Really Bad Decisions

When speaking before a group I'm often asked what key takeaways or gems of wisdom I have learned during the course of my career.  Like most of you, I’m still at it, learning something new every day, but I have gained a valuable perspective from what I’ve seen and experienced.  I've learned that professional wisdom comes to each of us in two ways; 1) what you learn to do (what works), and 2) what mistakes you’ve seen or made (what doesn't work).

Here's hoping that your career manages to stay on the straight and narrow with positive role models and valuable experiences, but all too often we learn our most useful lessons from failures, from tactics or decisions that didn’t work.  Or from failed managers whom we’ve worked for, those who made repeating mistakes a personal career choice. Either experience can offer valuable lessons that can shape your career.

Common Goofs

Putting together an all-inclusive list of examples would become an endless affair, given the myriad scenarios, personalities and business circumstances that could be involved.  So instead we'll try to highlight the big mistakes.  Below are reflections of my personal experiences.

• General Adjustment vs. Merit:  Granting all employees the same pay raise, instead of varying increases on the basis of performance delivered.  Being easy to administer is rarely an effective strategy.
• Performance vs. Entitlement:  Rewarding management more generously than other employee segments - simply because they're management.  Leadership is no more entitled to rewards than any other employee group.
• Discretionary Assessments: When reviewing employees on a subjective vs. objective basis management discretion can sometimes lead to abuses (favored sons, "halo" effect, or even discrimination).
• Abuse of FLSA Exemptions:  Avoiding overtime by treating non-exempt employees as if they were exempt.  Managers never tire of trying this tactic, and it can really cost you.
• Surveys says!:  Using a title and a generic catch-all write-up for matching jobs against "the market."  It's the easy way.  Anyone can do it.  There's nothing to interpret, is there? 
• The Performance Distribution Curve:  Assigning individual assessments of employee performance in a manner set to adhere to a bell-shaped graph.  Nobody likes this tactic, except perhaps lawyers for your employees.
• Ignoring Internal Equity:  Hiring/promoting employees without consideration of how other like-qualified employees are paid.  There are no secrets, so pleasing one while angering two is a dubious tactic.
• Title Inflation:  That meaningless "bone" you toss employees whom you can't otherwise reward.  This tactic will raise fixed costs, but without providing a corresponding benefit to the company.  You will eventually regret this decision.
• The Absent Safety Valve:  To be successful over time, your program should be able to bend, but not break.  This means that sometimes exceptions have to be made, for good business, compassionate or even political reasons.  Not every circumstance will fit into your mold.

Can you see possible rationalizations for pursuing each of the above?  Justification depends on a litany of possible circumstances, individuals and . . . whatever.  Just have a care that your rationalizations don't become a pattern of indefensible excuses and that you document.

Really Bad Decisions

Then there are those oops! decisions that over the course of one's career you continue to regret - wishing you had the time to reboot your thought processes.

• Hiring a friend/relative:  If you would hesitate to sell them a used car, why would you ever think that hiring them would be a good idea?  Correcting this mistake can be painful.
• Ignoring Office Politics:  "I'm not very good at politics" is a poor response to an important reality of the workplace that all managers need to deal with.  It's all around us, so to pretend you're above it all, or otherwise ignore it, is likely going to be counter-productive.
• Performance is everything:  No, it isn't.  Not anymore.  In today's workplace image and exposure have become dominant, to the extent that just doing a good job is no longer enough to ensure career progression or even longevity.
• "I was too busy for networking":  Usually heard from people in transition, from those who failed to connect with colleagues, peers and industry insiders while they were employed.  Build your network when you don't need it, so it's there for when you do.

Have I missed anything?  Are there other ill-considered compensation practices that you’ve experienced during your own career?

Let me know.

Chuck Csizmar CCP is founder and Principal of CMC Compensation Group, providing global compensation consulting services to a wide variety of industries and non-profit organizations.  He is also associated with several HR Consulting firms as a contributing consultant.  Chuck is a broad based subject matter expert with a specialty in international and expatriate compensation.  He lives in Central Florida (near The Mouse) and enjoys growing fruit and managing (?) a clowder of cats.

Creative Commons image, "942217_1015285940," by Dan Mantyla

Comments

[Maxwell]

good list. kind of paralyzing. good lessons for the novice. thanks.

[Dan Walter]

Chuck. Great list!

Here are some of Chuck's article on these topics:
Merit:
http://www.compensationcafe.com/2015/11/enabling-an-anti-performance-culture.html

Entitlement:
http://www.compensationcafe.com/2009/12/bah-humbug.html

Discretionary Assessments:
http://www.compensationcafe.com/2011/09/do-you-read-what-they-write.html

Survey Data:
http://www.compensationcafe.com/2013/06/is-your-guess-as-good-as-mine.html

Bell Shaped Curve:
http://www.compensationcafe.com/2013/09/who-deserves-a-raise.html

Search the Comp Cafe to find others! (use the word Chuck and an associated keyword to find articles by Chuck on each topics)

[Chuck Csizmar]

One of the reasons I posted this article was not only because it helped the novice, but it can also help those of us practitioners who have been in the profession a long time. Being a consultant I see a myriad of client practices, while those employed by a company see only what goes on "at home." So I've seen (and continue to see) organizations make several of the mistakes I mentioned in my article. They are adamant that that is the way they want to do things - no matter how wrong I feel their decision. Even large firms. Sad but true. Write me if you'd like specific examples.