Benefits and Compensation

Matrix Approach Will Tame Competing Sales Goals

Special from WorldatWork Total Rewards 2013, Philadelphia

In yesterday’s Advisor, consultant David Cichelli talked about hurdles, modifiers, and multipliers for sales compensation. Today, his take on using matrices, plus an introduction to the all-HR-in-one-place website, HR.BLR.com®.

Matrices for Sales Comp

Use a matrix when sales people have concurrent accountability for two competing measures, says Cichelli, who is senior vice president at the Alexander Group. His remarks came at the WorldatWork Total Rewards 3013 Conference and Exhibition held recently in Philadelphia.

The payout matrix provides improved payout as performance on both measures improves. There are a double threshold and a double cap. A typical example of this is the competing nature of sales volume and price realization. Clearly, if the only measure is volume, salespeople will be incentivized to make sales at any price, leaving the company with lots of unprofitable sales.

And, conversely, if the only measure is price realization, the company will get a small volume of sales at full price—not a good situation either. So the matrix is a solution that helps balance the two factors. Only by doing well on both scales can the salesperson maximize his or her payout.

Example: Commission Matrix

Here, Excellence on either scale is nowhere near as remunerative as Target is on both.

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Hurdles, modifiers, and matrices—three more things to add to the daily challenge. In HR, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. Like FMLA intermittent leave, overtime hassles, ADA accommodation, and then on top of that, whatever the agencies and courts throw in your way.

You need a go-to resource, and our editors recommend the “everything-HR-in-one website,” HR.BLR.com. As an example of what you will find, here are some policy recommendations concerning e-mail, excerpted from a sample policy on the website:

Privacy. The director of information services can override any individual password and thus has access to all e-mail messages in order to ensure compliance with company policy. This means that employees do not have an expectation of privacy in their company e-mail or any other information stored or accessed on company computers


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E-mail review. All e-mail is subject to review by management. Your use of the   e-mail system grants consent to the review of any of the messages to or from you in the system in printed form or in any other medium.

Solicitation. In line with our general policy, e-mail must not be used to solicit for outside business ventures, personal parties, social meetings, charities, membership in any organization, political causes, religious causes, or other matters not connected to the company’s business.

We should point out that this is just one of hundreds of sample policies on the site. (You’ll also find analysis of laws and issues, job descriptions, and complete training materials for hundreds of HR topics.)

You can examine the entire HR.BLR.com program free of any cost or commitment. It’s quite remarkable—30 years of accumulated HR knowledge, tools, and skills gathered in one place and accessible at the click of a mouse.

What’s more, we’ll supply a free downloadable copy of our special report, Critical HR Recordkeeping—From Hiring to Termination, just for looking at HR.BLR.com. If you’d like to try it at absolutely no cost or obligation to continue (and get the special report, no matter what you decide), go here.

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