Are your employees equitably compensated? Seriously. Can you prove it?

Have you every found yourself in this scenario: Labor market is tight. You need to fill roles quickly.?You allow salary negotiation before final offer.?You tell yourself you’re responding to the market by offering high salaries, so you don’t lose the candidate… etc.?With all of these, the chances are your salary structure and total compensation are now disjointed.?They are neither commensurate with skill level, experience, or both.?They appear random and follow a “last in” model. ??You may even end up with a scenario where a direct report is earning more than his or her supervisor.?If you factor in race and gender, the situation gets even more complicated. ??This is very common in early-stage organizations or organizations that is going through rapid growth – having said that, we have also seen this in some more mature organizations.??

So, what do you do??How do you rectify the imbalance??How do you ensure that your workforce is compensated equitably and fairly??How do you make equitable compensation a standard practice within your organization? Well, TEA can help!

At TEA our equitable compensation study and analysis process uncovers unique opportunities to engage and support our clients in making critical trade-offs to best achieve their goals.?The ability to attract and retain employees who are truly excellent is critical to every organization’s success. ?With the competitive market for talent plus a lack of visibility into fair market rates, it can be challenging to budget for new positions and respond to pay inquiries from existing teams. ?At TEA we help organizations develop a fair compensation and inclusive benefit offerings with an equity lens.?

In addition to helping organizations attract and retain qualified employees, the other core objectives of our Equitable Compensation Study and Analysis are as follows:

1. Ensure positions performing similar work with essentially the same level of complexity, responsibility, and knowledge, skill and abilities are classified together
2. Provide salaries commensurate with assigned duties
3. Provide justifiable pay differential between individual classes
4. Maintain a competitive position with other organizations within the same geographic area
5. Provide fair compensation, internal & external pay equity and transparency

Our Methodology (Job Audit and Benefits Analysis)

Our methodology involves two key areas of evaluation and analysis:?First, we execute a Job Audit & Analysis and then a benefits review.?There are four key steps involved in our methodology:

1. Base Data Evaluation

• Review current compensation plan (salary grade levels and steps) and understand current challenges in recruiting and retaining employees.
• Gather necessary employee information through the use of a combination of job analysis questionnaires and group/individual interviews. We sometimes use broad focus groups for large or similar job classes.
• Review current job descriptions and position evaluation ensuring compliance with state and federal requirements.
• Evaluate exempt and nonexempt status for each position and provide recommended changes along with written documentation and rationale used to make that determination.?

2. Analysis and Market Benchmarking

Using the above information, we analyze the duties and responsibilities of each employee and position to determine the following:

• Whether individual employees are appropriately classified.
• Whether a position should be moved to a different job classification and/or pay grade.
• Appropriate paygrades and salary bands for all positions.
• Whether position titles are appropriate.
• Other recommendations

We then carryout an analysis of Market Salaries for Benchmark Positions, including geographic variations and target market regions. We break down market compensation data by gender and race to ensure equitable pay comparisons.?

3. Benefits Review

There are four key steps involved in our benefits review methodology:

1. First, we review your organization’s existing employee benefit plans, including leave time, health/welfare benefits, and retirement plan.
2. Next, we gather necessary survey data from comparable organizations using a customized survey.
3. We then compile employer paid benefit plans from comparable organizations to include the value in market comparative pay. ?We include all benefit programs including leave, health/welfare coverages and retirement provisions.
4. Finally, we provide recommendations for benefits based on data from comparable organizations.

4. Recommendation and Final Report

Salary Structure: We recommend appropriate salary range for each position based on the classification plan, the compensation survey results, internal relationships, and pay equity. ?We prepare new salary structure based on the results of job evaluation and market analysis.

Organizational Compensation Philosophy: We help craft your organizational compensation philosophy based on the attributes below:

• Pay Equity (internal & external, gender, race & ethnicity)
• Salary bands & starting salaries
• Paygrades
• Incentive & bonus pay

Cost Analysis: We make recommendations and provide implementation strategies for new salary structure, including key compensation practices, based on market demand, including incentive and bonus pay.

Continuous Improvement:?We provide recommendations for ongoing internal administration and maintenance of the proposed compensation plan, to include annual activities such as market survey and salary bands review.

So, let’s start the conversation...

For more information, please contact us at: [email protected]

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