It is especially great when I don’t have to create them. (Thank you Christine Hendrickson!) I attended a webinar today about the EU Pay Transparency Directive and how employers should be preparing to meet the requirements.
Here is a link to Syndio’s EU Pay Transparency Cheat Sheet: https://synd.io/blog/eu-pay-transparency-cheat-sheet/
Key Webinar Takeaways:
Determining Pay Without Considering Location
Today I am calculating location specific base salary ranges in 5% increments for an employer client. They use ranges that go from National up to 25% and down to -35%.
What are the range spreads? 36% - 60%
Here is my question: What do you think about using one set of pay grades and base salary ranges based on National data? (This employer has all employees working in the U.S.)
Monday Mornings
It's great when you wake up on a Monday and look forward to the week ahead. The people and work you'll be focused on have you smiling.
You feel like you will be challenged and get to be creative. You get to use your strengths over and over to make a difference.
You'll have conversations with people who are interested in solving problems in a way that is healthy and focused on balancing the needs of all parties involved.
Characteristics of Good Negotiators
How many of these do you have?
* Leave little to chance: plan and practice
* Be curious, patient, and persistent
* Listen, listen, and then listen some more
Read moreGetting Forced Out of Your Job
Are you getting left out of meetings?
Are decisions being made without your input and in the past, you would have been involved?
Are some of your job duties being taken away and given to someone else?
Have you had a career development conversation and then your manager started acting differently?
Read moreWords Are Powerful
Words can heal or they can hurt.
They can inspire you to act or destroy your motivation.
They can create a vision for the future or crush it.
Words and actions can build and sustain relationships. Or they can cause distrust and suspicion.
Read moreInvesting in Yourself
When I was in my early twenties and just starting my career, I asked my manager what classes I should take to continue to grow and learn. I focused on getting my CCP or Certified Compensation Professional designation.
Then I started taking courses that were aligned to my interests outside of my current job as a Compensation Analyst.
Read moreWork & Life Balance is a Myth
I don’t believe that you can have work and life balance. I do believe you can choose how to focus your time and energy.
And that with limited time and energy each of us gets to decide what is most important.
Read moreWhat is the purpose of compensation?
Base Pay:
· Provide security and address short-term needs.
· It provides employees with a guaranteed minimum level of compensation for their work.
Read moreGoal = Pay That is Competitive, Equitable, Within Budget & Fair
COMPETITIVE? Employers use salary survey data to review the total compensation provided to employees by their competition for talent (aka other employers).
EQUITABLE? Employers perform pay equity audits to determine if pay disparities among employees performing substantially similar work exist. And if they do, employers research what caused the pay disparities and if they are based on legitimate business justifications or gender, race, ethnicity, age, etc. Then employers fix the pay disparities.
Gross Revenue to Payroll Percentage
If you care about numbers and the story they tell, you should do this calculation.
If your gross annual revenue is $500,000 and you spend $100,000 on payroll for the year, your gross revenue to payroll percentage is $500,000/$100,000 = 0.20 or 20%.
Payroll is the total amount paid for labor, including wages, bonuses, benefits, employment taxes, insurance, and owner draws.
Listen. Ask. Recognize. Reward. Repeat.
Getting a REWARD feels great at first. But with time the good feeling fades.
We each get a consistent reminder about why we work when our paycheck arrives.
While I would like to think that REWARDS like a bi-weekly paycheck and annual bonus are enough to motivate behavior and the results our employers want from us, I know that isn’t all that we need as human beings.
Read morePay Grades and Career Levels
The assignment of grades to recognize competitive pay for jobs is different from the assignment of career levels which recognizes similar factors based on internal equity.
The separation of the two (external market and internal equity) allows an employer to pay competitively and recognize career paths for development conversations with employees.
Designing Rewards for Business Results
As a business leader, you know that rewarding your employees is critical to achieving success.
If you set pay too high, you adversely impact the financial health of your company and limit your ability to hire the talent you need.
If you pay too little, you risk losing your most valuable employees and may fail to attract the best new talent.
Read morePay Transparency Myth #3
Isn’t pay transparency costly for employers?
Yes, there may be costs initially but it can be a cost savings over the long-term.
If you hire an external consultant to guide you through the process, that is a cost. And, of course, you may find inequities that need to be solved and external competitiveness problems.
You will need to train managers in how to respond to questions about pay and the decision-making process.
Pay Transparency Myth #2
Do employers who commit to pay transparency need to provide full transparency?
Full transparency is when every employee’s salary is made available for others to view. This isn’t the way to have happier employees or a more productive and engaged workforce.
In Norway there is a policy, and it makes every individual’s salary visible on a searchable online database.
Pay Transparency Myth #1
Do employers have to pay employees the same amount for doing the same job?
No, employers can pay employees differently if they are doing the same job or a job that is substantially similar.
Employers do need to pay employees using the same factors in their decision-making process. And those factors need to be consistently applied from one employee to another.
Beyond the Paycheck: Exploring Personal Values to Improve Job Satisfaction
Some of my coaching clients are leaving their current jobs because of burnout. Others say they want to live a life more aligned to their personal values. And others are starting their job search because they are underpaid and not being appreciated.
When there is uncertainty in a job search about what someone wants next, I often suggest doing an exercise that allows them to discover their personal values.
Prosperity & Success
Choosing a name for a business can be challenging. After writing a long list of ideas, I finally chose Prosper Consulting because I loved the word “prosperity.” It means the condition of being successful or thriving, especially economic well-being.
From that starting point I wrote our Vision and Mission.
What are Career Levels?
They categorize jobs based on internal equity. The number of Career Levels varies by employer and sometimes they are called Job Levels.
They are not the same as pay grades. They are not attached to competitive market data or base salary ranges. This means that jobs with the same Career Level can have different pay grades.
Usually, the Career Levels are assigned to jobs based on a Career Level Guide which is a document that describes the difference between the levels. The Guide provides a standard description, so the use of the levels is consistent across job families.