A few days ago the Velvet Hammer provided some pointers on putting together offer letters and I wanted to chime in on the topic. I have just a couple of general reminders as you deliver the offers to your sales candidates: Your position is probably not the only opportunity they are looking at so keep the process moving along – timing is everything. Qualify the total compensation package with the candidate. Will the offer be in the candidate’s range or will it be out in left field? Expect to have some negotiation with the candidate on the offer. Again, this is probably not the only opportunity they are pursuing. Make… Read More
Continue ReadingWall Street Pay
Wall Street Pay Averages $300,000 Per Year. “Averages” is the word that hooked me into the article. The straight-forward article simply relays the stats and how an improved Wall Street helps NYC. Today’s news that the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 12,000 line for the first time ever bodes well for that average pay moving up. I enjoyed this rather dry statement from the short article: “Wall Street is recovering,” Hevesi said in a statement. I guess so.
Continue ReadingSales Comp Potpourri
We are working through some offers for sales candidates with multiple clients this week and thought it would be helpful to discuss some general points. Salary – we’re big believers in a modest/decent salary. The best plans we see provide a salary to cover the basic needs of the salesperson. If they are worrying about basic bills, they are not as effective. I know there is an old school belief that commission-only plans are the best – purest form of selling, you eat what you kill. The largest drawback to this approach is that sales managers often leave the salesperson to their own devices. Their rationale – the salesperson will… Read More
Continue ReadingNew Blog – Salary Stories
I received a comment from Sonia Meisenheimer at PayScale yesterday regarding this post from last month on the Ask Dr. Salary blog. Sonia mentioned that the blog is actually run by PayScale and not CareerBuilder – my bad. PayScale has launched a new blog called Salary Stories which I checked out this morning. I enjoyed the blog and their excellent use of YouTube (should I call that GoogleTube now?). Their description of the blog: Salary Stories are true tales about working people who do what they love and love what they do. The videos are well done – I watched a couple of the interviews and they are quite compelling,… Read More
Continue ReadingPay for Performance
At Select Metrix, we constantly preach that compensation plans should be, in part, tied to an individual’s performance. So when I was reading through my newsletters and RSS feeds, I was amazed to find stats from several different articles and feeds. First off, CEO turnover is up. The numbers show that CEO turnover for 2005 was 15% compared to 9% just 10 years earlier. Pay is also up, this could be due to the fact that more CEOs are moving around. In 2004 CEO pay increased 14.5% and in 2005 it increased 7.1% with the median salary and bonus coming in at $2,408,665. With this trend, The Corporate Library (paid… Read More
Continue ReadingTop Paid HR Leaders
The Workforce Management newsletter arrived this morning in my inbox and I came across a startling article. I was shocked at the compensation of the top 30 HR leaders in the US. The top 10 HR executives’ compensation is between $2.5 million to just over $6.6 million a year. If you are interested in viewing the list, here is the link: The 30 Highest-Paid HR Leaders.
Continue ReadingCareerBuilder and PayScale
The 2 companies in the title of this post have released a new website – cbsalary.com. The site is a competitor of the long established salary.com website of which I am a fan. The CareerBuilder site has some interesting hooks to it including a direct link to current job listings on their board. If I am not mistaken, salary.com offers a comprehensive service that searches the big 3 job boards. There is a section towards the end of the free report that offers a comparison to similar profiles which was interesting. The similar jobs were close, but not quite exact. I searched on a Technical Recruiter position but the comparisons… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Salespeople Leave
An interesting article ran in last week’s Selling Power Newsletter for Hiring & Recruiting titled “Why Do Salespeople Leave?” According to Compensation Resources, Inc. (CRI), obtained turnover statistics and trends from a broad range of industries and company sizes. The results indicate that both voluntary turnover and overall turnover have slightly increased in 2006 over 2004 when the last data were collected. The report identified an important shift in the motivators for leaving noted by employees. In 2004, the top reasons for moving on were better pay and better benefits. In 2006, the top reasons for leaving an employer is the desire for better opportunities and increased responsibilities. “More and… Read More
Continue ReadingDo You Deserve a Raise?
I just received an interesting email from Salary.com: Do you deserve more than a 3.7% raise? Your increasing skills are worth more than the standard 3.7% cost of living increase.Be prepared for your next salary review by purchasing a Personal Salary Subscription today. I received a 13.25% raise because of Salary.com information – Satisfied Salary.com Customer I have never encountered this approach, but I am intrigued by an employee showing up to a salary review with a detailed report. I don’t know how I would take that as a manager. Another part of the email mentioned: “Thanks for all your help. This is an amazing tool. It has helped me… Read More
Continue Reading“Bet On Yourself”
CareerJournal.com has a long article entitled Get the Most Pay Out of Your Job. The article follows a typical format of 10 tips for employees and there are some solid suggestions. In the list, point #2 hit on a topic dear to my own belief: 2. Bet on yourself Having a bonus tied to performance goals and hitting them can get you more money annually…The key to receiving more bonus money is superior performance. If you meet your goals, you should receive your target bonus amount. But at some companies, if you exceed the targets set for you, you may receive an award that exceeds your target bonus. At Biogen… Read More
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