easily summarize and boil down paragraphs of policy into a simple, quick-to-view and quick-to-use visual to produce better decisions.</p>

Pay Incentive Programs

<h1 class="subhead">Incentive Pay and Cautions for Non-Exempt Employees</h1> <p>Above and beyond base pay is the option of incentive pay. The critical point to make about any plan for a pay incentive program is to watch your messaging. Your communication should focus on the notion that incentive pay is for results above and beyond normal expectations. You want to avoid any one thinking their incentive pay is an entitlement. Look what that thinking has done in the financial industry.</p>

Writing an Employee Termination Letter

<h1 class="subhead">Writing an Employee Termination Letter: How Much to Include? Q&amp;A</h1> <p><em>Find out the pros and cons of putting your termination reasons in a written employee termination letter.</em><br /><br /> <strong>Q:</strong> We want to provide employees who are terminated with a brief employee termination letter explaining our reasoning and informing them about administrative issues like COBRA and returning office keys. How much detail should be included about the reason for termination?</p>

A Crash Course In Key Compensation Metrics

Conversations that Change Employee Behavior

How to Use an Employee Performance Matrix

Workplace Behavior Ethics

<h1 class="subhead">How to Promote Positive Ethics in the Workplace</h1><br />Ethics is a fundamental business term because it can and does apply to all workplaces. Regardless of the organizational function, employees who fail to maintain an ethical standard in their workplace can raise the possibility of not only organizational corruption but also legal liabilities. In any role, it is vital that employees conduct themselves in accordance with both workplace policies, as well as applicable state and federal laws. The fallout of ethics failures can be seen daily on the news, i.e. Enron, and those colossal failures remind us that the collapse of workplace behavior ethics has the potential to damage and even destroy organizations.

Why Develop a Competitive Compensation Plan

Employee Competency Checklist

<h1 class="subhead"><a href="http://blogs.payscale.com/compensation/2010/01/employee-competency-checklist.html" style="FLOAT: left"><img alt="employee" border="0" checklist="checklist" competency="competency" src="http://www.payscale.com/content/employee-competency-checklist-01.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" /></a>Employee Core Competencies&#0160;-&#0160;A Proven Tool for an Organization&#39;s Success</h1> <p>“Hi, you got a minute?” It’s your fourth interruption this morning. It’s Sally, the Operations Manager. You know when she says, “Do you have a minute?” it usually means, “Do you have a half hour?” She comes in and sits down in your guest chair and you figure that you can spare a half hour before your next meeting. You’ve been the HR manager for your company now for five years so you can tell that Sally really needs to talk to you and it’s about one of her employees. You can probably guess which one, but you let her tell you. </p> <p></p> <p></p>