Companies need to be bigger, better, faster, and smarter than their
competition. How does one keep pay for better personnel, i.e. wages
and salaries, in line with the competition without creating
adversarial relationships with those employees?

---

Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 03 May 2004 06:30 PDT

ljhjr,

Is the lowering of wages and salaries imperative?  Can it possibly be
avoided by reallocation of duties and layoffs?

What city is this?  What about your local economy?  Is it a national
company, or local?  How many employees does the company employ, total?
 How many employees are likely to be affected, in either scenario?

~~Cynthia

Unless you end up lowering salaries, it shouldn't be too much of a
problem.  But keep in mind that most people expect at least a 5% raise
annually.  (And yes, given the current Bush economy, many have had
their expectations crushed.)

Here's what has worked for me:

-- Listen to employees when they have suggestions.  Implement the
suggestions that will work for your company.  Give credit to the
employees.

-- Treat employees with dignity and respect at all times.

-- Give employees rewards based on performance and/or perfect attendance.

-- Offer employees unusual and low cost benefits, based on their
needs, ie: flextime, bus passes, --be creative.

-- Be a "One Minute Manager" (
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688039693/qid=1083526019/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-0327171-5332138
)

Note, you may need to copy/paste the above URL into your browser's
address bar if clicking on it does not work...

If you would like me to elaborate on this further, give me more
parameters and I'll give you an official Answer.


~~Cynthia

Nelson/cynthia:

                It is always good for a company to be bigger, better,
faster, and smarter than the competition. How would I keep pay for
better personnel(wages and salaries) in line with the competition
without creating adversarial relationships with those employees
(assuming that I was forced by the competition to lower salaries)?

                                   LJHJR

Dear Lj,

I follow a system at my office where 10% of what we make is kept aside
for employees. Every quarter, we disperse it to employees that have
been with us for a period of more than 6 months (that is, those who
have worked in the quarter in which we made the money and have worked
with us for a period of 3 months prior to that).

It has worked very well for us. Employees put in their best. I don't
have to give raises. If we don't make money then employees won't get
their 10%. Now employees make sure that we earn more. There is a
business focus in the company.

Hope it works for you!