Blog, General Insights
Believe it or not, we’re big fans of compensation management. Far from seeing it as a necessary evil required for running a business, we see compensation management as an opportunity – or, to be more precise, a multitude of opportunities. Opportunities for growth, for improvement, and for learning; not just for you, but for your organization and employees as well. Here are just a few different ways in which compensation management can make your business better:
-Motivation: People want to be recognized for the effort they put in. It’s just human nature. And if somebody goes above and beyond their expected duties and really puts forth an effort for your organization, it’s only fair that they should be recognized for it, right? By keeping tabs on employee performance and rewarding those who go the extra mile (and beyond), you actually help boost employee morale. When people feel like they work for a company that encourages them to do their best, and rewards them appropriately, they’ll want to work harder so that they too can be recognized and rewarded for their hard work. And when combining compensation management with total rewards, you can give your employees an even more accurate idea of how valuable they are to your organization. Not to mention that employees who feel like they have a path of progression at their current organization are less likely to look for greener pastures elsewhere.
-Strategizing: One of the most important aspects to running a business is data. If you’re not aware of the numbers, you likely don’t have a full picture of what’s going on within your business. Compensation management allows you to see where your compensation budget is going within your business, how each sector is performing, and allows you to tweak and adjust appropriately. Like we mentioned earlier, if you want to keep hold of your most valuable and hardworking employees, you need to offer them the proper recognition for their work and opportunities for advancement. And on the flip side, you can make sure that more of your compensation budget is going to those who earned it so you’re not misallocating valuable resources which could better serve you elsewhere.
-Learning: Bringing these last two sections together is learning. Every day, every new experience is a learning process; compensation management is no different. Those tweaks and adjustments mentioned earlier will help you learn what works best for your organization, and how to most efficiently administer compensation in order to maximize productivity and employee morale. Even if you’re a hardened compensation professional who thinks they know it all, trust us – learning is a constant process. There will always be something new, something more which will make you better at what you do, and knowing the ins-and-outs of compensation management and the relevant data that makes it up empowers you to make the best decisions for your organization.
As you can see, there’s clearly a lot to love about compensation management. But maybe the most lovable part of all is how easy it can be, given the right tools. If your relationship with compensation management is on the rocks, it might be time to look into a compensation management solution. That way, you can get this powerful process back to working for you, and not the other way around!
Blog, General Insights
A proper compensation management solution should simplify the workload generated by the compensation administration process. And while this seems like a painfully obvious thing to say, it’s an important factor that should be kept in the forefront of one’s mind when looking for a compensation management solution to fit their organization’s unique needs. If you’re looking for something to simplify the compensation process, the last thing you need is to introduce more complexity into the equation. And finding a compensation management solution which is compatible with the computer systems used by your organization can be a complicated process indeed.
It used to be the case that if you wanted a compensation management solution it would have to be run in-house off of company machines. This produced a plethora of problems, as organizations would need to find software which could run on whichever computer systems they had, and whichever variables that included. Things like operating systems, processor speed and computer power in general left an unsatisfying choice for organizations looking for a compensation management solution. The choice was to either find something which could run on their systems, or find systems which could run the software they wanted.
Nowadays things are, thankfully, quite a bit different. With the advent of SaaS compensation management solutions and cloud computing, compatibility and computing power have become much less prominent variables in the search for an easier, better compensation administration process. For example, the question of whether or not a compensation management solution can run on your machine has become a non-issue thanks to the cloud. With a good SaaS compensation management solution the question now becomes “does this device have access to a web browser?” If the answer is yes, then you’re good to go.
Though this may add some anxiety when it comes to the security of your data, it’s another non-issue. Sure, since the compensation management solution isn’t run from company servers it may seem like it’s left more vulnerable than before. That’s why it’s important to ask vendors where their data is stored, what kind of encryption is used, and how robust the security of your data will be. A good developer of an SaaS compensation management solution will be able to construct a system that is not only easy to use but also secure and safe, giving you peace of mind. Again, since the goal is to decrease the stress and complexity brought on by the compensation administration process, you don’t want to add any more complications to the process.
Robust, simple and secure compensation management solutions with universal compatibility are no longer promises from some far-off future. In this case, the future is now. If the compensation management process is something which causes you and your HR department’s blood pressure to rise, it might be time to peek in at the forward strides made in compensation management solutions.
Blog, General Insights
Looking into the near future, it’s clear that automation will soon become a prominent part of all of our lives. Everything from the highway (whether it’s a simple sedan or long-haul truck) to restaurants and grocery stores will be run by computers within a couple of decades. But automation isn’t just a wistful potential when it comes to compensation management. SaaS compensation management solutions can automate many different processes in compensation administration, making the process smooth and efficient rather than long and arduous.
With an SaaS compensation management system, managers can securely log in to the system through a web browser, enter the data about his direct reports into the system, and from there it’s automatically incorporated into the system at large, as well as sent up the approval chain automatically. First, this means that users don’t have to wait for data to be sent over unsecured email to be added to a spreadsheet document by the user. This means that there’s less chance of some mistake being made along the way, derailing the whole process as you try to determine what went wrong and where.
This also means that there’s less chance that someone will gain unauthorized access to the system. Based on a user’s access level they only see what’s necessary to complete their part in the compensation process. User auditing also allows administrators to see who accessed the compensation management system, when they accessed it, and what they did as they were accessing it. Not only does this increase the security of your data, but also allows you to track down discrepancies or other errors that may have popped up along the way. Users no longer have to pore over giant spreadsheets trying to find errors.
When data is automatically added to the system as a whole, any relevant totals and balances, such as merit or bonus pools or the comp budget as a whole, are automatically updated to reflect that data. The HR or Comp department will be able to see at-a-glance if they’re on budget and what they’ve got to work with. The compensation management system also performs any necessary calculations and conversions (such as currency conversions).
Our cars may not drive themselves yet, but automation can still make the compensation management process as painless as possible.
Blog, General Insights
Is your organization interested in a compensation management system? After a certain point in an organization’s growth, there comes a time when spreadsheets and manual inputs just won’t cut it anymore. If your current compensation solution is causing your organization some growing pains, then it might be time to invest in something more in line with what needs to get done. Here are five benefits that a compensation management solution can offer to your organization:
- Flexibility – How is your organization structured? Is it more decentralized, or just larger than your previous system can accommodate? Compensation management solutions can be custom-tailored to fit your organization’s structure and thus help achieve its goals without trying to shoehorn it into something that just doesn’t fit.
- International Flexibility – Does your organization operate in more than just one territory? Do you have to account for currency conversions, separate financial regulations and tax laws because of global operations? A compensation management system can account for this, instantly converting currency and taking the different needs of different branches of your organization into account.
- Simplicity – No longer does your HR or Comp department have to pore over spreadsheets and enter data by hand, increasing the risk for human error and thus more unnecessary busywork. With a compensation management system, managers can log in, input the relevant data for their direct reports, and it’s instantly sent up the approval chain and into the system as a whole. This way you don’t have to wait for each person up the chain to sign off – they will simply be automatically notified when it’s time for them to review the compensation data. Merit and bonus pools also update in real time, so users can see at-a-glance what resources they have to work with when administering compensation.
- Security – Now more than ever, security is a top concern among professionals. If you’re managing compensation data through email and spreadsheets, you’re leaving sensitive information vulnerable to exploitation by people who have no business accessing it. Compensation management systems are secure, and are able to audit users so that whenever a change is made there is a record of who made it and when. Data is stored on secure servers which only those with the proper password can access. And users can be structured so that they only see what they need to know to complete the compensation administration process.
- Automation – No more calculating by hand or through excel macros; the compensation management system will handle all necessary calculations in real time, allowing users to quickly and easily administer compensation. This saves employees time and your organization money, as the compensation management process no longer needs to take weeks when it could only need to take days.
Compensation management solutions can help take the pain and stress out of the compensation cycle and keep your organization running smoothly. This is because they do most of the work so your employees can return to theirs.
Blog, General Insights
Dealing with the specifics of compensation management can be a real logjam, especially if your organization isn’t using a system tailored to its specific needs. Whether it’s a large number of employees, a decentralized power structure, or ensuring top employees are compensated according to their performance, there are certain issues that can gum up the compensation process. Because of this, something that should take only a week or two can be stretched out to months, impacting productivity. The issue is likely with the system used to manage and administer compensation. Instead of offloading all of the work onto the compensation staff, you should try to find a compensation management system that does the work for you.
Many organizations still use Excel spreadsheets to organize data and plan compensation. Depending on the size and organizational structure of your organization, this setup may work fine. But after a certain point your organization will have developed to such a stage that spreadsheets are simply inadequate for the job you’re trying to perform. And while some of this can be mitigated with macros and other Excel wizardry, even that may not be enough.
The problem is that the comp department needs to organize the spreadsheet to match the organization of your organization and then get all of the relevant data together to get it to resemble something workable. And despite their best efforts, the human factor always comes into play: the more data that needs to be manually entered by hand, the larger the possibility for error becomes, further exacerbating problems.
With the right compensation management solution, all of these problems can be avoided. The right vendor will be able to customize an SaaS compensation solution so that it meets your organization’s size and structure perfectly – and can be upgraded later to fit whatever changes may come in the future. The necessary data can be entered by managers through a secure login on a web browser, which automatically updates it into the system. Compensation budgets, merit pools, and so on can all update in real time, removing the need for manual entry (and lowering the risk of error, saving your organization time and money).
Since the system is so intuitive and easy to use, lengthy training periods aren’t needed to get your employees up to speed with the new compensation management solution. With this, the compensation management process becomes fast and easy. This means less time spent on compensation administration and more time spent achieving your organization’s goals.
If the compensation process has become a dreaded undertaking in your organization, you might want to look into a more modern solution than Excel spreadsheets. Investing in a compensation management solution can save your organization headache, heartache, and most importantly time – time that can be spent on more productive tasks than sweating over spreadsheets trying to find simple errors. The right compensation management tool can work for you, removing stress and worry and freeing up time.
Blog, General Insights
Employee engagement is a critically important factor to business success. While it’s something that can be partially dealt with in the realm of compensation management, methods of driving engagement can take many different forms. Not every solution will fit every business, but here are five ways to help keep your employees engaged.
- Benefits – This falls under compensation management and total rewards. If your benefits package is generous enough, employees will feel a certain sense of security. Knowing that their health insurance and retirement accounts are taken care of removes stressors from everyday life and allows them to focus more intently on the task at hand. Vacation time and PTO can also help by allowing worn out employees the opportunity to refresh themselves.
- Ownership – another compensation related method. If your organization is set up in such a way to allow this, adding stock options to your employees’ benefits package can be a powerful motivator and driver of engagement. Directly tying their personal success to the success of the organization at large makes them feel like they have skin in the game, and thus they’ll work harder to ensure the growth of the organization.
- Movement – stagnation is a major engagement killer. If your employees feel like they have no potential for movement, their engagement will begin to slip and it’ll show in terms of their performance. Recognizing excellence and rewarding it – whether by pay increase, promotion, or some other factor – is a powerful way to keep employees engaged. Their skills should be constantly being fostered as well, and they should constantly feel like their career is moving forward. This way, they’ll help keep your company moving forward, too.
- Variety – stagnation applies in more than one way. Though an employee’s tasks are determined by their position to a large extent, avoiding monotony is critical. Performing the same rote tasks day in and day out is not only exhausting, but also a good way to have valuable employees looking for other opportunities, regardless of whether or not they compensate as well. The more you can mix things up, the better.
- Personality – If your organization has the appearance of a sterile corporate monolith, it will be hard to encourage and engage employees. They’ll be left feeling that they’re nothing more than a cog in a vast, unknowable machine. A corporate culture built on collaboration, teamwork, fun, and personality will work wonders with engagement and help hold off the disillusionment that can be felt by many workers.
These five steps are just the beginning, though. Entire books can (and have) been written on the subject, and there’s no answer that’s always right for every situation. Still, if you need some ideas to drive employee engagement, these five vectors are a good place to start.
Blog, General Insights
Proper compensation management is an important part of any business, and we’ve talked before about how good compensation management can help retain key employees. But how does compensation factor in to employee engagement? While compensation isn’t the only factor in keeping your employees engaged, it is a very important one.
First, better pay can equal better workers. This obviously isn’t true for every single employee, as some will perform at a level which won’t warrant a certain amount of pay, so it wouldn’t be smart to pay them as much as, say, a high performer. But for your employees who work hard, are productive, and do an overall good job, good pay is an incredible motivator when it comes to engagement. If an employee feels that they are being fairly (or even generously) compensated, they’re more willing to do their job. And if there’s the prospect of bonuses or other performance based rewards, they may be more willing to do it well.
Then you can go beyond monetary compensation, and start looking at the total rewards package and full list of benefits. Health insurance offerings can ease employee stress, allowing them to worry less about any potential disaster that may loom in their futures and focus on their work. Things such as sick leave and maternal/paternal leave may also help ease employees’ worries and allow them to focus on the present instead of suffering anxiety about the perils of the unknown. Not to mention that sick leave and similar perks allow ill or injured employees the proper amount of time to recover before they come back to work, ensuring that they’re able to perform at the peak of their capabilities.
Vacation pay is another example of a benefit which can relieve stress and thus keep employees more engaged on their work. Allowing employees to recharge will help keep them from exhaustion and may also make them grateful to the organization for allowing them the chance to relax for a little bit.
One of the most important tools is stock options and similar benefits. If you link the company’s financial future to the employee’s financial future, there is nothing more motivating than that. The harder they work, and the better the company does, the better their lives end up being – and nothing helps drive engagement quite like that.
So you see, compensation management isn’t simply a necessary evil of business. It can actually be a strategic way to keep your employees engaged and performing at their utmost potential. By performing the right research and making the right tweaks, adjusting your organization’s compensation strategy just might help you drive up employee engagement.
Blog, General Insights
If you’re looking for the right compensation management software, you’re going to want to do your homework in order to ensure your organization is getting the most bang for its buck. Diving blindly into this kind of search can waste valuable time and money, but with the right guidance finding the best compensation management software can be made much easier.
I should add a small caveat here. Unfortunately there is no single compensation management solution which is the objective “best” for every organization or situation. There will be, however, one which best fits your organization’s needs, and which will best help you achieve your goals. In order to make the research process go as smoothly as possible, it’s a good idea to make a list of what you’re looking for. What kind of features does your ideal compensation management solution have? What are your organization’s compensation goals? After you have something of an idea of what you’re looking for, you’ll be able to start the research process proper.
To begin the research process, you’ll want to get a general lay of the land. Heading over to Capterra.com would be a great place to start. You will see Harvest HCM on there. And yes we pay to be on that list, but thats the price of admission in the hopes that we find people like you who are looking for a compensation management system. They have a searchable database of many different kinds of business software, including compensation management. Looking over the different compensation management software is as easy as typing “compensation management” into the search bar or navigating to it after clicking “software categories” on the top of the site’s homepage.
From there you’ll be met with a list of all the different compensation management solutions available. It might seem daunting at first, but the site allows you to sort results by their features (such as whether it’s web-based or installed, and the specific kinds of situations it will be able to handle). You’ll also be able to select different compensation management solutions to compare them with each other, allowing you to see at-a-glance what each solution offers in terms of deployment, features, support and training. You’ll also be able to read reviews of different compensation management solutions, which will give you an idea of what other users think of each specific product.
Once you have a few different compensation management solution in mind, the next step is to get in touch with the vendors in order to get a fuller picture of what they’re offering and what the pricing structure will look like. It’s also a good idea to request live software demos in order to make sure that their compensation management solution can do exactly what you’ll need it to.
Basically, the more informed you are about your organization’s needs and the things you’re looking for in a particular compensation management solution, the easier the research process will be. Remember, you’re looking for a compensation management solution in the first place in order to make your life easier – so finding the right fit for your organization shouldn’t be overly difficult, either.
Blog, General Insights
In the realm of compensation management, there’s one tool that seems to be universal: Excel spreadsheets. In them, compensation data is organized, calculated, and just generally wrangled into something workable that can be used practically. But no matter how skilled a user is with Excel, it has its limits when it comes to compensation management.
One of the biggest problems is the huge margin for user error that Excel spreadsheets introduce to the compensation process. Usually there will be a master spreadsheet file into which all of the compensation data needs to be entered and organized. Usually, this process is done manually from files sent to the HR/Comp department from various other sectors of the organization. Human beings, however, are prone to error, and even one misplaced digit can throw off the entire compensation process, requiring a lot of time and effort to root around in the spreadsheet and find where the error is located.
This doesn’t even take into account the massive time investment required to consolidate all of the necessary data into the spreadsheet in the first place. Not only is everything put in piecemeal, but it requires a lot of waiting – waiting for the necessary information to be sent from managers (over unsecured emails), waiting for permission to move up the approval chain. The result of that is a lot of wasted time on the part of the person managing the spreadsheet file.
Not to mention budget considerations. Compensation and merit budget totals will need to be calculated in the spreadsheet software and updated by the user. And while it’s possible to streamline the process somewhat with the use of macros and other Excel wizardry, the process is never fully automated. Not to mention the possibility, again, of errors somewhere along the way.
If you add all of these factors up, you have a recipe for a massive headache and a lengthy compensation process. There is, however, a solution to the problems presented by Excel spreadsheets. The right compensation management tool can fully streamline and automate the compensation process, eliminating chances for errors by updating totals in real-time as data is input directly into the system by managers, eliminating the need to wait for emails or calculate totals. The approval chain is also automated, meaning less time spent waiting on replies and go-aheads. And everything is secure, protecting confidential data from prying eyes.
Excel spreadsheets have served their purpose, as have many other pieces of forgotten technology. But like many other obsolete technologies, it won’t last forever – and it’s days are numbered. It’s important to keep with the times and be on the cutting-edge of compensation technology, lest your company get left behind.
Blog, General Insights
When talking about compensation management, considering the role performance metrics should (or should not) play in your compensation strategy is important to consider. If your compensation strategy doesn’t include performance metrics and things are working out okay for you, then maybe you don’t need to worry about it. But performance metrics can be a very helpful addition to your compensation strategy in a number of ways. It can help you identify weaknesses (and strengths) in your workforce, allowing you to optimize departments and reward hard workers, as well as help keep your employees engaged.
Performance metrics can be incredibly helpful when it comes time to plan for merit increases, pay raises, and promotions. They allow you to see who is performing well in their specific position, and are thus eligible for some sort of increase or promotion. They can also show you who is not performing up to pace, allowing you to either speak with the employee about their performance or (if the situation calls for it) let them go and find someone who will meet the stated expectations.
Rewarding employees for their hard work is beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly, it gives all employees incentive to work harder, to take more ownership of their performance. If they know that hard workers will be recognized and rewarded for their performance, it will give them further incentive to work harder. This can also keep them engaged, not to mention help you retain top-performing employees. If your employees know that they have avenues to progress in their careers within your organization, they won’t feel like they’re working at a dead-end position with no hope for advancement, and will probably not go shopping around for other opportunities.
If you’re not already including performance metrics in your compensation strategy then it may seem like too much effort to incorporate them now. However, a good compensation management solution can help take some of the burden off of your shoulders. It can allow for managers to input performance ratings on their direct reports, allowing compensation professionals to see who is eligible for raises or promotions at a glance. And if you’re already using some kind of performance software, it can also incorporate that program’s data into it.
Performance metrics are a valuable tool to have in your compensation toolbox, because they allow you to more strategically decide where to allot your compensation budgets. By knowing that you’re rewarding the employees who deserve it and providing them opportunities for growth, you can rest assured that you’re getting the most out of your compensation dollar.
