James Alexander Consulting LLC
Compensation Advisory Services
Market data is great - I love it, you love it, everyone loves it. We love it because it informs us about the market and allows us to be more confident in making decisions. Problems with market data arise from over-reliance where it shifts from informing decisions, to making them. If we have 50th percentile... Continue Reading →
Actually, no, let's not call the whole thing off, let's clear this up once and for all. Many people capitalize spiffs claiming it to be an acronym for "Special Purpose Incentive for Field Force" or any one of several possible acronyms. Let's be clear - it does not stand for ANYTHING. At best it is... Continue Reading →
This is exactly what Jacob Gonik set out to achieve for IBM Brazil in the 1970s. The starting point is that if we want an effective sales plan, there needs to be some notion of expectation in the form of a goal or quota. The challenge, as most of us know, is knowing what that... Continue Reading →
The debate around the use of thresholds is perennial and it's fair to say that it's one of the areas of sales comp where common practice varies a fair amount. The argument in favor of a threshold goes something like this - "why would I pay a salesperson to underachieve? We'll create a minimum level... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →