Hard Time Hiring? Scrutinize Your Compensation Plans

What motivates great people to consider a new job?

You guessed it: higher pay.

While it’s true that several factors, such as challenging work, a clear path for advancement and work/life satisfaction are important to high performers, it’s equally true that money talks. So if you’re having a hard time hiring and/or retaining great workers, we have one key piece of advice for you:

Scrutinize your compensation plans.

Here are a few tips for determining if your total compensation for a position is competitive enough to land top talent:

Start with the pay rate.

Benchmark the low and high ends of the hourly or annual wage for the position, to find out if it’s competitive or not. In “Bad Candidates? Maybe Your Pay Rates Stink,” we explain the following ways to benchmark compensation:

– Use online salary tools.
– Conduct your own competitive research.
– Leverage your professional networks.
– Account for compensating factors like cost of living, position vacancy costs and candidate supply.

Add in other compensation factors.

Does your organization provide paid parking? Overtime pay? Regular bonuses or profit sharing? Paid vacation and/or other PTO? Tuition reimbursement? All these elements should be considered when evaluating total compensation.

Repeat the exercise frequently.

With the labor market remaining tight and minimum wage hikes taking effect across the nation, regular salary reevaluation is critical. At a minimum, scrutinize your compensation plans once per year. And if you find that your employee costs are spiraling out of control, it may be time to adopt a more flexible staffing strategy.

Evaluating pay rates takes time and effort. Over the long-term, however, the exercise will make hiring great workers easier – while strengthening your culture and protecting your employment brand.

Need help scrutinizing your compensation plans?

Finding relevant, up-to-date pay data can be expensive and time-consuming. PrideStaff makes it easier! If you need to find the right salary for a specialized position or emerging job title, contact your local PrideStaff office for a free salary analysis through our compensation portal.