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« Regifting You Some Valuable Info | Main | Take Me To Your Leader » CAFE CONTRIBUTORS
12/28/2017 Ann Bares, Founder & Editor
Margaret O'Hanlon
Compensation In The Real World
Chuck Csizmar
I once supervised a Compensation Analyst
E. James (Jim) Brennan
who had spent much time attending
Derek Irvine
professional seminars and workshops.
One result of that education was that Dan Walter
when faced with a challenge at work she
Jacque Vilet
would repeat her class experience by
Stephanie Thomas
saying, “the greatest minds in
Compensation say that . . . “. It took a
lot of patience to educate this part-time SUBSCRIBE TO CAFE BY EMAIL
practitioner/part-time student in the
difference between the Enter your email address:
classroom/textbook answer and the
reality of the workplace.
Recently I came across an HR blog in which the author was instructing readers Subscribe
in how to create a merit performance matrix. Very good stuff, I thought, Delivered by FeedBurner
admiring the technical step-by-step instructions, except I knew from long
experience that the described procedure was impractical and would never work
in the real world. CATEGORIES
Yes, it is very important to understand the technical foundations of Base Salaries
Compensation methodology and practice. But first and foremost you need to Benefits & Perquisites
anchor yourself in the here and now, to know what will work and not work in
Board of Director Compensation
your organization, what will be accepted and what will be rejected – no matter
what the finest minds in Compensation think. Careers
Carnivals
Why doesn’t Compensation theory match with workplace reality?
Compensation Communication
Business realities: Management will typically know more about a
particular business situation than you do. What you are able to Compensation Philosophy
provide to the decision-making process as a Compensation Competencies
professional is limited to your particular subject area, while
Data and Analytics
management usually has the bigger picture – the perspective of
multiple viewpoints. Your compensation advice may not fit their Executive Compensation
business reality, no matter how logical an argument you make. Gender Equity
The bias of decision-makers: Decision-makers may feel that they Incentives/Bonuses
intuitively know the right approach to take (they’ve done it before, International Compensation
if-it’s-not-broke-don’t-fix-it, a friend/relation/old college chum
Job Evaluation
suggested an approach, etc.). Perhaps they simply read an article
and now insist you follow the advice of an author who doesn’t have a Nonprofit Compensation
clue about this particular business. Years ago I worked for a company Pay for Performance
whose CEO forced HR to implement a particular benefit plan because
Performance Management
he had read a magazine article.
Recognition
Problem avoidance: Short of killing the messenger, one solution for
Regulations & Public Policy
management is to do nothing about a problem (you’ve exaggerated
it, the solution costs too much, there’s still time, etc.). Senior Sales Compensation
managers can be like politicians in avoiding the big decision unless Small Company Compensation
and until it bites them in the leg. Have a care, as it can be
Social Media & Rewards
dangerous to your career if you try to force a decision.
Stock/Equity Compensation
Business culture or model: Some initiatives just don’t “fit” into your
Surveys
organization. Managers with a laid-back organization style will not be
interested in recommendations to document everything, standardize Total Rewards
policies and procedures and have approved forms for every possible
use. Picture your head banging against the wall. BANNER
Sometimes those subject matter experts who instruct in Compensation Banner Image by D-52
techniques fail to ground their instructions with a caution to their students;
check this process out in the reality of your workplace before you take a
classroom or textbook technique and wave it in the face of management.
An example:
Cost of living as a basis for pay increases: I once watched over a
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fascinating exchange on a Compensation bulletin board, where a debate
raged on for several days. The dispute was over the appropriate formulae
to use for calculating the cost of living vs. cost or labor as it affected ARCHIVES
average pay increases that management would approve. Each side of the June 2020
argument provided formulae, charts and graphs and quotes from notable
May 2020
experts to press home their opinion.
April 2020
The underlying reality behind this exchange is that management does not
March 2020
use the cost of living as a prime determinant in their decision-making.
They are more likely to roll their eyes at the technical debate and focus February 2020
on competitiveness and bottom line cost (affordability) – and why can’t we January 2020
do the same as we did last year? If their ultimate decision relates to the
December 2019
cost of living in some way, that’s only a nice coincidence that they can use
in their employee communications. November 2019
October 2019
A skill-set that separates the compensation technician from the compensation
professional is the ability to deal with what I call the “softer” side of September 2019
compensation. Survey statistics, charts, and formulae are very good to a point,
but management will want to know what it means and what to do about it. So
the answer isn’t simply reporting the data, but in taking that next step to help
management understand and strategize their next move.
The contribution you can make to your organization is to blend your technical
knowledge (the how-to) with seasoning and experience to understand what will
work for your organization, considering culture and management bias.
Technical knowledge will give you the same answer every time, but knowing
how to use that knowledge like a craftsman’s tool to aid in achieving business
objectives – that is the key to success as a Compensation professional.
Chuck Csizmar CCP is founder and Principal of CMC Compensation Group,
providing global compensation consulting services to a wide variety of
industries and non-profit organizations. He is also associated with several HR
Consulting firms as a contributing consultant. Chuck is a broad based subject
matter expert with a specialty in international and expatriate compensation.
He lives in Central Florida (near The Mouse) and enjoys growing fruit and
managing (?) a clowder of cats.
Creative Commons image, "cat-reading-glasses-with-paper," by Floho67
Posted by Chuck Csizmar on 12/28/2017 at 09:41 AM in Compensation Philosophy, Competencies |
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post.
Chuck gives great summary illustrations of the big differences between general
principles and specifically applicable solutions. The most popular method may
be most common, but it is rarely the best ... and may even be unreasonable ...
in any given situation.
Posted by: EJames Brennan | 12/28/2017 at 04:03 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.