James Alexander Consulting LLC
Compensation Advisory Services
As I touched on recently, there are all manner of approaches to managing base pay but I wanted to write a bit about the differences between these two common approaches. Global grading Global grading (also known as globally leveled, or sometimes just a "broad-banded" salary structure) generally refers to the approach where a single set... Continue Reading →
Job matching is at the heart of successful compensation assessments and one of the most repeated mantras here is "match the role not the person". All too often when going through the job matching process or when viewing matches, I hear something like "well the job is a level 3 but the team really isn't... Continue Reading →
Who remembers those triangles in maths lessons that helped you remember how to calculate one variable given the two others? Essentially you cover up one corner of the triangle then the remaining two variables dictate whether to multiply or divide the remaining two, to give you the missing number. Since I had the memory of... Continue Reading →
A key decision point when establishing a compensation philosophy is the degree to which salary structures are oriented around market rates vs individual performance. At one end of the spectrum, we have broad salary ranges around a relatively limited number of pay grades throughout the organization. The arguments in favor are that while the market... Continue Reading →
"You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision." The architect of The Matrix speaking to a rogue job in his HRIS system. Job architecture is a simple concept - It is a systematic way of organizing... Continue Reading →
The term "Total Reward" has been bouncing around the HR world since at least the turn of the century however what began as an attempt to align all facets of the employee value proposition, has often ended up as a vague concept without truly measurable results. Such is the challenge of implementing an effective Total... Continue Reading →
A moderately wise man once told me that there are only two drivers of performance - fear and greed. If that is true then it is certainly the former that gives rise to capped sales incentive programs. For something that is so frequently cited as a negative, it is remarkable how often this mechanic crops... Continue Reading →
This piece follows on from some points I made in my previous post, a quibble with quotas, about what the ideal performance distribution really is. In case anyone is unfamiliar with the concept, basically what we are looking at is how a group of sales people perform against their target or quota. Do most of them... Continue Reading →
This week I received an interesting query, asking if I had any market sales quota data that could be used to assess if quotas were reasonable or not. I found this a particularly interesting query. Firstly because I was curious to understand why they felt that market data would help them assess the effectiveness of... Continue Reading →
In theory, SIP design is fairly straightforward, pick the measures, design the mechanics, implement. Easy, right? Wrong. All too often the process can leave even the most resilient of problem-solvers a broken, battered, husk of the consultant they once were, clawing at the walls of the sales incentive prison they have created for themselves.¹ Now, some... Continue Reading →