Aligning Compensation to Culture and Strategy
by Laura Morgan
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I guess this is where I’d say that you need to identify key programs that you have and then actually deliberately determine how they link to your culture.
I start with base salary, you know when you review a base salary, and you know, you’re ensuring that they’re competitive every year. Do you communicate that?
- Do you share the results and the ranges so that your employees know that you’re investing in understanding their base salaries?
- Do you have tenure-based programs?
- Do you value tenure?
- If you search for longevity?
- Do you want to have people feel committed to the business from a longer perspective?
Let’s start with a simple one, do you have an awards program that is either monetary or do you give them a cash award or non-monetary that people receive a public announcement? Or do you share the non-monetary recognition across your company in your newsletter?
I think there are also I hear conversations about entrepreneurial spirit companies. To see if that’s true, you might have people who, you know, are exposed to the company’s impact. And if you’re entrepreneurial, you might lose in the good years you gain, and in the more challenging years, you might gain. If you want an entrepreneurial spirit within your culture, you would have more opportunities for people to see and understand and have a financial impact on their take on how to be an entrepreneur.
Paternal Environments
On the other side, if you’re paternal. I usually use this as an example if you remember the old movie with Scrooge or the play. And the original apprentice boss of Scrooge Fezziwig. Fezziwig was very paternal. I would envision he preferred discretionary bonuses. If you make me happy from a paternal perspective, I will give my child or my employee a good increase or reward. If I’m not satisfied, I would then not reward. I also look at guarded paternal environments to keep people focused on what makes the leader happy and strategically aligned but a little more in the dark for their employees.
So it’s not right or wrong. It’s just to know your culture. And then from there, do you align your rewards programs as such?