Cafe Classic: The Heart of the Matter

Editor's Note:  As the holiday of l-o-v-e approaches, this Cafe Classic -- coming to us via our own communication guru Margaret O'Hanlon (circa March 2010) -- reminds us about a critical but often overlooked aspect of pay communication.  This is a lesson that you ignore at your own peril; think of it as an early Valentine's Day gift!

Over the last week or so at the Compensation Café, we've chatted about a range of critical compensation communication issues – being sure to cover what’s in it for me, explaining what the outcomes will be so I know why the compensation practices work the way they do, and doing my best to make the communications simple and clear.

I’m going to add another requirement of compensation communication that, in my experience, is overlooked and underplayed far too often. Emotion.
 
Words are critical to a shared understanding of what is important, but they are rarely enough to compel behavior change. Chuck Csizmar has gotten us thinking about a “Compensation Diet.” Diets are a great example of the challenge of behavior change, so let’s see what we can learn from them.

When do we start dieting seriously?  When we:

1. Finally look at the scale or the mirror,

2. Realize we have gone too far and could develop health problems,

3.  AND feel like we can make the commitment and see it through.

The final, essential ingredient? Emotion – we need the electricity that feelings give us to get ourselves moving. How does this apply to compensation communication? It’s the heart of the matter.

For example, I can understand the case HR makes for measurable performance goals, but will I put in the effort to make sure they are measurable? First, I’ve got to trust that HR has made a case that the line managers support. I’ve got to believe that good goals will matter to the success of the organization. I’ve got to feel confident that my manager will give me the time to do goals well, and will support my effort, and so on. I’ve got to sustain my determination to achieve my goals and earn recognition and an increase.

What about compensation basics? You can tell me my pay is competitive. You can show me how you went about making sure it was competitive. But if you don’t give me a chance to share my skepticism in the open and talk over my concerns, you’re not going to earn my trust or support.

In my experience, the organizations that are most satisfied with their compensation communications are not afraid to deal with the emotional dimension.  They realize that they have to earn employees’ trust, and are willing to talk about it in the open so their employees will be motivated to act.

Planning to make a name for yourself in 2016? Base your strategy on the popular ebook, Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communication @ www.everythingiscommunication.com. Margaret O'Hanlon, CCP collaborated with Ann Bares and Dan Walter to create this DIY guide to compensation leadership. Margaret is founder and Principal of re:Think Consulting. She brings deep expertise in compensation, communications and leadership to topics like the CEO Pay Ratio and performance management discussions at the Café. Before founding re:Think Consulting, Margaret was a Principal at Towers Watson.

Comments

[E. James (Jim) Brennan]

Thanks for picking that classic for reprint, Ann.

In a profession consumed with numbers, it is all too easy for us to forget that feelings are as important as facts. Every principle of active listening and conflict resolution involves sensitivity to emotions and open sharing of feelings. Such behaviors do not always come easily to compensation types. It is important to recognize that success in this "hard" discipline requires engagement in "soft" processes.

[Margaret O'Hanlon]

I think we can all agree that trust, a deeply felt emotion, is in limited quantities at the moment. Whether this has been directly caused by anything your organization may have done does not matter. You have to deal with the reality of the views and opinions of your employees. If you don't know how to deal with mistrust, or how to build a culture of trust, it might be time to start a Google search. Trust starts with acceptance of where the other person is coming from and careful listening -- in other words, on the person-to-person level which you influence every day.