Sunday, April 27, 2014

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"7 Lessons Anyone [YOU] Can Learn from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis"

Regardless of your musical tastes and whether or not you enjoy the music of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, it's hard to deny the tremendous success the duo has had over the past year. And this was not an overnight success, despite what it appeared to be last year. So it's with that sentiment that I link to this article by another very successful Seattle based artist, Chase Jarvis.

Here are the seven lessons that Chase lays out in his article based on his experiences knowing and working the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis:

  1. Freedom is More Important Than Money
  2. Setbacks are Temporary
  3. Only YOU Are in Charge of Your Personal Brand
  4. Have a Point of View
  5. Collaborating with Your Friends is a Good Thing – surround yourself with good people
  6. Don’t Let Them Put You in a Box
  7. Community is King 

Why am I linking to this article? To me, it's all about total rewards. It explains quite a bit about why someone would prioritize certain rewards over others, take lesson number one for instance.

Give it a read and let me know what you think!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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"Average Employee Only Takes Half of Earned Paid Time Off"

Linking to another WorldatWork article about paid time off usage. This gels with my experiences talking with people in companies. Just because an organization offers a benefit doesn't mean that all the organizational factors are in place to allow employees to actual use the benefit. All the pieces of the puzzle need to fit together and line up to support the employees in their work and in their lives in general. Ultimately, this will lead to more committed and effective employees that support the organization.

The article and the source report from Glassdoor is worth a read.

Monday, April 21, 2014

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"Incentive Pay Survey" results from WorldatWork

Good overview of short term and long term incentive use in both private and public organizations from the latest survey conducted by WorldatWork in conjunction with Deloitte Consulting LLP and Vivient Consulting. I'm not sure if you need to be a WorldatWork member to view the video. The link works without signing in. It's about 10 minutes long and packed with interesting information.

Monday, April 14, 2014

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"Executive Compensation Trends" Webinar Link

Following up on the "10 Steps To Great Market Pricing" webinar, I just finished watching the "Executive Compensation Trends" webinar, hosted by the same group.

It starts off a bit slow but really picks up at around 10 minutes in. There is some great data points and the webinar gives a good overview of executive compensation components and trends.

The speaker from Equilar is a bit hard to hear due to a low quality microphone or poor connection, but it's not terrible, just not great either. Despite that, I would recommend the webinar, especially if you're in the process of learning about executive compensation.



Saturday, April 05, 2014

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Northwest Compensation and Rewards Forum Lunch Meeting

Where does the time go?

It's time for the Northwest Compensation and Rewards Forum (NCRF) quarterly luncheon!

Where:  Bellevue Club
When:  Wednesday, April 9th at 11:00 AM
What: Lunch and a presentation by Joe DiMisa, Sibson Consulting on Sales Compensation, Awards, and Recognition Trends: Where are companies heading in 2014?
Cost: $35.00 for members

Why am I posting about this on the NextComp blog you ask?  Well, there's a very good reason! I'm the 2014 NCRF Board President and as such I want to let you know about the meeting. I would love to see you in person if you're in the Puget Sound area.

If you're a NCRF member you've likely received several reminder emails. If you're not a member, this is a great time to sign up to be a member.

So head on over to the NCRF website and learn more and maybe sign up to be a member or to attend the lunch if you haven't already.

See you on Wednesday!

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

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Orthodontist earn more than CEOs on average (with a catch)...

The Wall Street Journal blog has an article that summarizes the findings recently released by the Labor Department. The top line of the blog reads that orthodontists make more than CEOs on average. But here's the catch...

The discrepancy likely reflects the fact that U.S. chief executives (248,760) far outnumber orthodontists (5,570). A good number of those CEOs likely earn modest salaries at small companies.

It's a good idea to make sure that we dig a little deeper when researching market data and in our own organization's market pricing activities. Sometimes there is some other relevant piece of information that helps to explain the top line findings.

Other findings...

The median pay for an athlete or sports competitor is $39,050, which is less than the Miami Heat pays LeBron James per quarter (of a basketball game.)

And...

One out of every 17 jobs in America is held by a retail salesperson or a cashier. 

There are more nuggets in the post, but these caught my eye.

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

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Google’s Scientific Approach to Work-Life Balance


The Harvard Business Review has an article outlining a relatively new program within Google. 

Google's scientific approach to work-life balance

I found it interesting that Google is looking at this as a long term project (100 years). The following are recommended by Laszlo Bock the SVP of People Operations at Google if you want to implement a similar program within your organization:
1. Ask yourself what your most pressing people issues are.  Retention?  Innovation? Efficiency?  Or better yet, ask your people what those issues are. 
2. Survey your people about how they think they are doing on those most pressing issues, and what they would do to improve. 
3. Tell your people what you learned. If it’s about the company, they’ll have ideas to improve it. If it’s about themselves – like our gDNA work – they’ll be grateful. 
4. Run experiments based on what your people tell you. Take two groups with the same problem, and try to fix it for just one. Most companies roll out change after change, and never really know why something worked, or if it did at all. By comparing between the groups, you’ll be able to learn what works and what doesn’t.