Pay Wars

Personal beliefs about what work is worth often clashes with the system of compensation utilized by companies to guide pay.

The system itself is often kept secret from employees and how much we earn is information we're reluctant to share with anyone but our spouses.

The paycheque is perceived as a reflection of value of a particular contribution to the organization. When the value an individual assigns to work is different than the dollar amount the company assigns, resentment builds and spills over into performance.

What does "fair pay" mean?

In the old system, pay was defined by a number of years of experience, amount of post-secondary education and training, and a number of years with the company.

As performance has been delved into more deeply in the past decade, these characteristics are ineffective in determining pay.

Two people with the same education, years of experience and work background can have completely different work performances. Should they be paid the same?

And then there are the informal characteristics used to determine pay which no one talks about but everyone knows is a factor.

Have you gone along with the team and not 'rocked the boat'? We say theoretically we want employees to voice opinions and speak their minds, but we're still labelling this as difficult behavior.

Having the boss like you and gaining visibility through projects where purse-string holders get to know you and what you've done can influence pay. When salary review time comes, we need to know the boss will recall what we've done throughout the year.

Maybe we're so reactive to the topic of compensation because it sometimes appears 'sneaky'.

Many organizations have yearly secret bonus systems that a select few are allowed to participate in but no one understands the criteria by which this is decided. Perks are used as part of compensation - parking, a company vehicle, hockey tickets and golf tournaments.

The whole aspect of pay appears out of whack. We have CEOs who make millions of dollars a year and we ask ourselves is anyone really worth that much? Is that contribution so significantly different?

Perhaps we need to view pay differently. Rather than it be an amount engraved in stone that grows as our career grows, it should be a factor that changes as performance and results change.

If strategic planning, business outcomes, the business cycle, individual performance and performance review were linked, we'd have a better picture of what results we're expected to achieve.

We would then have a way to measure our actual performance against the projected outcomes, and a picture of how well we're doing against defined standards.

This might help us to be better equipped to determine how to compensate different work and skills.

The Performance group appreciates your feedback. E-mail us at Tpg547@aol.com

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Terri Robinson, President
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