Imagine being the CEO of a company that has provided the same base pay increase (X%) to all U.S. employees each year for the past three years. What talking points would you use at the All-Employee Meeting to communicate this decision?
********* Example Talking Points *********
I know it is disappointing to hear that we are not providing a base pay increase for all employees this year. I want to share more about how we arrived at this decision, so you understand what we considered.
First, each of us has had to personally budget carefully over the last year given the price increases we’ve felt in housing, groceries, and other essential expenses. These price increases are a direct reflection of inflation here in the U.S. And I know you were hoping for a base pay increase to help cover these higher expenses you’ve experienced.
At COMPANY NAME we have seen our expenses increase as well. Specifically, ____ has increased by X% and ____ has increased by Y%. This has caused us as a company to tighten our budget and look closely at what we are spending money on.
We know our employees are part of our competitive advantage. So, we did an extensive review of what we are paying our employees in comparison to what other employers like COMPANY NAME are paying.
Overall, our total compensation is X% of the market. That is good news and means that our past pay-related decisions have kept up with what other firms are paying. Your current total compensation is competitive, and we will continue to do this benchmarking annually to ensure that this continues.
In the U.S. the federal interest rate is at a 23 year high. This has caused our clients and potential clients to budget carefully. As you know, this has caused our revenue and EBITDA to ______ over the past ______.
Our focus in 2024 is on _____________ and __________.
Given the higher interest rates and forecast for our business-to-business sales, it makes sense to be careful with how we budget for pay increases in 2024.
That is why we aren’t doing an across-the-board pay increase for all employees this year.
Instead, we have delivered pay increases to a few (##) employees who needed an adjustment based on the external market benchmarking and our internal equity analysis.
I want to thank our HR team for the many hours they spent making sure that we were paying our teammates competitively and for continuing to monitor what our competitors for talent are paying.
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What would you change in this example of the CEO’s talking points?
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