by thepeopleplan | May 19, 2011 | culture, performance
The answer is maybe… Employee compensation is complex (part art and part science according to my mentor, national expert Dr Jerry Newman). I have taught a full semester college course on the subject so this cannot be condensed into one blog post.
Compensation is not right or wrong, it is relative—one employee’s pay compared to another at the same company (internal), and one organization compared to another one (the market).
For example, an employee compares her pay to others doing the same job and also different jobs. If I feel that I work harder than Sue (in my same job) but Sue is paid more than me, I feel I am “underpaid.” I also compare my pay to higher and lower level jobs (in my mind, anyway) – I expect to be paid more than an entry-level job if I am experienced. I also do not expect someone with a similar job in a different area to be paid 50% more than I am (this is the concept of comparable worth). If your organization does not have or share information about salary grades (to explain what jobs really are considered low and high level) then this can be an area of confusion or dissatisfaction about pay.
An employee also compares his pay to what other employers pay for this job. With the internet, employees have a wealth of compensation information they did not have 10 years ago. Every HR manager in America has had an employee come to the office and mention what Salary.com says the job is worth! And what is your response?
The typical compensation strategy is to pay market competitive wages—this means for the related industry and especially for the geographic area. To monitor this, your organization should be conducting an annual market compensation analysis, for both your industry and your region.
How do you find these surveys, how do you participate (many require your participation to receive the report), and then what do you do with the data?
To learn the answer to these questions, and more information about benchmarking compensation, attend our July 20/27 seminar with the Buffalo Niagara Partnership:
“How to Use Compensation Surveys for Competitive Pay and Benefits”
To learn more about the Buffalo Niagara Compensation & Benefits Survey (open July 2011), visit our website link.
Image courtesy of xe-pOr-ex at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by thepeopleplan | Apr 27, 2011 | culture, performance
Why are most employees not setting their jobs on fire every day?
Some employees are so internally motivated that they will always perform at their best (yes, we want only these people).
For the rest of employees, there are a few key reasons that they are not performing above expectation — some that an employer can influence, some that they cannot.
1. Some employees just do not have the work ethic or attitude to do a great job.
Solution: Good luck getting this type of worker to be “motivated” by anything you do. You know what to do.
2. The employee does not know what is expected or what is considered excellent (they think they are doing just fine).
Solution: Share clear expectations and give relevant and timely feedback (for good and poor performance).
3. Employees that have a good attitude and work ethic could have been de-motivated by something at your organization.
This could result from a myriad of issues such as not feeling respected, poor supervisor relationships, or anger over a change in pay or policies.
Solution: Open discussions about performance and a good working relationship might uncover the issue, so you can address it.
4. Some employees are motivated by external rewards- they ask WIIFM or “what’s in it for me?”
This worker will do an acceptable job but if you give them a method to earn a reward that is valuable to them (for example, money, respect, recognition, flexibility) they will improve performance.
Solution: Create incentive plans as well as other “total rewards” that will appeal to your employees. Recognition is an inexpensive but powerful motivator.
To read about 13 rewards to attract and retain top performers, download our E-book 9 Steps to Solve People Pains in Your Business
Image courtesy of satit_srihin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by thepeopleplan | Apr 20, 2011 | culture, performance
Are you spending your time on the Right Things? What could you accomplish for your organization if you “had more time”?
I know many business owners that regularly work 70-80 hours a week. We all know that owning your own business can be hard work, and require extraordinary effort in the startup years. If your business is at least 3 years old and has 3 or more employees, you really should be able to work less than 6 days a week for 10 hours a day.
And I am not casting dispersions, I have been known to do work that I could/ should have someone else do and focus on what I am best suited to do. Some excuses we make NOT to delegate: I am the only person who can do this, I can’t trust that she will do it right (or she is not trained to do it), last time he didn’t do it right, she is too busy, I don’t have time to train someone.
You can read about delegating to manage your own performance in the February People Planning newsletter. (Click link to view).
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by thepeopleplan | Apr 7, 2011 | job fit, performance
Do we have job descriptions? Sure we have some we wrote 5 years ago in a file somewhere….
I agree, job descriptions are not the most exciting part of human resources. Although job descriptions are not legally required, they can become the foundation of your employee selection and performance management process.
If you are looking to hire a new employee, the recruiting advertisement is most effective when it describes the position and the competencies you require for an Ideal Candidate. To be most efficient, you want a few fully qualified candidates to apply, not hundreds of unqualified ones to sort through. To do this, you want to describe your job in words that make an Ideal Candidate say “Wow- I can’t wait to get this job!” (and the unqualified ones to say, “oh, I am not what they are looking for” and then do not apply). Want sales people who can close 50% of their proposals? —put it in the ad—those sales people with confidence in their closing ability will apply, and “C Players” will keep looking.
For current employees, an enhanced job description can provide the clear expectations for what is required to be considered a good performer in this position. This is where competencies and performance metrics should be added to the job description to create a full Job Competency Profile. For example, an interior designer needs to “coordinate with sales team to provide up to two space design options within 5 days of initial client meeting” and “provide 100% accurate final product layout to purchasing within 3 days of client approval”.
If you do not have performance metrics written down, these are often informally understood (or employees have their own standards). Formalizing these can greatly improve team work—for example, the interior designer might consider her work is “fast” when she gives a draft to sales in 7 days. Sales “expects” that she “should” do this is 2 days.
You get the picture! Instead of letting everyone make up their own performance rules and guess as to if they are “Doing the Right Things”—spend some time developing clear performance expectations and then sharing them with each person.
Image courtesy of Just2shutter at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by thepeopleplan | Mar 30, 2011 | action plans, culture, performance
When I was in college, I was a member of the novice crew team, in a long skinny boat with 7 other women rowing on the Charles River.
The reason that inspirational posters feature a crew boat is that all the “oarsmen” need to row together at the same time towards the same goal. If you do not row with your teammates you either crash your oars or you can actually be thrown out of the boat!
Of course, this is an ideal analogy for employees in a work team, department and company. Your employees need to know where they are rowing and need to row together.
If you ask your employees, do they know how they can contribute to the monthly goal for the company (you do have them, right)?
How clearly do they know what to focus on every day when they report to work?
The solution is three –fold:
1) clearly outline what the organization wants to achieve,
2) break these down to individual responsibilities (and ideally measurable ones), and
3) communicate individual, team, department goals and results to employees on a regular basis
Hopefully your organization has long term goals (3-5 years from now), but these need to be broken down into annual goals, and quarterly action plans.
Quarterly action plans are essential because they list in detail what steps need to be achieved by whom and by when. Then the person accountable has tasks that drive their daily and weekly performance.
For example, your organization has a goal to get 50 new subscribers to sign up for your email newsletter by May 1. The head of marketing might have tasks that include a postcard mailing to current customers by 4/1 and training customer service representatives to ask every customer to subscribe to receive this newsletter. Customer service reps will be accountable (and measured) to achieve newsletter signups for 10% of their phone contacts per month.
Read more from local coach Rick Wallace (Next Level Coaching newsletter): Does your company execute well?
Employees like to feel that what they do contributes to a “greater” whole.
Spend some time and effort explaining the direction of the boat, how they contribute, and be sure to share successes and misses.
Image courtesy of hinnamsaisuy at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by thepeopleplan | Mar 3, 2011 | culture, performance
Could the “new economy” be an external obstacle to your company performance and growth? Psychology research has known for years that stress reduces cognitive (brain) performance.
It makes sense that personal stressors are impacting your employees’ ability to change and to be engaged with their job.
Article excerpt: “The reality is that change threatens everyone at some level. It’s normal to feel stressed, hesitant and fearful. When people are feeling that way in anticipation of change, they don’t think or act normally, and often appear to be acting like they have no brain.”
Click for the full article:
Left Brain? Right Brain? How About No Brain?: Key Steps Before Asking Your People to Innovate and Change
Author is Michigan consultant Scott Patchin of the Tru Group. His firm specializes in “helping organizations get the right people in the right roles to grow their culture and their business” just as the People Plan does.
Image courtesy of marcolm at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
