Rubino, who is founder and president of Rubino Consulting Services in Pound Ridge, New York, offered his suggestions at the 64th SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition, held recently in Atlanta, Georgia.
Here are the rest of Rubino’s tips:
[Go here for tips 1, 2, and 3.]
4. A Successful Plan Sets Total Compensation Integrated With Total Rewards
- Compensation policy must be aligned with total rewards and strategic objectives
- Incentive pay should be directly tied to performance criteria achievement: direct line-of-sight
- Consider re-defining what is meant by a base salary increase
5. A Successful Plan Yields Financial Returns to Employees
- Incentive opportunities must be perceived as “substantial” enough to motivate performance
- Timing of incentive payments should be as close as possible to the qualifying event
- If designed properly, payouts to employees will yield “slices from an expanding financial pie”
6. A Successful Plan Yields Financial Returns to the Company
- A well-designed and executed incentive compensation program can improve the organization’s bottom line.
- Measurable benefits can include improved:
- Morale – On-time Performance
- Productivity – Work Methods
- Quality
- Customer Service
7. A Successful Plan Involves Employees and Managers
- Middle managers will make or break the incentive compensation program
- Must get buy-in from employees
- Should involve employees and managers in the plan design, including identification of performance criteria
- Must build trust!
8. A Successful Plan Uses Internal and External Data
- Collect and analyze accurate and valid competitive data
- Build the incentive program from a “rational” base pay foundation
- Base salary serves as the anchor in total compensation/rewards planning
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9. A Successful Plan Sets Forth Clear Performance Goals
Performance criteria in successful programs are:
- A combination of quantitative and qualitative measures
- Simple to understand
- Supported by valid data
- Monitored through strong controls
Aligning rewards to performance requires the following:
- A clear (and clearly-perceived) relationship between pay and performance
- Predictable measures of performance
- Visible benefits to the employees and the organization
- Regular formal and informal performance feedback
10. A Successful Plan Achieves Clarity Through Communication
Communication mega-objectives may include:
- Ensure understanding
- Change perceptions (get buy-in)
- Motivate behavior
Compensation: it’s never easy, is it? And the part that should be the easiest—wage and hour—is often one of the hardest. It certainly generates the most lawsuits and the most hasssles.
Let’s face it, comp’s never a picnic, and complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is one of the most confusing and challenging things comp managers have to do. Even the most savvy practitioners get tripped up, and the law’s complex requirements can easily land you and your company on the wrong side of a lawsuit or DOL investigation.
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Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR features:
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- Multiple quizzes, so you can see where you need to review more carefully
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- Sample policies, easily modified to fit your specific preferences
- A quarterly newsletter, Wage & Hour Compliance Bulletin, to keep you aware of the latest developments in the law, and why they matter to you.
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Why are aggressive attorneys so eager to file claims on behalf of employees? Because there’s so much money to be made:
- $4.75 million: Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California settles wage and hour lawsuit over miscalculated overtime pay and failing to compensate workers for missed meal and rest periods.
- $1.15 million: Las Vegas construction company to pay in back wages to 1,060 current and former employees.
- $976,327: New Mexico aerospace company settles with 900 employees who were routinely required to work through lunch breaks without compensation.
- $340,400: New Jersey convenience store to pay back wages and damages for violations of overtime and recordkeeping.
- $84,541: New York physical therapist agrees to pay 22 employees for minimum wage violations
- $30,000: Texas chain of four gas stations to pay their six hourly employees, again for recordkeeping and overtime violations.
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Stay up to date with wage/hour changes. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.