Compensation & Context

This week presented me with some good lessons in the importance of context in compensation.

The capstone was a conversation with a particularly articulate employee about her personal compensation opportunity.  It was a great discussion, as I worked to understand and appreciate the circumstances through her eyes and she through mine.  A great reminder - for me - of how critical it is to understand context when examining pay concerns.

Each of us looks at our own compensation through a very unique and personal prism which reflects...

• Our own system of values
• The importance we place on financial rewards
• Our level of business and economic acumen
• Our perception of the rules by which the organization where we are employed operates
• The sets of information we have access to and how we interpret them
• Our own individual sense of equity and fair play

... just for starters!

Attempting to address - or dismiss - pay concerns without an attempt to understand the context from which they have sprung can lead to some real misfires on our part.  So here's to keeping an open mind, asking good questions and listening, really listening, to the responses!

Comments

[Sharlyn Lauby]

Excellent post and reminder for us all. Thanks for sharing!

[Michael Kostrzewa Ph.D.]

As you stated , Ann, your list of contextual items is a great "starter" list, you could go on adding and expanding it ad infinitum.
I suggest that any HR/Comp professional who attempts to "dismiss" pay concerns is embarking upon the ultimate exercise in futility. Try explaining to an employees who was hoping and praying for at least a 5% increase (because their spouse just got laid off and they NEED the extra pay) how their 3% is really competitive in the current market, and that they should feel good about it, and the positive "message" about their value that the company is sending them!

[E. James (Jim) Brennan]

The moment anyone asks a question, you immediately know that they don't know what you know or see the situation as you do. If they did, they would not raise a question for you to answer, in the first place.

[Ann Bares]

Sharlyn:

Thanks for the comment .. and for the link back from HR Bartender. Much appreciated!

Michael:

Agreed - context does help us understand and hopefully respond to the situation as it appears in the employee's eyes.

Jim:

Great reminder. We would be well served to always assume that we and the question asker are looking at the situation from different contexts.

Thanks - all for the great comments here!