When it comes to making pay decisions, you can oversimplify and create black and white rules and policies.

It sounds like this.

· “The maximum promotional increase we can provide is 10%.”

· “Yes, Sheri is getting more responsibilities and an opportunity to prove she can successfully perform higher-level work. No, there is no promotion with this right now because of our focus on expense control as a company.” (Hello, dry promotion.)

· “We don’t provide interim pay or recognition for performing another person’s job while the job was open for ten months. Yes, I know they must train the new person we hired. But that is part of being a team player here.”

The alternative is navigating the gray zone of pay decision making with empathy and consideration for employer and employee needs.

“Yes, I know that a 33% increase for Juanita’s promotion sounds like a lot, but she wasn’t paid what she was worth when we hired her 3 years ago. We underestimated her ability to make an impact on key deliverables, and her performance has exceeded expectations for years. I want to be sure that we bring her pay up to what is equitable and competitive in this new job.”

“We can help you recognize Aisha’s willingness to do the work of two people during the last year and her successful training of the new hire on your team. We have two alternatives. First, we can consider providing her with a lump sum payment as a bonus in addition to the normal annual bonus. But you mentioned wanting to promote her within the next 12 months. Let’s look at what she is earning in base pay today and see if she is being paid competitively. I also want to check internal equity and see how her pay looks in relation to her peers. Tell me more about how you are partnering on her career development.”

Are you in the gray zone and consulting with business leaders?

Or have you become the black and white compensation police?

#hr #humanresources #compensation #pay #rewards #payequity #paytransparency #promotions #drypromotion #communications #recognition