Compensation is what you pay someone to entice them to continue to do work for your company and is a critical facet of any owner/officer/manager's job.
Often, unless you are the president or owner of the company, you have others helping you deal with compensation issues - like a human resources department or consultant. Smaller companies however, seldom retain the services of an HR professional and therefore must do this job themselves.
WDC & Associates have years of experience assisting in the construction and measurement of effective compensation plans.
Compensation includes many things beyond straight salary. It also includes benefits, perks, stock options, etc.
In short:
You have to balance what these cost against what your employees perceives as their value, and that varies by employee.
- You have to measure compensation levels against other employees in the company, against other employees in other companies in similar positions, and against performance.
- You have to determine salary ranges for existing positions and adjust those periodically to compensate for economic factors (cost of living changes, inflation) and competitive pressures (industry demand for that type of employee, profit margins).
- You have to determine a salary for a new position, or if you promote someone to new responsibilities.
Plus you have to comply with government regulations regarding discrimination, contractor versus employee determinations, and or other contractual obligations.
Most importantly, you have to keep your employees motivated to do the job the best that they possibly can.