If there is one lesson I’ve learned in my time as a Compensation Café contributor it’s that compensation is difficult. I have great respect for my colleagues in the compensation world. Our editor, Ann Bares, has referred to herself and fellow compensation colleagues as “spreadsheet jockeys,” but there are clearly so many balls to juggle in the compensation world.
When you layer in other benefits, including recognition and rewards, the picture gets even more complex. The compensation pro is now juggling balls and daggers. Add in the different needs (or perceived needs) of the different generations, and you may as well toss in flaming torches to the juggling mix.
But no, that’s not enough of a challenge. For the truly stellar compensation professionals, they juggle all of this while riding the unicycle of meeting the needs of global employee base. Just a few articles to hit my reader this week prove my point.
First, fellow Café contributor Laura Schroeder wrote last Friday about the 5 trends changing how we think about compensation – not the least of which are a new kind of workforce, new business priorities, and demands for more transparency.
Next, you have to consider that paying people more to get the job done won’t help if they don’t know what the job is. SmartBrief on Leadership ran a poll finding that only 43% think their organization’s mission and vision statement is crystal clear, simple and compelling. Why does that matter? Tim Sackett told the story of a manufacturing facility that produced items for soldiers in combat. As he put it: “Every individual who came into that facility – from the guy who was sweeping up the floors to the person writing the checks for material – knew where their products were going and what it meant if one of their products ‘failed.’”
That’s a clear mission. Without that level of understanding, employees may toil away in good faith and good effort in their jobs, but still not deliver what the company needs to actually succeed. Compensation can’t fix that, but strategic recognition can if designed properly to reinforce key messages through frequent recognition.
What about generations in the workplace? Everyone says Millennials are different. Well, everyone is wrong. I’ve said it before. John Zappe says it better in TLNT, dissecting the results of a Kenexa WorkTrends survey of 30,000 workers in 28 countries. Come to find out, Millennials aren’t different, they’re just young. Comparing the findings to a similar survey from 1990, people of the same age group in the earlier survey were just as likely to leave their job as the new generation of employees in their 20s. This proof that it’s more about life-stage than “generation” should influence compensation discussions. Should compensation pros try to pay their way to keeping top staff who happen to be Millennials? Or should some level of attrition be expected and accepted because of the life-stage of these employees?
Adding global into the mix makes even communicating well intentioned compensation and recognition programs difficult. Ann wrote a rather funny post on her Compensation Force blog discussing the phrase “incentive scheme.” This is how such programs are regularly referred to in Europe with no negative affiliation, but in the US the word “scheme” smacks of some kind of underhanded plan. As I commented in Ann's blog, my research assistant (an American) asked me (I'm Irish) about this once. She also viewed "scheme" as highly negative - or, at best, really honest. That struck me as quite hilarious, but just goes to show the importance of what one would consider a very simple word.
What balls (daggers or torches) are you juggling in your compensation planning? What is easiest to juggle and what is most difficult?
As Globoforce’s Head of Strategic Consulting, Derek Irvine is an internationally minded management professional with over 20 years of experience helping global companies set a higher ambition for global strategic employee recognition, leading workshops, strategy meetings and industry sessions around the world. His articles on fostering and managing a culture of appreciation through strategic recognition have been published in Businessweek, Workspan and HR Management. Derek splits his time between Dublin and Boston. Follow Derek on Twitter at @DerekIrvine.
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