Compensation Best Practices of NorthCoast 99 Winners

Compensation Best Practices of NorthCoast 99 Winners

Compensation Best Practices of NorthCoast 99 Winners

As the ERC 2016 Wage & Salary surveys launched last week, we looked to this year’s NorthCoast 99 winners for inspiration and best practices in compensation.

Top performers from this year’s NorthCoast 99-winning organizations ranked compensation as the second overall most important work attribute, the first being challenging and meaningful work. It also appeared most often in the top five attributes, with 65.3% of top performers from all organizations (winning & non-winning) including it in their rankings.

It’s clear: the best talent wants to be paid competitively. So what rewards and compensation practices set NorthCoast 99 winners apart from the rest?

NorthCoast 99 Winners…

  1. Listen to employees and seek to understand what they value
  2. Use employee feedback to design tailored recognition programs
  3. Understand the importance of variety, as different situations may call for different types of rewards
  4. Take care to be fair and objective in their compensation practices by paying for performance
  5. Are transparent about how they pay their employees and have a clearly-defined compensation strategy (majority of winners provide Total Compensation Statements)
  6. Include their employees in the goal-setting process, which includes discussions of future compensation
  7. Support their employees in attaining these goals and provide guidance on how to reach an employee’s desired level of compensation
  8. Are creative with their compensation and rewards strategies. They go beyond the dollar. Winners currently use some of the following creative approaches:
    • Recognition in company publications
    • Time off
    • Wellness credit (reducing up-front healthcare costs)
    • Coworker recognition games
    • Opportunities to grow with new, challenging projects
  9. Utilize reliable sources for wage and salary data. Most rely on data from professional associations, and 90% percent of winners use market base pay data with ranges and grades to create base salary structures.

Compensation Consulting