Compensation Project Work Breakdown

Duration

Start

Finish

Predecessors

Outline and Define Projects Objectives

Fri 11/28/14

Thu 12/11/14

Summarize Benefits

Fri 12/12/14

Mon 12/15/14

Design Communication Plan

Mon 12/22/14

Gain Feedback

Mon 1/5/15

Research Best Practices

Mon 2/2/15

Intergrate Feedback

Mon 2/9/15

Design Base Salary Strategy

Mon 1/19/15

Create Metrics

Mon 1/19/15

Summary and Feedback Session

Mon 2/2/15

Rollout Date

Mon 2/9/15

Accounting System

Mon 3/9/15

Training

Mon 4/6/15

Implementation

Mon 4/13/15

Monitor

Mon 7/6/15

Lessons Learned

Mon 7/13/15

Memo

Dear Team,

As you are probably aware of, our project is behind schedule and over budget. There has been a substantial amount of debate and conflict that has centered on designing the base pay structure as well as the metrics for performance bonuses. Many of the different jobs in the organization require a much different approach to creating each of these factors and identifying what is fair and equitable has been challenging on many accounts. As a result our project is roughly six weeks behind schedule as well as over the planned budget for this part of the project.

To keep the project moving forward, many people will have to make compromises that are relevant to them. Much of the feedback from the employees received is in regard to the base salaries or the metric systems not being as high as they would like. Some of the employees believe this is an opportunity for them to substantially...

Although it is easy to understand their motivation, the compensation must be fair to the company as well as the individual and this fact must be reiterated when relevant.
The compensation package which will be composed of the base salary and performance bonus should be roughly equal to their current salaries. The opportunity for the employees to earn more will be contingent on their performance above and beyond the expected job duties. To overcome employee's resistance to changing the compensation packages, we should focus on the expected job duties that would be considered an average workload for their position with the company. From this position the performance incentive can be designed to be relative to additional work, performance, or responsibilities outside the normal workload.

It has become apparent that not all employees are accepting of the base rates. To get the project back on track the focus should be on objective or third party data. Some employees have argued that their roles with the company are more valuable to the organization than they can justify based on an objective criteria. Thus by focusing on a more objective approach than individual perceptions this should allow us to move past the individual biases that employees may hold.

Another way that we can get the project back is to utilize a negotiation approach to addressing compensation concerns. The human resources department can set a range in which the base salaries can be set which would give them some room to offer concessions to the employees based on their concerns. For example, if an employee does not feel their proposed base salary is fair, then the human resources project team would have some authority to grant a higher rate which could be set at five percent from industry averages. This could allow some flexibility for HR to address some employees concerns.

Another idea would be to exclude some…