Have you ever opened an Excel file to see multiple colors, many tabs, and formulas that are so complicated you internally groan and wonder why you signed on to decipher this madness?

Yep, that’s where I am living today. I’m in “Excel Hell.”

Excel is an incredibly powerful tool but there are times when I must start with a spreadsheet created by someone else and I find the untangling of the details overwhelming.

If you receive performance feedback that sounds something like this, make sure to update your resume and increase your networking.

1.        “You aren’t strategic enough.”

2.        “You need to manage upward better and be more strategic.”

3.        “You don’t have the executive presence needed to be considered for a promotion.”

When I hear the word “rewards” I think about the foundational elements of any employee and employer relationship. You must get these things right or you won’t be able to attract, retain, and engage your team members.

·        Cash compensation in the form of base pay, short-term incentives like bonuses and commissions, and long-term incentives (equity or cash).

·        Don’t forget overtime pay, spot awards, stipends, and allowances.

Everything is a priority, so nothing is a priority. Yes, that is what I consider priority overload.

I once worked for an employer where everything was urgent.  Every answer to a question or deliverable was considered late. “We needed this last week.”  

When I asked my manager for the criteria to use to prioritize my work, his response was not what I needed. It was vague and not based on anything I could follow consistently and feel confident in.

Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. It is the foundation of healthy relationships. And it is foundational to creating a workplace culture that supports high performing employees.

Employers, who choose to be transparent about their pay-related decisions and processes, have an advantage. They are better able to attract and retain talent. And their employers are more likely to be engaged and productive.

Guiding Principles:

I was working with an employer client recently and we were comparing the following two survey job descriptions to the work performed by one employee:

Sales Rep III

Develops new prospects and interacts with existing customers to increase sales of an organization's products and/or services. Works with customers to find what they want, create solutions, and ensure a smooth sales process. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected. May require a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to a supervisor or manager.P03-Senior (Career Level) : Work is generally independent and collaborative in nature. Contributes to moderately complex aspects of a project. Typically requires 4-7 years of related experience.

First a job is documented by a hiring manager who writes a job description. The hiring manager talks to their senior leader and gets approval to hire someone into the job.

Then HR/Compensation evaluates the job.  This means they do research to figure out what other employers are paying for that job to be performed. A pay grade is assigned to the job so there is now a base salary range and short-term incentive target (bonus or sales commission) that can be offered to a new hire.

Next, a candidate is selected based on their qualifications and performance throughout the interview process. And HR/Compensation and the hiring manager determine what base salary to offer the candidate.

Leading projects requires a focus on the details, communicating effectively with stakeholders, and having clearly defined outcomes and roles.

When selecting a consultant to help you with your compensation project you are going to consider cost, quality, and your timeline.

·        If you emphasize low cost, be ready for low quality within your timeline.

My team and I like work with employers that meet the following criteria:

• They must care about their employees and recognize that their competitive advantage is their people.

• They have the budget and willingness to pay competitively.

• They want to pay equitably and communicate transparently about their pay decision making processes.

We work with small employers that have less than 100 employees and large employers with more than 25,000 employees.  You can be a for-profit or non-profit organization.

Before an employer implements a Human Capital Management (HCM) system like Workday, SAP, or Oracle, I suggest that the HR/Compensation teams review their job architecture and processes to ensure that the new system can truly deliver the outcomes that are anticipated.

Adjust the timeline and resources to ensure that the changes to compensation processes, jobs, and pay structures are updated based on business need BEFORE the HCM implementation is completed. And ideally this should be well thought out during the project planning process.

The pace at which these large HCM changes are expected to happen by senior executives is fast. The resources (people, time, and money) are often underestimated.

Here's a step-by-step guide for conducting an internal equity analysis:

1. Define Job Comparator Groups:  Start by categorizing jobs into groups based on similarity in job responsibilities, required skills, knowledge, education, and other qualifications. Consider factors like Career Level (e.g., entry , intermediate, senior), job function (e.g., sales, marketing, engineering), and job family (e.g., administrative, technical, managerial).

2. Create Employee Comparator Groups: Within each job comparator group, categorize employees based on relevant factors such as seniority, performance, production/output, work location, education, training, experience, and travel requirements.

Most of us go to work because of the money.

We need the paycheck to pay our bills, give, save, and invest. Although giving, saving, and investing are not happening for many people these days.

It’s great if you like the work you do. But many are just doing what they must for their paycheck.

It is even better if you like the people you work with. Relationships at home and at work are often challenging.

Every compensation data source or salary survey used by an employer is imperfect. 

It would be great if the data set that the salary survey is based on was 100% representative of an employer’s competition for talent. But realistically, a good salary survey is reliable, valid, and has most but not all of your competition listed on the participant list.

Remember that salary surveys only represent a sample of the market. 

What is statistical reliability and validity?

What is your compensation philosophy? 

There are many ways to answer this question.  Here are some examples: 

1.        We pay between the 50th and 75th percentile.

2.        We target the 50th percentile of the external market.

3.        We review the external market and provide pay opportunity that is competitive and internally equitable.

What does it mean to burn bridges? To burn bridges with someone means to say or do things that lessen the possibility of returning to the previous state of the relationship.

It is incredibly tempting to burn bridges when you leave an employer and move on to your next job. 

Maybe your manager was awful, the work culture was toxic, or you were severely underpaid for the results you delivered. 

An employer (Company A) had acquired another firm (Company B) that was almost as large as them.

Company A had spent more than three years making sure that their job titles and market pricing of jobs was aligned to the external market in a consistent manner.

They had difficult conversations with many employees when their job title needed to change.

“We’ve recently completed a job title and responsibility audit.  We discovered that your job title of Director Marketing isn’t aligned to the level of work you are performing.

Improving the retention of your key employees isn’t that difficult.

You can apply the Golden Rule which is to treat others the way you would want to be treated in similar circumstances.

But when the other person’s lived experiences and outlook differs substantively from our own, we stop being a reliable barometer of their needs, values, and goals.

A man and a woman are hired at the same time. The man is earning a base salary of $85,000 and the woman is earning $70,000.

The man earns a 3 (meets expectations) on a 5-point performance rating scale every year. This leads to a 3% merit increase every year.

The woman earns a 5 (outstanding) on a 5-point performance rating scale every year. This leads to a 3.75% merit increase every year.

Data tells a story, and it can be difficult to argue with facts.  Figure out what data you need to tell the story. 

It is better to show data to back up your recommendations than to go to an executive meeting with just anecdotes, intuition, or gut instinct.

Employer: It feels like I am approving a promotion for employes to be Managers or Directors every other day. What should the span of control or the number of direct reports be for someone who is supervising others?

Just over 1 in 4 workers is covered by some form of U.S. pay transparency legislation. At least 15 states are considering pay transparency laws.

There continue to be leaders who do not want to share a base pay range on a job posting. Their reasons sound something like this:

1.     “Our competitors will find out what we are paying.”