Employee Performance Reviews

5 Keys for Successful Employee Performance Reviews

Almost all organizations utilize employee performance reviews in one fashion or another. These reviews tend to run either on a set annual basis or on the anniversary hire date of the employee. Regardless of when they are performed, employee performance reviews are vital to both the employee and the supervisor, as they serve to gauge employee performance, and allow a formal setting to speak about expectations. Although they sound simple, and most of the labor force has been a part of this process, there are several ways for the organization to maximize this procedure and ensure employee review effectiveness.

Setting Compensation Budgets

How to Play a Key Role in Setting Compensation Budgets

By Staff Writer

During PayScale’s recent webinar, titled, “How to Play a Key Role in Compensation Budgeting,” PayScale director of customer service and education, Stacey Carroll, MBA, SPHR and HR experts Frank A. Cania, SPHR and Betty Richardson, CCP, explain why, in today’s economy, smart compensation planning and budgeting is more important than ever.  And, they explain how you can bring that message to your company.

The Advantages of Corporate Wellness Programs

What Are the Advantages of Corporate Wellness Programs?

How are you managing the health care costs at your company? If they seem overwhelming to you these days, you’re not alone. In the past ten years employer health coverage premiums increased by 119 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and other studies show that health care costs now absorb, on average, 50 percent of profits compared to 7 percent in 1980. Productivity losses related to personal and family health problems equal $1,685 per employee per year. What can you do to minimize health care expenses?

On-the-Job Training Programs

A Smart Approach to On-the-Job Training Programs

When people think of conducting on-the-job training, they tend to think of new employees who have entered a job, have been shown a desk (or other work environment), and will be learning via “trial by fire.” Although this method is sometimes effective, the benefits of on-the-job-training can be amplified with a little more preparation and coaching.

Absences for Exempt Workers

Exempt Employees and Partial Day Absences

One issue that comes up continually for employers is how to deal with exempt employees who take time off in less than full day increments.  The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations make it clear that employers generally cannot dock their exempt employees pay for absences of less than a day without jeopardizing the exemption.

Meeting Facilitation Training

Motivation Beyond the Meeting: How to Make Training Last

By Staff Writer

How do you maintain the energy created by a training session and help your employees stay enthused? If you’ve ever been frustrated by a drop in employee morale after an project or event is over, one expert would like to suggest that you take a closer look at the example you are giving on how your approach your work, the physical environment you’ve created and more.

Case Studies on Pay for Performance

Pay For Performance Models In The Legal Profession

Compensation based on pay for performance models is not new to corporate America, but it is practically unheard of in the law profession, until recently. Law firms are now seriously considering abandoning the traditional and long-established lock-step compensation system for a more rigorous pay-for-performance system. What could have prompted such a radical move given the legal profession’s wide reputation for being adverse to change?

Employee Compensation Plan Design

Think Ahead: Smart Employee Compensation Plan Design

When it comes to helping HR professionals utilize our tool to build, maintain, or update their compensation program, I hear myself saying over and over again, “remember it’s a tool, but you have to know what you want from the tool before it can be useful.” It is very important for any organization that is going through the process of benchmarking to work through what their employee compensation plan design strategy is prior to trying to interpret external market data. Part of defining your compensation philosophy is knowing who you compete with for talent and how competitive you want to be. Let me provide you some examples of what I mean.

Performance Appraisals' Strategic Objectives

The Question:  Why Don’t Performance Plans and Appraisals Work?

You’ve seen a million articles by now titled, “Why Your Performance Appraisals Don’t Work” or “How to Fix Your Performance Appraisal Process,” and so many more like that. Don’t all these articles begin to ask a much bigger question, “If there was an answer to how to make effective performance evaluations, wouldn’t we all be practicing that solution by now?”

Internet Research as a Hiring Technique

Recruiting Online: Is Web 2.0 HR’s Pandora’s Box?

What do you do when you want to learn more about a virtual stranger? Google them, of course. Most people would confess to harnessing the power of a Google search to satisfy personal curiosity, and many employers conduct hiring based on internet research. Web 2.0 (we’re talking about social networking tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, personal blogs, and Google) provides employers with a new world of information about potential employees. However, satisfying one’s curiosity as an HR recruiter about a job candidate can open up a dangerous can of worms.

Compensation Planning Mistakes

Top Compensation Planning Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) - Part 1

By Staff Writer

There are many ways to make mistakes when doing compensation planning. The day-to-day hustle of growing a business can cause anyone to miss key details, fail to communicate fully or skip some step in the process.

In this first of two blog posts on compensation planning mistakes, we’ll help you learn what’s most important about your communications with employees, ways to boost employee morale and how to create a more efficient work stream when it comes to planning compensation budgets. Below are the first five of 10 suggestions we’ll be sharing with you. Feel free to leave a comment with some suggestions of your own.

Using Credit Checks in the Hiring Process

Background Checks and Job Offer Withdrawal

You may think you’ve found the perfect person for the job, but you don’t know their whole story. It is possible that, upon performing an employee background or credit check for the hiring process, you may find information that would make you unwilling to hire them. At that point, what do you do?

How to Calculate Employee Turnover

Costs of Employee Turnover - Part 2

In our first post on the costs of employee turnover, you learned why hanging onto your employees is important to the financial well-being of your organization, as long as those employees are a good fit.

In part 2, I will show you some twists and variables on those calculations that you must make to see the full picture that employee turnover in your organization is telling you. I will also cover a few of the many variables that can affect your turnover rate and affect how you choose to interpret results of your employee turnover calculations.

Employee Competency Checklist

Employee Core Competencies - a Proven Tool for an Organization's Success

“Hi, you got a minute?” It’s your fourth interruption this morning. It’s Sally, the Operations Manager. You know when she says, “Do you have a minute?” it usually means, “Do you have a half hour?” She comes in and sits down in your guest chair and you figure that you can spare a half hour before your next meeting. You’ve been the HR manager for your company now for five years so you can tell that Sally really needs to talk to you and it’s about one of her employees. You can probably guess which one, but you let her tell you.

How to Explain Employees’ Total Compensation

Communicating Compensation Plans to Employees

How well do your employees understand your compensation plan and philosophy? Clearly communicating compensation plans to employees is worth the effort. It can lead to harder-working, more loyal and satisfied employees. “But it’s complicated!” you say. You’re right. Let’s talk about what your organization might do to make compensation plans more transparent to your employees.

Taking Care with Layoff Laws

Firing Employees: A Lawyer’s Advice

The world of human resources has officially arrived to mainstream media. In his recent blockbuster movie, George Clooney tackles the death-defying world of human resources and employee terminations. His character racks up tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles travelling to distant lands to be a “hired gun” and terminate employees on behalf of their employers. As the movie suggests, terminating an employee is a very sensitive task. Poorly-handled employee terminations are more likely to breed lawsuits by the former employee, discontent among the remaining employees, and myriad unexpected legal issues. As an employment lawyer, I see the good, the bad, and the absurd when it comes to employee terminations. The stories you are about to read are true (sanitized to protect the innocent) and the lesson drawn from the story worth its weight in saved litigation costs.

The Necessity of a Leadership Development Model

When Less Must Become More: The Case for a Talent and Leadership Development Model Now

Today’s slimmed down workforce has been placed very clearly in the position of working to accomplish more with far fewer resources than before. This contradictory challenge seemed to be destined to fail from the start and it may well be, inadvertently, designed to fail for many organizations. Companies all across the United States have reduced their workforces to what has been termed “essential levels” and have cut costs to what is believed to be “essential expenditures.”

Tips for Employers Hiring Veterans

Tips for After You Hire Veterans and Ex-Military Employees

The two major times when people enter the military are usually right after high school or right after college. Regardless of their level of education, the majority of these soldiers are never exposed to many elements of corporate culture in the typical business setting, and most likely only worked at a steak house part-time, like yours truly.

Average Salary of Jobs in Nonprofit

Nonprofit Compensation Trends for 2009 and 2010

By Staff Writer

Sitting in the middle of a robust economy is one of the best ways for nonprofits to increase their fundraising power. Back in 1986, when the tax on charitable donations was increased, donations actually went up simply because people had money in their pockets, according to The Christian Science Monitor’s “Obama's Right: The Wealthy Don’t Need a Huge Tax Break to Support Charity.” By contrast, the sort of economic health we’ve seen over the last year or so can have a devastating effect on nonprofits’ income.

COBRA Premium Reduction Subsidy

A Summary of the COBRA Premium Reduction Provisions Under ARRA

The period to sign up for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) subsidy that provides terminated employees and their beneficiaries with a 65 percent COBRA premium reduction in health continuation insurance costs has been extended through February 28, 2010. In addition, the subsidy period has been extended from 9 months to 15 months of the COBRA 18-month entitlement period.

Average Salary of Jobs in Legal Industry

Legal Industry Hopes to Recover in 2010: Have Salaries Changed?

By Staff Writer

The year of 2009 was a tough one for the legal industry, with 12,916 people laid off from major law firms, according to “What Will 2010 Bring for Big Law?” published in The Business Insider. Profits are expected to go up in 2010 as mergers and acquisitions pick up again, banks start to lending more and law firms work on the litigation resulting from the economic crisis.

HR Questions for Compensation Experts

Q & A with Compensation Experts: Pay Ranges, Pay-for-Performance and Merit Increases

What’s going on these days with compensation and what questions do HR managers have about it all?

The following is a collection of questions asked during PayScale webinars over the last several months. The topics covered include: having difficult conversations with employees about pay, finding ways to reward a top performer whose pay is already near the top of their range and how to support managers in having conversations about pay with employees. Answers are provided by PayScale director of customer service and education, Stacey Carroll, MBA, SPHR, and also Betty Richardson, CCP.

Compensation Decisions in 2009 and 2010

Compensation Decisions: What PayScale Observed in 2009 and What's Predicted for 2010

As part of our look back at 2009 and look ahead to 2010, we asked PayScale’s director of customer service and education, Stacey Carroll, MBA, SPHR, to describe how the year, and it’s tough economic turn, seemed to affect the HR leaders, small business owners, recruiters and other PayScale clients she works with everyday.

Ms. Carroll points out three major events that she thinks were unique to 2009 and gives her prediction for what will be happening in 2010 for people who perform compensation planning.

HR Articles: Compensation Today 2009 Review

A Compensation Today 2009 Review

By Staff Writer

In the year of 2009, Compensation Today started publishing compensation and HR-related articles – over 110 of them, at our current count. To make it easy for you to see all of the issues we covered, we’ve created a list with many of our posts bundled by topic – starting with the signing of The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act back in late January. Hopefully, these lists will provide you a handy guide to the information that you need. Enjoy.

Top HR Issues for H1N1 Defense

Guidance for HR Professionals During the Influenza (H1N1) Pandemic

As we are in the midst of influenza pandemic or global epidemic, a day does not go by without some sort of media coverage regarding its impact on our local education and health care systems, businesses, as well as just how our government is planning to respond to all of this. Hearing this information and sorting out all of the details can be overwhelming.

Average Salary of Jobs in Healthcare

In Demand Jobs for 2010: Average Salary of Jobs in Healthcare

By Staff Writer

Jobs in healthcare continue to top lists of most stable, recession-proof, lucrative and flexible careers. From nursing to lab work and physical therapy, nearly everyone knows that our nation’s ill and aging population is creating an ever-growing demand for health services and support.

Average Salary of Jobs in Finance

In Demand Jobs for 2010: Average Salary of Jobs in Finance

By Staff Writer

As the recession slows in the year to come, financial regulations to prevent future crises will be more important than ever. For that reason, many companies may be adding to their team of financial analysts and regulation experts in 2010.

Compensation Questions - Analytics

Compensation Questions – Applying the Results of Compensation Analytics

The following is a transcript of the question and answer session that followed PayScale’s webinar, How to Perform Compensation Analytics. The topics covered in these compensation questions include red-circling high performers, benefits and job evaluation tools. Answers are provided by PayScale’s director of customer service and education, Stacey Carroll, M.B.A., SPHR.

HR Guide to Holiday Parties

9 Tips to Limit Holiday Office Party Legal Exposure

‘Tis the season for holiday parties and the spreading of good cheer in the workplace. Unfortunately, though, too much cheer can cause liability. If your plans include serving alcohol at holiday parties or even sponsoring department “happy hours” at a local pub, your organization could be at risk for legal liability if a drunken employee harms himself or others.

The Costs of Employee Turnover

Cost of Employee Turnover - Part 1

Many of us have a vague sense that there are things we must do. We must eat our vegetables, floss, and make payroll. Then we have a sense that there are things we ought to do. We ought to invest for retirement, volunteer with a community service organization, or learn a language. Into which category do we place “hang onto my employees better?” It might be the former, once you find out in this blog how much employee turnover costs.

Ethics in the Workplace

Encouraging Positive Workplace Behavior: Ethics on the Job

Have you ever experienced a situation at work in which a highly performing and highly skilled employee was accused of some inappropriate behavior in the workplace? You probably watched, along with other employees, to see if the person being accused would be confronted if their behavior was indeed determined to be unethical. Maybe you were disappointed because your organization overlooked the unethical behavior due to the fact that the accused employee was such a “good” performer?

Laws for Employee Breaks

Employee Work Breaks: Legal Issues and Worker Needs

Surprisingly, federal law does not require employers to provide employee work breaks. Still, you should consider providing them. In addition to giving employees a necessary break from workday chores, they may also be required as accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or to satisfy state requirements.

Temporary Employee Laws

Legal Smarts: Hiring Temporary Employees

The holidays are coming up, which can mean hiring temporary workers in retail and other industries. Do you know how to protect yourself against claims of unfair pay, benefits requests payments, and other temporary employee legal issues? Temporary employee laws abound so it’s important that you’re well informed. Here are some of the A-B-C’s of law relating to temporary employees that will help keep your company off of Santa’s “naughty” list this season.

Employers and the National Labor Relations Act

Does the National Labor Relations Act Impact Non-Union Employers?

How are employers affected by the NLRA? For most non-union employers, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act) is probably not the federal statute that has been at the top of their watch list in recent years. With union membership at a historical low point, employers in the US concern themselves with other state and federal laws that impact their HR policies and HR practices more so than the NLRA.

Compensation Analytics with Market Ratios

Compensation Analytics: Alignment of Incumbents within Pay Grades

Once you completed some initial compensation analyses, like looking at how your salary ranges compare to the market and, if applicable, ensuring that your company follows through and creates a history of pay for performance, you can then move on to doing an analysis of how your employees align within their pay grades. This information can highlight unusually high or low base salaries and give you the opportunity to correct them or adjust your ranges.

Voluntary Benefits Plan

The Advantages of Offering More Voluntary Benefits

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the extent of voluntary benefits plans for employees was limited to “buying up” extra insurance on the company’s group plan, or increasing short-term (STD) or long-term disability (LTD) benefit coverage from 50 to 66 percent. In 2009, it seems like every organization is looking for ways to reduce benefits costs and voluntary benefits plans are, often, the only way to expand offerings for employees.

The easy conclusion to be made of this situation is that employers are simply unwilling to add any additional costs to their budgets. While this is certainly true, it does not make this deal automatically negative for employees.

Common Issues in Internal Pay Equity

Roadblocks to Internal Pay Equity: Two Key Issues

Most of you in HR have seen some common problems with internal pay equity. Perhaps the most common is pay compression, often resulting when the pay market requires you to hire someone new at a higher rate than your longtime employees in the same job are getting paid.

Much has been written about the most common issues in internal pay equity. So, in this blog post, I’m going to take on some of the most common issues I’ve dealt with that don’t receive attention. The hope is that the information will help you tackle these common issues in internal pay equity.

Create a History of Pay for Performance

Compensation Analysis: Create a History of Pay for Performance

In our previous discussions on compensation analytics, we discussed why taking the time to review the effects of your compensation plan is valuable to a company and, also, how to perform an analysis of your salary ranges. In this next post on compensation analytics, let’s consider the company that has made a commitment to paying for performance and see how that company can assess whether it is really doing so. Do you really have a history of pay for performance at your organization?

Definitions of Employee Classifications

Understanding Employee Classification Issues

How do you determine whether an employee is classified as full-time, part-time, or temporary? It is really up to you.

Since federal and state laws generally do not define these terms, employers usually have a lot of flexibility when categorizing employees. Employee classifications are often based on the number of hours worked and job duties performed and typically determine eligibility for benefits.

The following outlines issues you need to consider in classifying employees.

How to Conduct a Compensation Analysis

How to Conduct a Compensation Analysis and Move Salary Ranges

In a previous post we reviewed why performing compensation analytics can provide value to an organization. In this next post on compensation analytics, we’ll look at how it is used to review salary ranges.

At many companies, the assumed answer to the question, “Do our compensation ranges need adjustment?” is usually, “Yes.” Compensation ranges are often adjusted every year to match industry trends and economic ups and downs.  But, is it really smart planning to assume that you need to adjust your salary ranges every year – no matter what? I suggest that a key to long-term success is stepping back and having a conversation as a company about, “Do we need to move our salary ranges this year?”

The Value of Compensation Analytics

The Value of Compensation Analytics for Top HR Professionals

Is your compensation program really doing what you want it to? You have to make time to look at the data your compensation practices are producing to find out.

There are many to-dos when an HR professional or business owner is deciding on compensation at their company. You need to set up formal ranges, put people into the ranges, complete performance reviews and much more. But, an essential area that may not receive enough attention is to step back once all of that nuts and bolts work is completed and say, “How’s it working?” That is compensation analytics and the following post provides advice on how to perform it efficiently and effectively.

HR Advice for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Expert Advice on Responding to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Back on January 29, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (“Act”). Although signed in early 2009, its effective date was May 28, 2007. The significance of the President’s signing was that he carried through on a campaign promise and that it represented one of his first official acts after taking office.

The significance for HR professionals and business owners is that there is some work to do now to protect yourself from claims of pay discrimination. Below you will find my legal advice for getting your pay practices and documentation up to date.

HR Guide to Leadership Training and Coaching

Leadership Training for Senior Management

It’s a new week at the office. You just found out that corporate is kicking off a new leadership training and coaching program and you will be participating. You know that it never hurts to receive leadership training on how to be a better manager. But, you’re skeptical.

You’ve been through leadership training exercises before. You’ve had high hopes that the training would help you to be a better manager. But, upon returning from the training, you settled back into your usual ways. Your boss has given you specific feedback on how you need to be a better manager. And your employees would really like it if you managed them better. You really do have the desire to be a better leader but how do you make what you learn “stick” this time?

Employer Benefits for Hiring Veterans

The Employer Benefits of Hiring Veterans and Ex-Military

During the period of time when I was preparing to exit the military and re-enter the civilian workforce, I read countless articles on what to expect while entering the workforce. Resumes tips, tricks on how to put a strong spin on military skills, so forth and so on. Unfortunately, I had a sinking feeling that potential employers weren’t reading similar articles about what to expect from job candidates that have a previous background in the military.

Changing Role of HR Technology

Talent Management Software: Why Free Trials Are a Smart Choice

Having been in the HR technology field now for 14 years, it’s refreshing to see more free trials for talent management software offered than ever before. This option gives organizations an opportunity to try before they buy. Yet, despite its value, many companies don’t take advantage of the offer or, when they do, they don’t involve those who will be directly impacted by the talent management technology. Maybe it seems like too much work upfront.

Based upon my experience, organizations need to look at the upfront work done to review a new HR technology system at their company as a smart investment. For many companies today, the investment in HR technology review by a variety of employees doesn’t seem worthwhile. Yet, the process can improve employee engagement in the software over time and lay the foundation for a widely adopted talent management strategy.

HR Guide to Social Networking Policy

The Facebook Policy You Never Knew You Needed

Right now, someone at your office is posting a message on their Facebook wall or sending out a Twitter tweet. You may write off these internet-based social networking tools as innocuous but they can pose serious legal risks if left untamed without an iron-clad employee social networking policy. Don’t believe me? Sit down and I will tell you a tale of a restaurant chain.

The Impact of Compensation Methods and Decisions

The Impact of Compensation Methods on Employees and Organizations

It’s time to think about the many, sometimes subtle, choices behind determining appropriate compensation of your employees. The success of your organization can ride on these compensation decisions.

From the mom and pop shop that needs workers to restock shelves to large corporations whose employees manage million dollar funds, your organization’s compensation decisions can either boost your bottom line or leave it in the gutter. The key is to make realistic, budget-friendly compensation decisions at each step.

Compensation Budgeting: Determining Merit Pay Increases

Perform Efficient Compensation Planning for Merit Pay Increases

We are in the post-season for HR. It’s open enrollment time, flu season and, for a lot of organizations it’s also the time of the year for performance management and merit pay increases. Basically, there’s so much to do and so little time to do it. Welcome to human resources. Did anyone tell you it was going to be like this? Probably not.

They also probably forgot to tell you that you would do this event-based activity on top of all of your normal day-to-day hr tasks including employee relations issues and recruiting. But, you are a superstar who can manage an employee relations issue in between phone calls with your benefits broker while drafting a revised sick leave policy to account for the swine flu epidemic. 

Now, if you could just get some help from your managers. But, here’s the toughest part – your managers need help from you.

Employee Compensation Policy

Writing an Employee Compensation Policy

For legal protection and good business sense, every company should have an up-to-date employee compensation policy. What is the status on yours?

An organization should not wait for dire circumstances, such as a pay inequity lawsuit, to write down or update their employee compensation policy. All organization leaders should create a written policy document or refresh their existing one for legal protection, and as a guideline or framework for the company’s compensation program.

Below is a list of helpful tips and tools for creating an effective employee compensation policy that is specific to your organization.

What Does the Employee Free Choice Act Mean for Employers?

Fast Politics: Latest News on the Employee Free Choice Act

Labor union membership numbers have changed in the last few decades and so have the union’s political efforts. As an HR professional, it’s important that you stay up-to-date on union activities since these politics can affect your company’s bottom line.

The two different, but linked, pieces of legislation to learn about and prepare for are the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and the Re-Employment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers Act (RESPECT Act).