Publications10
Ways to Reward Performance Despite a Low Budget
(workspan Magazine, August 2013) Don't let a low budget keep you from properly rewarding your employees. A lot of people are saying that you can’t effectively reward performance with only a 3 percent compensation budget. This article represents the opposite viewpoint. It highlights 10 ways to reward performance despite low compensation budgets — 10 ways that organizations have used successfully over many years.
(workspan Magazine, June 2012)
Spans of control that are too broad or too narrow can have serious effects on organization performance. Optimal spans don’t just happen. Unless organizations actively manage spans of control, they are likely to find more that are either too broad or too narrow and fewer that are just right. Yet most organizations do not pay much attention to spans of control. The article describes the benefits of optimal spans of control and the consequences of overly broad and overly narrow spans. It provides ten factors to consider in determining optimal spans and examples of optimal spans for different levels and types of work.
Compensation Planning: Opportunity for the Upturn
(Cover article in workspan Magazine, December 2011) Shifting focus from the downturn and recession to economic recovery, compensation professionals will be able to provide strategic value to the businesses they serve by capitalizing on the upturn’s opportunities and overcoming its challenges. How to Make Your Compensation Plan Work in the Reset Economy Though the economy is beginning to recover, companies are seeing that jobs will not return to their prerecession rates. As businesses examine and adjust to the new environment, compensation professionals need to take a closer look at how compensation packages can be tweaked for this new way of doing business.
A Study on Reward Communications: Methods for Improvement of Employee Understanding This study covers current communications practices supporting five reward components: organization reward strategy and philosophy; base pay; base-pay increases; short-term variable pay; and benefits. A majority of compensation professionals report that their reward communication practices are ineffective. The article covers current practice, perceived effectiveness of practice, and recommendations on how to improve reward communications.
The Manager's Impact on Job and Organization Design This paper outlines the fundamental principles and the role of managers in the effective design of jobs and organizations. While the principles of job and organization design are fairly straightforward, implementing them requires a tailored process that includes active line-management contribution.
Reward Programs: What Works and What Needs to be Improved The study examines what compensation professionals really think makes their reward programs successful. Open-ended questions were asked of 461 total rewards practitioners. The questions sought to determine: (1) the most important characteristic or attribute making an organization's rewards effective and (2) the key thing(s) that the practitioners believed the organization must do to improve the reward system. The results reinforced the importance of reward communications and the importance of alignment of reward programs with business goals, strategies, results and objectives. The study stressed the criticality of linking pay and performance as well as the role that nonfinancial rewards play in effective reward programs. The study also indicates that weak support at lower-management levels diminishes program effectiveness.
Evaluating Pay Program Effectiveness: A National Survey of Compensation Professionals This paper examines the methods being used by organizations to evaluate pay programs. According to the more than 600 respondents participating in the study, the majority of organizations do not evaluate their base and variable pay programs, and about one-third of organizations assess the appropriateness of cost and bottom-line impact of their pay programs. Few organizations use rigorous research methods to collect and analyze the data they collect to evaluate pay programs. The authors found “Most Admired” companies were more likely to evaluate pay programs and use objective and formal methods for doing so than organizations that had not earned that designation.
The Fiscal Management of Compensation Programs High labor costs create real competitive challenges, so it is not surprising that senior executives in most organizations believe the fiscal management of compensation programs is important. However, few research studies have examined fiscal-compensation management practices and the effectiveness of these practices. Using the “Fiscal Management of Compensation Programs” survey conducted by WorldatWork, Hay Group and Loyola University, the authors analyze the design, execution and governance of compensation programs. Learn how organizations view their compensation programs regarding: the degree of compensation/HR control, the level of oversight of compensation programs and the effectiveness of these programs.
Linking Compensation Policies and Programs to Organizational Effectiveness Highly effective organizations are more likely to use certain pay policies and programs than their less effective peers, according to a survey of WorldatWork members. |
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