In a tight labor market, you need to stay aware of what compensation and benefits your competitors are offering. Here’s a way to do it … at the click of a mouse.
Yesterday’s Daily Advisor detailed a study by the Charlton Consulting Group on how employees greatly underestimate the cost of benefits to employers. The average employee estimate was 30 percent over the cost of pay, while government statistics showed the actual cost was 43 percent over pay—almost half again the estimate.
Because benefits cost so much, and because their cost, especially when health-related, is constantly rising, it’s vital to your bottom-line health to not offer more than the competition does. Yet you can’t offer fewer benefits (or lower pay, for that matter) without risk of losing your best people to those competitors. Loss of talent to a competitor is especially galling since it cuts both ways. It strengthens them, and simultaneously weakens you.
How can you know what competitors are offering? Don’t believe their want ads. Actual pay and perks are often negotiated beyond starting offers. And don’t look to public or trade group sources, which may be both inaccurate and out of date.
Try BLR’s all-in-one subscription website, Compensation.BLR.com, and get the free special report, Top 100 FLSA Overtime Q&As, no matter what you decide. Read more.
Instead, what’s needed is an annual, confidential third-party survey (updated daily, if need be) of what other firms like yours are up to, with localized information, if possible. BLR carries out exactly this kind of survey each year of exempt and nonexempt compensation and benefits, right in your state.
The place to find the results at the click of a mouse, is our subscription website, Compensation.BLR.com. Here are the services provided by this unique tool:
—Localized Salary Finder. Based on other reliable research among thousands of employers, here are pay scales (including 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles) for hundreds of commonly held jobs, from assembly line worker to president of the company. The data are customized for your state and metro area, your industry, and your company size, so you pay what’s offered in your specific market, not nationally.
–Wage-Hour and Other Legal Advice. Plain-English explanations of wage-hour and other compensation and benefits-related law at both federal and state levels. State means the laws of your state. The site is customized to your use. (Other states can be added at a modest extra charge.)
Compensation.BLR.com will tell you what’s being paid right in your state for hundreds of jobs. Try it free and get a free special report. Read More.
–Job Descriptions. The service provides them by the hundreds, already written, legally reviewed, and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s mandate that essential job functions be separated from those less critical. All descriptions carry employment grade levels to current norms—another huge time-saver.
–Salary and Benefits Surveys. The service includes the results of three surveys a year, telling you what employers are paying, offering as benefits, and budgeting for merit increases. Results for exempts and nonexempts are reported separately.
–Performance Appraisal Wizard. The difficult work of writing appraisals is nearly done before you start it with this prewritten format. Enter the job elements and performance ratings, and the system creates a fair, legal, ready-to-sign review.
–News and Best Practices Advice. Hundreds of white papers and case studies, a weekly ezine of what’s new at the site, and comp and benefits news updated daily (as is the whole site).
–“Ask the Experts” Service. E-mail a question to our editors and get a personalized response within 1 business day.
If we sound as if we’re high on the program, it’s because we are. For about $3 a working day, the help it offers, especially to those with compensation responsibilities, is enormous.
You can see for yourself, at no cost or obligation, by utilizing the free evaluation period offered in the coupon below, which includes a free special report, Top 100 FLSA Overtime Q&As, which you can keep whatever you decide on the program.
This one’s definitely worth a look, which you can get by clicking the link below.
Click for samples of all key program elements
Got a Comp or Benefits Question?
Get a personalized answer within 1 business day with BLR’s all-you-need-in-1-website, Compensation.BLR.com. Try it free and get a free special report, Top 100 FLSA Overtime Q&As. It’s yours to keep regardless of your decision on the program. Read more.