Comments and Stories

The following comments and stories testify to the need for accurate, up-to-date, and detailed compensation and benefits information.

CONTEST WINNER

A HOLIDAY TALE . . .

It was Labor Day Weekend and, as the Corporate Services Administrator, I assumed the HR Manager's role without any formal HR training - and only 60 days prior to annual reviews. The lack of files was both a "Trick & a Treat" for Halloween. However, it was probably a good thing because, instead of relying on historical (and probably inaccurate) data, hot and heavy research was required. Through Thanksgiving, I was VERY thankful for the Internet. Through Christmas, my list to Santa focused on a solution to the compensation nightmare.

Why was it a nightmare?  Because the year was 1998, and college graduates with no experience thought they deserved at least $75k.  When they demanded that sort of starting salary, their managers wanted their own salaries doubled!

Thanks to data from sources like Abbott, Langer and Associates, the compensatory part of the reviews met the New Year's financial expectations and gave me the confidence to stand my ground. For those that didn't get what they expected, the research gave the managers the leverage needed while "chatting" with these employees.  By Valentines' Day, there was love in the air - as the average raise was 15%, with some as high as 69%.

From E.P., HR Manager

My coworker and I fill many shoes. Our manager tells us to find out what the industry is paying, and he will look into a raise for us. We are both MCSE's with over fifteen years experience each. I'd love to be able to prove without a doubt that we deserve more compensation.

From R.R., Network Administrator

My company has not been proactive at maintaining an IT compensation structure, resulting in very low morale and performance. Talent is not retained.

From W.P., IT Manager

I work with many clients who have inbound call centers in the Midwest. Often times, I am asked to review the existing (if there is one!) compensation structure and benchmark it to the market. I believe that the compensation survey reports from Abbott, Langer & Associates, Inc. would be an asset to both myself, and my clients.

From A.K., HR Consultant

We hired an outside agency to conduct a salary assessment of our positions and put together a compensation plan. However, the individual supervising this task was not diligent in their efforts, and when the final project was delivered no one could understand how it could possibly be viewed as useful material. The project took 8-10 months to complete and now we are none the further with meeting our need.

From N.H., Staffing Manager

The turnover in my department is atrocious! We are constantly losing employees due to low salary compared to competitors, or due to the fact that HR has hired a very substandard employee (you get what you pay for). My company is currently attempting to compensate for higher quality employees but needs to gather the data to know where to be. In just a two-week period, I lost 5 out of 30 people working for me.

From C.D., Customer Service Supervisor

Small company trying to understand if our compensation package is keeping pace with our peers.

From T.M., Chief Operating Officer

Philosophical Differences/Practical Solutions

Perhaps mine is not the only non-profit where our "service" orientation extends to our employees. We want to be generous; we want them to be happy. We also need to act reasonably to fulfill our duty to our funders. Therein lies our difficulty. In the past, our compensation proposals to our Executive Director have neatly matched her needs, and all has been well. This year, she's requesting that we consider a new benefit package that is, simply, beyond our collective experience. Feels like it's time for our organization to grow up. We can't expect our Executive Director to advise us on matters of her own contract. Our budget (under $200,000) puts the expertise of consultants out of our price range. So we've turned to the Internet. From the Abbott, Langer & Associates site summaries ALONE, our knowledge of the world of non-profit compensation and benefits has grown from nothing to . . . beginning to see what it is that we don't know. So there's now a light at the end of our tunnel. Based on the on-line summaries, we can at least begin to address the reasonableness of our Executive Director's benefit request so that both she and we can find some common ground about what "generous" really means in terms of our budget. We hope we can make her happy, while appropriately protecting the needs of the organization, so that we can all get back to our real business -- serving our community. And, [with compensation survey reports], then we'll be able to do that with a much higher degree of confidence that we've done the best job possible for our Center and our employees. As a Board member, that's what I need to sleep soundly at night.

From K.R., Secretary of the Board of Directors

We had a disagreement in the Accounting department as to salaries available in the area and the raises to be provided. Used the salary data to determine the raises, and it worked well. Disagreeing owners could not argue with fact. All employees are still with us.

From R.H., CFO

We are a small Information Systems consulting firm.

We have job descriptions such as Director of New Business Development, Programmer Analysts, Systems Analysts, Web Developers, Mainframe Analysts, Client Server Analysts, Programmers, and Business Analysts.

We are having a hard time identifying if we are paying competitive wages, and staying within our billing structure.

Also, not knowing 'who, what, and when' to give a bonus if at all, and at what level.

From P.M., Director Consulting Services

We place candidates in the areas of accounting, HR, information technology, and office management. We and our clients are always interested in compensation/benefits in the current market place. This helps us to advise our clients as to marketable salaries they should be considering.

From D.G., CPA

Our company is new, and growing so rapidly that we are unable to keep up with the current salaries and compensate old employees rightfully. I [want to] provide to my superiors the current salary rates and titles for this industry. My goal is to put in effect a plan to bring employees up to their rightful salary within 3 years.

From C.S., Benefits Coordinator

Being out here in the BOONDOCKS of Wisconsin, we would just like to be able to offer the proper wage for our area to our employees.

From S.S., Director

Our company is currently working on a compensation/benefits report to verify equitable salaries and benefit programs for the numerous positions within our organization. I am new to this type of work and am currently working on a Business Management degree, and have been assigned to do this research for our company. I have come to realize the difficulty of this type of research and can appreciate the valued information that is attained by organizations such as yours.

From D.W., Human Resource Intern

Great efforts were needed to minimize and combat potential Y2K issues. As a result, skilled individuals that could evaluate, solve, and implement Y2K solutions were in high demand. In our work environment, it was not uncommon for our Network Technicians to receive recruitment offers daily. Instead of standing pat, we evaluated the market from two perspectives. First, we looked at the current market and prices and adjusted some staff to put them in line with the short term boom in the market and prices. Next, we looked into future and tailored compensation packages that offered growth and reward based on reachable incentives. The end result, is that we were able to tie key company goals (i.e. employee retention, knowledge retention) to current market offerings (i.e. market price, training, rewards) to a new compensation package that allowed us to retain our current staff.

From C.C., Network Manager

I have been in the HR field for over 4 years now and just started employment as a Human Resources Director. We currently have 180 associates. I am the first person at the company holding a Human Resources title, as our company never had a human resources department or guidance on the employment laws. I am currently challenged with starting the department from ground up, training supervisors and managers on the employment laws, setting grade levels, and definitely need to revamp the current compensation and benefits programs. I just renegotiated our medical plan with our TPA and the TPA came back with ASO and fixed charges resulting in a savings of 9k per year. We still have a long way to go.

From A.B., Human Resources Director

Our company does not provide performance reviews, since they are so de-motivating. There is no salary review event company-wide; managers respond rather to employee requests for raises. Cost-of-Living raises are administered annually, but merit increases are given only if people ask for it. Thus, the only way to get a raise is to ask for it, and base it on whatever reasons are felt to be good at the time. As a result, salaries lag if people feel hesitant to ask; being hesitant to ask thus fosters the feeling of being treated unfairly -- merit is not recognized, but rather one has to "beg" for recognition. People slow down first, for a period of time, then finally ask for a raise.

From P.O., Human Resource Manager

As the new Director of Sales & Marketing, I began to investigate our current compensation package for the sales department. After inquiring to our Human Resources Department, it was obvious that I had to start from scratch in gathering this information. The current sales force had been frustrated with the lack of response given to this issue from the previous director. So I walked into the "bee hive" at our last sales meeting. I began to search for information. My brother who is a sales manager for a large corporation, was just involved in an evaluation of the compensation for their sales force. He suggested that I search for the American Compensation Association on the web. I found your site, and have recently ordered the report I need for my evaluation. I am looking forward to receiving the report and addressing our sales force with some ammunition on our current compensation package. If we need to make adjustments, we will. The fact that I have some additional information in the works, has given me some credibility over the previous director. This will go a long way in presenting the information and making any adjustments, or not, as needed.

From J.O., Director of Sales & Marketing

The use of credible, and updated salary surveys is critical to the maintenance of personnel as an asset to the company. Recently our IT department has suffered the indignity of prolific head-hunter raiding. The result was the loss of long-term critical technical personnel with whom the Company had invested many dollars of training. The head-hunters' success is traced to [our] use of outdated salary surveys. In addition, we were shocked and somewhat confused to learn of the significant increase in IT salaries. The confusion was exacerbated by the inconsistent feed back from various placement agencies. We have found the use of surveys to be the only tactic to achieve consistent information to aid in personnel salary advancement, and sourcing decisions.

From J.R., VP Finance