When I remodeled my kitchen I needed a lot of help. After growing up in a New York City apartment and spending even more years in small urban spaces, I had a lot of big dreams and hopes.
I was clueless about where or how to start planning. I did know, though, what stories I wanted my kitchen to tell. Stories of memorable family dinners, cozy winter nights and easy going parties, to name a few. There was going to be no place like my home.
I got a lot of help (and felt a lot of frustration) and after months and months, it happened. The home of my dreams with a kitchen at its heart. All the planning seems to have been worth it, too, because it has never disappointed me. My stories keep coming true.
In the recent WorldatWork workspan,"The Top 5 Questions about Communicating Compensation" are answered by Kristine Oliver and Rebecca Toman of Pearl Meyer & Partners. If you are thinking about renovating your approach to communication, the article provides a good overview of tactics that companies are using based on a study that Pearl Meyer has done. Here's where you can get an idea of what goes into a good plan.
Also check in on the WorldatWork video interview of Karmen Reid, Director of Compensation at the Mayo Clinic describing how they, "Increase[d] Pay Satisfaction Without Increasing Pay." It's a great way to learn from this prestigious organization's story.
But then keep in mind that it's the Mayo Clinic's story not yours. And while they may have answered the "5 questions," it was not just the tactics but also the story they told and how they built their community through the story that increased satisfaction.
Compensation communication has the unique quality of touching employees' emotions as well as building understanding. If your compensation communications are going to matter, they need to tell your story and build your community.
While it is crucial for employees to better understand things like salary ranges they get jazzed when they can see how they play a part in the bottom line and/or customer satisfaction. Try to tap into those high response emotions when you communicate by explaining compensation practices in their strategic context. A context of why your company exists, how the compensation program helps make that possible and what it feels to be part of your work community (at their individual job level). Wouldn't you rather trade familiarity with performance rating definitions for discussions about how I contributed to 3rd Q results? (Most employees would, too.)
I think you've heard on Compensation Cafe that, "Everything We Do in Compensation Is Communications." The choice of social media over emails will matter only after you've figured out how to have something of real value to say. Something that builds a community devoted to your business's story and helps the story become real.
Margaret O'Hanlon is founder and Principal of re:Think Consulting. She'll join Ann Bares and Dan Walter of the Compensation Cafe to speak the unspoken -- Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communication -- in an upcoming book. Margaret brings deep expertise in compensation, career development and communications to the dialog at the Café. Before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal with Towers Watson. Margaret is Deputy Director of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Pacific Plains Region. She earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University, Bloomington. Creative writing is one of her outside passions, along with Masters Swimming.
Margaret - Communication without context can confuse rather than clarify. You make a excellent point that relating what you are saying to what you are doing is the key to effective communication, regardless of topic. Compensation, however, is a particularly sensitive issue, and requires extra thought about what the story is trying to relate, and why it's being related.
In my view, no communication is better that bad communication, since the latter typically elicits the opposite effect to what was intended in the first place.
Posted by: John A Bushfield | 02/05/2013 at 05:35 AM
I agree, John, compensation communication is ultra sensitive. I've looked at the challenges from all sorts of angles on Compensation Cafe and Ann, Dan and I have spoken about it at WorldatWork and on the Web. Just like other sensitive topics, though, if you choose not to communicate you are missing a real opportunity (and with compensation, I'd also say a responsibility).
People explain things to themselves if they don't have other alternatives. On sensitive topics, that leads to difficult misunderstandings.
As Dan, Ann and I have discussed, everything we do in compensation is communications. Whether we do it formally or not, we show employees where the companies priorities are through our silence or efforts around communications communications.
Difficult to do well, yes, no question. More about manager to employee than brochures -- that, too! One of the best contexts for educating employees about the business, for sure.
Posted by: Margaret O'Hanlon | 02/05/2013 at 11:01 AM
Margaret - I do appreciate what you are saying about the need for communication, especially around compensation issues, and absolutely agree with the Team at Compensation Cafe about its importance. I guess my point was that such communication needs to be crafted carefully and delivered with clarity and forethought, something that in my experience has been, sadly, a rarity.
Posted by: John A Bushfield | 02/06/2013 at 09:35 AM
Great! You are a believer! I truly understand your concerns. I am often brought in because communications have gone awry and know the damage that can be done.
Just in case anyone else is reading these comments, here are a couple of thoughts to help you plan carefully and deliver with clarity and forethought, as John suggests:
-Always remember that the managers implement compensation communications not HR. If your communications are limited to presentations, without giving managers tools and a chance to discuss, there are going to be miscommunications because you haven't prepared them for their role.
-On the other side of the coin, if all you have time/resources for is an employee meeting and plan summary, then be realistic about what you are accomplishing. Awareness, but no real understanding. (It's a lot like cramming for an exam.) So, take just a little more time and go into the departments for Qs and As/discussions. You'll be far more satisfied with the results
Posted by: Margaret O'Hanlon | 02/06/2013 at 11:24 AM