with approaches to their salary administration practices. The struggle usually is centered on balancing the need to pay employees competitively within whatever budget, if any, is available for salary adjustments. The truth is, in many cases, employers can continue to manage base pay cost-effectively and still remain competitive.

Much of the time, this struggle could be mitigated by the application of more enlightened practices. Our surveys tell us that a large percentage of employers are freezing base pay increases this year. (See Rita Haronian’s summary of CompAnalysis’ recent survey in this issue). Freezing is a short-term solution that will eventually lead to an even more serious problem because labor market inflation continues even in a depressed economy.

So, what can you do going forward? Whether your organization has frozen pay or not, you need to recognize that there are two fundamental ways to manage base pay: (1) salary increase management, and (2) salary management. Although these sound like the same thing, they are actually quite different.

Click here for full article.

Base Pay Strategies for Managing Costs and Keeping Employees
July 15, 2009
@ HR Star Conference
South San Francisco
Contact www.hrstar.com

Strategies for Administering Pay in
Not-for-Profit Organizations
July 21, 2009
@ Hood & Strong Non-Profit Compensation
& Benefits Seminar
San Francisco
Contact Steve Piuma (spiuma@hoodstrong.com)

Sales Compensation: Look before You Leap!

We are currently working with several clients to develop new sales compensation plans.  Over the years, we’ve noticed that there is a tendency to start the design process by assuming that the plan will be a commission plan.  A commission is a variable pay component that is typically expressed as a percentage of sales revenues.  It can be 100% of the pay, or it can be combined with a base salary.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, in some cases that is deceptive.  We’d suggest examining your options before making that decision.

As with most endeavors, planning is a good thing.  When planning a new or modified sales compensation plan, here are the sequential steps we recommend:

1. Define the sales process. This is the most important step of all. These are the questions to answer:

• What is sold? (products, services, commodity, custom, how many types)
• How do sales occur? (channels, length of sales cycle)

Click here for full article.

The 2009 Greater San Francisco Bay Area Compensation Survey is here! The only survey that reports exclusively on Bay Area pay, it includes data across all industry groups. This valuable resource includes data on 96 core staff positions with detailed information about base salaries, variable pay data, and employee benefits.

The 2009 survey is priced to encourage a high level of participation and participants are eligible to purchase the report at a significant discount.  The early payment discount makes survey participation even more of a bargain!

For a sample position report, click here.
For a sample benefits report, click here.

REMEMBER THESE DATES

July 1, 2009
early payment discount deadline

August 3, 2009
data entry deadline

September 30, 2009
survey results available

Please contact Rita Haronian @ rharonian@companalysis.com or 510-763-3774 x100 for more information about the CompAnalysis Greater San Francisco Bay Area Compensation Survey.

Martha Ledwich
Compensation and Benefits Manager
West Marine

Gathering labor market data can impose many challenges for companies. This is essential information employers need to ensure that their pay programs are in line

with the local labor market.  Many factors, such as size (both in terms of revenue and staff size), industry, and location, should be taken into consideration.

Of these factors, location is often the most difficult to address because compensation surveys frequently do not report pay levels specific to a particular employment market.  The more geographically-specific the survey, the more reliable the data become.

Pay information found in surveys covering national, regional, or even statewide levels can be misleading, reporting “ballpark figures” that often do not reflect the true labor market for specific locations.

Click here for full article.