Editor's Note: Margaret O'Hanlon urges us to face up to the truth of pay communication with this Classic post and helpful advice.
Managers are the compensation communicators in your company. Not HR, not Legal, not even the CEO whose job is to explain why your compensation program makes good business sense -- but doesn't have to explain another 3%ish increase to a new parent.
Do your managers have everything they need to make your work successful? After all, you are asking them to finish your compensation communications project for you, and you need them to do it well.
How do managers feel about being the messenger THIS year? Make sure you know or there is no way you can predict how things will turn out.
Have you invested enough time and dollars making the whole compensation communications process easier for them? They are the ones who will go eyeball to eyeball with their employees which means that, in one sense, they are going to the line for HR. Give managers discussion outlines, FAQs that will help them prepare to talk with employees comfortably, in some cases even give them scripts. If your managers get together for calibration meetings, include communications on the agenda and make it easy for the individuals to speak frankly.
How do managers feel about your company's leadership? If there are issues of trust or questions about resources, don't expect managers to hide their feelings. HR can't fix these problems over night, but you should acknowledge that they play into end-of-year discussions. Go out to talk with managers individually. Show that you can be open-minded but still hold them to a standard. This isn't an area where email communications will have any effect.
How do managers feel about your company's pay practices? Do they believe you are paying competitively? Do they know how you go about it? Even if you do pay competitively, once rumors start you can bet that it's going to be difficult to change peoples' minds. Educated managers are unlikely to give rumors any credence, plus they will be able to spot the real problems for you.
Margaret O'Hanlon brings deep expertise to discussions on employee pay, performance management, career development and communications at the Café. Her firm is re:Think Consulting. 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. She is a member of U.S. Masters Swimming.
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