Too Heavy for Any Amount of Money

Happy Monday! Were you excited and ready for work today? Was the weekend long enough?

I keep hearing from people that they are putting in more effort and longer hours than ever before. Workloads are increasing, but companies aren’t hiring. We all know that overworking employees leads to progressively diminishing returns.  But, when is more work simply too much?

Compensation professionals are always working on the next salary increase and bonus pools. We fret over the most advantageous way to allocate these precious funds while keeping our employees productive and engaged. Perhaps we should step back and ask ourselves if we are spending our money on the right people. Maybe it’s time to hire a few more people rather than paying more to our increasingly thin and exhausted teams. Can we, and should we, really try to squeeze out a bit more work?

Imagine workload as a series of stones ranging from small to inconceivably large and heavy. With basic motivation most people will choose to pick up a small or medium stone. Combining the motivation of good pay and the potential risk of job loss can get the majority to strain to pick up the heaviest rock they can. What if the next one is even heavier? What if it’s simply too heavy to lift?

Many of us may already be at this point. We may be asking people to do more work, at a higher quality, than is physically or mentally possible. They may be able to lift the load once or twice, but not on a consistent basis. If this is the case more pay will not fix the problem. The only way to lift the rock is to bring in help.

We may forget that many people have been performing at the edge of their capacity for a long time. Even the best employees will succumb to exhaustion. Corners will be cut. Small tasks will be avoided. Random steps in critical processes will be skipped. Nothing will be immediately noticeable, but the results will accumulate. Unexpected things will start going wrong. Your best employees will trickle away to competitors and your worst employees will simply throw their hands up or choose smaller rocks to lift.

Now is the time to start addressing the number of staff members you should be paying, rather than the amount each person is paid. Instead of adding a few more dollars to everyone’s pay, add a few people to every team. You may need to ask your executives to step up and make a “donation.” In many industries executive pay has recovered. In some industries it even exceeds pre-crash levels. Explain how dollars spent augmenting your staff today will result in better compensation for everyone tomorrow. This is seldom a fun or enjoyable conversation, but it beats the alternative. 

Sometimes the stone is too heavy for all the money in the world. If you’re already there, you need to act now. 

Dan Walter is based in San Francisco, CA and is the President and CEO of Performensation an independent compensation consulting firm focused on the executive, equity and performance compensation needs of companies not in the Fortune 1000. Dan is on the boards of the National Center for Employee Ownership, HR.com’s Institute for HR, and the Chief Learning Officer Business Intelligence Advisory Board.  He also helps produce ShareComp, a virtual conference addressing equity compensation and is the founder of Equity Compensation Experts. Dan is in high demand as dynamic and humorous speaker at events around the U.S. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @performensation.

photo: zacheven-esh.com

Comments

[Caitlynn]

After working for one man for 9 years and running his entire company only to have his son show up one day without notice and shut the company down totally I want to tell you that I will not be working 70+ hours again for ANYONE. For 9 years no vacation was taken without multiple calls a day from the business. Once this recession is over most employees I know are looking forward to finding greener pastures. There is absolutely no work life balance in many industries.

[Shawn Miller]

Dan, thanks for this article. The 'heavy' problem has been building for the past few years. It's come to the point where Comp/HR professionals must not only have the difficult conversation with leaders but also be able to sell them on looking beyond short-term results toward long-term success. This could be the biggest and most critical 'project' many of us encounter in our careers. Will we be up to the challenge?