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02/20/2015

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Thank you for the post. The results are something I have suspected. I have bought the book recently and am eager to read it!

Imagine the test researchers reaction if they were told that they committed 150% more errors than the unseen person. Worse yet, that their error rate was 250% of the unseen person's!

Great post on perspective. I will have to continue to work to make this better for my clients.

Ian, I like your style. I'm sensing chuckles, so I bet you'll like the book a lot.

Dan, meet Ian, another seeker of ideas from our book for how to do everything better (in comp)!

Thought provoking...it makes me wonder if we need to place more emphasis in our communication on the annualized dollar increase as opposed to the percent increase. $2,000 sure sounds a lot bigger and better than 2%!

Thanks, Karen. This gives me a chance to share some more thoughts on the meaning of this research to our compensation work.

I hope we'll all agree that our goal is always to tell the truth to employees. If we consider how employees are going to hear and understand what we are telling them, then we can communicate with them more effectively. Now we know that comparisons between smaller numbers typically evince more emotion in people than comparisons between equivalent big numbers.

I think that right now, employees need help to have a balanced view of their compensation. So, as you suggested, Karen, using both the percentage and the annualized increase may help with the balance, depending on your employees. Others would respond to the percentage and increased total base pay.

I wouldn't ever skip the percentage, though, since that is the traditional merit increase communications that employees expect. If you don't talk about a merit percentage, you can count on employees wondering what you are trying to hide.

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