Compensation & benefits: Best practices for 2019

It has been said many times, but perhaps not enough - what you choose in your total rewards package should reflect your values as a company, or you may see employees finding that alignment elsewhere.

Not only are employees today empowered to make moves, it’s easier than ever for them to research and evaluate employers. They are sharing every aspect of their work experience online — including compensation, benefits packages, company outlook, their opinions of leadership and more.

So what are some of the hot topics in compensation & benefits that you and your team could look out for? We've put together a few trends on Payscale's report, Will They Stay or Will They Go? below.

Note: These practices are derived from 'top-performing organisations' (TPOs), defined as those that are number one in their industry and who exceeded their revenue goals in 2018. 

1. Make pay a year-round conversation

Top-performing organisations think about pay all through the year rather than an annual event. More than half (58%) of TPOs have completed a market study within the past year, while just over a third (34%) give bonuses or incentives at least quarterly.

However, that doesn’t mean they adjust their ranges more often than typical organisations: many top-performing organisations adjust ranges annually (68% shifted ranges within the past year vs. 58% of typical organisations).

2. Pay more for competitive jobs as well as for high-performers

Top-performing organisations are more likely to let the data drive higher pay for competitive jobs (58% vs. 51% of typical organisations).

Also, TPOs tend to reward high-performers through bigger base pay increases (64%), promotions (54%), and career development (38%).

3. Train managers to deal with pay issues

Top-performing organisations get a pulse on employee engagement a bit more frequently, with one in five citing the use of ongoing or real-time surveys to measure employee engagement. a majority (59%) also offer learning and development to recruit and retain high-performers.

Most of all, when it comes to 'compversations', TPOs are somewhat confident (47%) or very confident (17%) in their manager’s ability to have tough comp conversations about pay. More than one-third (35%) offer manager training to teach managers how to talk to employees about compensation.

Bonus tip: Make salaries transparent to reduce the gender pay gap

Although this is not cited in the PayScale report, we found research that suggests pay transparency has a positive impact on closing the wage gap.

The working paper noted that following the introduction of Denmark’s 2006 Act on Gender Specific Pay Statistics – which obligates companies with more than 35 employees to report on gender pay gaps – a 7% reduction in the gender pay gap was found.

The researchers found that before the regulation was introduced, the firms analysed paid their male employees a 18.9% wage premium. After the regulation, the researchers noted the gender pay gap had shrunk to 17.6% in the approximately 1,000 Danish firms governed by the new 2006 legislation.