Am I paid fairly? It's the eternal, nagging question that we have to face. Employees naively think there is a three-sentence answer that will make them feel at ease, and maybe you've found it. But the communication challenge doesn't end with this short give-and-take. Behind this broad question are a number of detailed questions that need simple, straightforward answers, too.
Here are some of the toughest:
- Are people with same job title paid the same salary as I am?
- Do competitors pay people with my job description the same salary as I receive?
- I just got promoted. Am I getting the same salary that I would receive if I were just hired for the job?
- How can you say that my pay is competitive if I can resign to make more money at a competitor?
- What companies do you compare my salary with?
- How do you get valid info on other company's pay rates when they keep them confidential?
- Do you use the same steps to determine executive salaries?
There are a lot more tough questions that you can pile on, but these are good examples of the complexities that employees want to understand. Where does pay transparency fit in? Employees at a company with full pay transparency will know how to answer these questions and more, without looking up the answers.
With these answers, will employees finally feel they are being paid fairly? Truthfully . . . you need to work on building trust, too. You have to add in some authentic emotions to all those facts, or you'll only address employees' knowledge; you might not yet have them on your side. In fact, skipping this aspect of communications is where most of Compensation's frustrations come from. Going to all the trouble of explaining total compensation simply, but not achieving employee satisfaction has been the frustrating outcome that we historically achieve.
How to build trust? Starting by listening to employees' worries (even if you think you know them already, experience shows you'll come away with at least 20% new insights). Listening is a proven way to build trust into your dialogue about pay.
The next step is to act on what you heard, incorporating employee input into your approach. (No one likes to be asked, then ignored! In fact it can easily make employees quite angry.)
And just to be clear about the steps, Mercer offers a practical roadmap. Need a powerful resolution for next year? Use the roadmap to put improved pay transparency on your list.
Margaret O'Hanlon, CCP brings deep expertise to discussions on employee pay, performance management, career development and communications at the Café. Her firm, re:Think Consulting, provides market pay information and designs base salary structures, incentive plans, career paths and their implementation plans. Earlier, she was a Principal at Willis Towers Watson. A former Board member for the Bay Area Compensation Association (BACA), Margaret coauthored the popular eBook, Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communications, a toolkit that all practitioners can find at everythingiscommunication.com.
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