Compensation Trends for Comp Professionals

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Snackable: PayScale invades Toronto and 2014 HRPA

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_snackable_hrpa.jpg" alt="header_snackable_hrpa"/>Hedge Stahm, PayScale Thousands of Canadian HR professionals descended on the frozen city of Toronto for the 2014 HRPA annual conference. The throngs flocked the educational sessions, viewed the keynote talks, and took advantage of the networking opportunities.

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10 ways to boost employee incentive programs

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_boostperformance.jpg" alt="header_BoostPerformance"><a target="_blank" rel="author noopener" href="https://www.payscale.com/author/tess-c-taylor-phr-the-hr-writer" style="line-height: 1.5;">Tess C. Taylor, PHR, The HR Writer</a>When is the last time you took the time to thank your employees for a job well done? Several workplace studies have shown a connection between appreciation of employees and the results of company objectives. Leaders who put emphasis on demonstrating appreciation to employees on a regular basis produce a higher level of employee engagement, which boosts productivity like gangbusters. Having an employee incentive program in place is one piece of the bigger puzzle.

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Fair and square! 5 ways to boost your bonus program

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_holidaybonus.gif" alt="header_holidaybonus"><a target="_blank" rel="author noopener" href="https://www.payscale.com/author/tess-c-taylor-phr-the-hr-writer" style="line-height: 1.5;">Tess C. Taylor, PHR, The HR Writer</a>How well is your company doing at fairly handling the employee bonus and incentive program? To help you figure out that answer, first ask yourself this question: Do you have a way of tracking the perks you hand out to employees so that you know you are doing this well? If your company chooses to use bonuses as part of a compensation program, but you are not effectively managing this with data, you could be missing the mark.

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Earned time off incentives - are they effective?

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_timeoffincentive.jpg" alt="header_TimeOffIncentive"><a target="_blank" rel="author noopener" href="https://www.payscale.com/author/tess-c-taylor-phr-the-hr-writer" style="line-height: 1.5;">Tess C. Taylor, PHR, The HR Writer</a>One of the many ways that employers incentivize the workplace is by offering earned time off for hours worked. This can be an effective way to motivate and reward employees at the same time as creating access to greater work life balance. For most, it’s a win-win situation. Employers have access to a reliable workforce, while employees have the chance to earn much needed time off. It seems like a good compromise to the growing issue of faltering attendance and performance in many organizations.

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3 Performance review options for startups

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_startupperformancereviews.jpg" alt="header_StartupPerformanceReviews" style="line-height: 1.5"><a href="https://plus.google.com/102099066436032147105? rel=author" style="line-height: 1.5">Jessica Miller-Merrell,</a> blogging4jobsManaging a startup company is a tough job whether you are just breaking ground or growing quickly. There’s so much on-the-job training and such a learning curve, not to mention that you never know what each day will bring. Wearing many hats, you have to quickly become an expert and grow professionally in order to keep up. Many startups have the advantage of having leaders who have years of professional experience so not every problem that comes up is foreign but at the same time, you also have the freedom to leave everything you know behind and establish new solutions and traditions. That’s a major reason why the topic of performance reviews in startups elicits such a varied response.

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The performance review: why consistency matters

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_reviewconsistancy.jpg" alt="header_ReviewConsistancy"><a href="https://plus.google.com/102099066436032147105? rel=author">Jessica Miller-Merrell,</a> blogging4jobs Conducting performance reviews is a tricky part of any manager’s job. They tend to hold quite a bit of weight when it comes to judging an employee’s contribution to the organization but are also very subjective, sometimes leaving employees with unfair assessments or unclear expectations. To make things worse, managers tend to let their own biases affect performance reviews so employees may not trust the performance review at all. While these issues are all unfortunate aspects of performance reviews, they happen every day in both large and small businesses.

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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

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Holiday parties vs. employee bonuses - what do employees most look forward to?

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_holidayparty.jpg" alt="header_HolidayParty"/><a target="_blank" rel="author noopener" href="https://www.payscale.com/author/tess-c-taylor-phr-the-hr-writer" style="line-height: 1.5;">Tess C. Taylor, PHR, The HR Writer</a>Get out your party hats – it’s the annual holiday season! This time of year signals a time when employees eagerly look forward to what the company has in store for them. Like little kids in a candy shop, they wonder if they will they get another turkey from the boss again this year, or does he have something else up his sleeve – like a bonus check?

The costly truth of employee unplanned absences and PTO abuse

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_costofpto.jpg" alt="header_CostOfPTO"><a target="_blank" rel="author noopener" href="https://www.payscale.com/author/tess-c-taylor-phr-the-hr-writer" style="line-height: 1.5;">Tess C. Taylor, PHR, The HR Writer</a>At some point in any organization, the excesses of employee tardiness, absenteeism and paid time off can become dangerously costly. From a human capital management standpoint, effort should be made to have a standard PTO policy in place to avoid unplanned absences. When this policy is communicated to employees and enforced by the management team, it can effectively save the company HR budget for other worthwhile programs. Yet, very often it can seem like an uphill battle when a handful of employees begin to abuse the system or seasonal illnesses start to reduce the team one-by-one.

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5 tips for justifying budget increases

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_budgetincrease.gif" alt="header_BudgetIncrease"><a href="https://plus.google.com/102099066436032147105? rel=author">Jessica Miller-Merrell,</a> blogging4jobs Money is a touchy subject, even in business. And asking for more of it, well that can feel like you may as well be walking a tight rope across Niagara Falls. Sometimes, though, it’s a necessary part of developing your department and can even be a sign of success that you need more in order to continue to grow. But before you request more money for your department, it’s a smart move to sit down and analyze whether or not your department actually needs more money.

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Paving the way to a healthy workplace with corporate wellness incentives

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_healthyincentive.jpg" alt="header_HealthyIncentive"><a target="_blank" rel="author noopener" href="https://www.payscale.com/author/tess-c-taylor-phr-the-hr-writer">Tess C. Taylor, PHR, The HR Writer</a>As Obamacare officially launched across America this year, new requirements forced employers to look for ways to boost their compensation and benefit programs without raising healthcare premium costs. The new law permits employers to use as much as 30 percent of each worker’s health care premium on wellness incentive programs (up from 20 percent last year). The challenge to find cost-effective ways to maintain the well-being and productivity of workers is on.

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The dangers of paying employees more than they’re worth

<img width="610" height="175" src="http://www.payscale.com/cms-images/default-source/b2b/header_howmuchpayistoomuch.jpg" alt="header_HowMuchPayIsTooMuch"><a href="https://plus.google.com/115301125688955669806? rel=author" style="line-height: 1.5; font-size: 13px;">Crystal Spraggins,</a> 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 (i.e., <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle">The Peter Principle</a>) yet aren’t developed or moved along; and when employees are paid too much to begin with, as a result of a weak or nonexistent wage administration policy.

Compensation trends: Modern perspectives on pay

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