2011 Milliman Breakfast

Thank you to Milliman USA, specificly Stephanie Eng, for the invitation to the 2011 Milliman USA breakfast held at Safeco Field. It was a pleasure to see Stephanie and the other consultants from Milliman, including John, Greg, Larry and Connie. It was also great to see friends from the Northwest Compensation and Rewards Forum and from past and existing project work. The panel was very informative and the audience asked good questions of the panel members.

My main take away is that merit budgets continue to remain conservative and the trend is that those budgets will continue to remain tight for the next few years at least. My second take away is that while pay and benefits remain very important, especially in recruitment efforts, the culture and work experience are key in motivating and engaging existing employees.

I look forward to the Northwest Compensation And Rewards Forum meeting in October. It's great to get out and visit with other like minded professionals.

2010 Milliman Annual Breakfast

A big thank you the compensation consulting team at Milliman USA especially Stephanie, John, Gregg, and Larry for the invitation to their annual breakfast at Safeco field. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I especially enjoyed seeing friends and listening to a great panel discussion.







Debbie and Windsor stepped up to the plate on the panel presenting some great information and fielding audience questions.

I hope to be able to attend again next year!

Video Walk-Through - Creating A Compensation Structure - Part 1

I've added a video walk-through for Part 1 of the Creating A Compensation Structure series.

From this point forward I'll post the video at the same time as the screen-shot walk-through.

Here's the video for easy reference. It's also part of the original post now.

Video Walk-through

View Larger

Video Blog #7 - Northwest Compensation And Rewards Forum

Bob and I had the pleasure of attending the July 15, 2009 meeting of the Northwest Compensation and Rewards Forum held at McCormick and Schmick's on Lake Union.



It was a very well attended meeting. After lunch a panel of well known and respected people in the Human Resources field held a very interesting "panel discussion on how rewards professionals are making adjustments to their total rewards (compensation, benefits, incentives, recognition, etc.) programs in today’s economy." moderated by Jenifer Lambert, SPHR, CPC - Talentum Search Partners/Terra Staffing Group.

The panelists were:

• Marilyn Guthrie - Manager, Benefits, wellness and recognition programs, Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI)
• Theresa Chambers - Chief Motivation Officer of Recognition Works
• Debbie Bronson, SPHR - SVP, and Human Resources Director, Cascade Bank
• Catherine Dovey, CCP, SPHR - Principal, Compensation Works LLC
• Tracy L. White, SPHR, CAE, CMP - Director of Human Resources for Clark Nuber

On this week's nextcompTV episode, Bob and I will summarize the meeting and provide our thoughts on the topic. So join us on Tuesday, July 21st at Noon PST at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nextcomp for Episode 2 of nextcompTV.

So until Tuesday, you can follow me on Twitter @nextcomp, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mattnjohnson

Interview with Bob Johnson for Father's Day

I have an amazing Dad. We've been working together since 1990 when we started a firm called Johnson/Lindstrand Consulting with my Mom. The firm changed names to Johnson HR Consulting, Inc. in the mid-90's and then in 2001 Bob and I started NEXTCOMP.NET together with Chris Cardwell. The firm is now wholly owned by Bob and me and we really enjoy the opportunity to work with each other. I thought it might be a nice tribute to him to interview him for a Father's Day video podcast.



You can subscribe to the NEXTCOMP.NET video podcast in iTunes.

Click the iTunes button in the sidebar, or just search for NEXTCOMP.NET in the iTunes podcast store.

WorldatWork 2009 - Day 2 - Expo

Another great day at the WorldatWork conference today: I had a chance to talk with several existing subscribers including Susan from Harvard University, Tammy and Ann from the Port of Seattle, Michelle and Nile from Amazon.com, reacquainted with some folks I hadn't seen in a couple of years, met many new people, learned quite a few new things about what is happening in the compensation world, had a chance to interview Doug Sayed of Applied HR Solutions, and met a fellow HR/Compensation blogger Ann Bares.

I participated in a fascinating discussion on the state of compensation design in Venezuela and how the culture of pay there differs from the United States and also Brazil. This was just one of the interesting topics that came up in conversation at the booth. I have to give extra thanks to Tammy from the Port of Seattle for the rave reviews and sharing her experiences with NextComp with a group of prospective customers today. Thank you Tammy! Also thank you to my Dad for helping out this afternoon. You're a life-saver!

Today's video blog from the conference has the interview with Doug Sayed. Doug is a co-author of the just released "Base Pay Toolkit" which is part of the Strategic Pay Series. It looks like a fantastic series that will meet the needs of many HR departments.

Also, if you're not already reading Ann Bares' "Compensation Force" blog, I highly recommend it. She writes in a very approachable and understandable style. The topics are timely and well thought-out. I also highly recommend "Compensation Cafe" which Ann and Doug as well as several others contribute to on regular basis. Links to both blogs are on the blog roll to the right of the page.

Here's the video for the WorldatWork 2009 Exhibition - Day 2...



This video is also available on Youtube.

A couple of notes on the video.

The map fly-overs are generated using Google Earth and screen captured using Screenflow.

Ann Bares is a Managing Partner with the Altura Consulting Group LLC based in Medina, Minnesota. The firm's website is www.alturaconsultinggroup.com. I know Ann from her blog "Compensation Force" so that's how I referenced her in the video.

Also, at the very end of the video you'll see that I look up out of the frame before the fade to black. Apparently I was causing some concern for one of the people in the neighborhood. He thought I was taking photos of his house. He came out and asked what I was doing and why was I taking photos of his house. I assured him that I wasn't taking any pictures of his house and that I was shooting some video for my blog and I wanted to get the great scenery in the background. I think this caught him off guard and he seemed OK with that answer, maybe a bit perplexed though. I wrapped it up and thought that maybe he was overreacting a bit, but perhaps that's just a sign of the times we live in. Anyway, I think I'll find a different spot in the future!

Here are the photos from today. These are also shown in the video.

The "sky bridge" exposition hall. I needed special permission to take pictures here today.

Thank you to Rodney with the Washington State Convention Center security department for taking this photo of me.
"Freeway park" where I ate lunch and enjoyed some quiet time in the sun today.


Some of the view of downtown Seattle from the Conference Center.



A group photo with Doug Sayed, Ann Bares, me and Bob. Thank you to Meg from Univar for the photo.

DEMO - Version 3 - Search Surveys

We're busy preparing for the 2009 WorldatWork show. There are lots of details to keep track up, including ordering booth giveaways, making sure the booth furniture is ordered, and of course finishing up Version 3 development.

We're making great progress and I had a chance yesterday to make a short demo of the new Search Surveys page in Version 3. I wanted to share the process with you, just in case you wonder how these types of demos are made.

It starts with a general idea of the flow of the demo. I ask myself questions such as:

• What do I want to show?


• What do I not want to show for this demo (trying to keep it short and on point)?


• What do I show first, second, and third, etc.?

I hand write some notes and then I run through the demo, without recording it, a few times. I usually end up practicing the demo between three and five times. Then I'll setup a camera and actually video record myself making the introduction to the video and the closing comments.

Here's my high tech camera stand! I forgot my tripod, so I made do with a box and some books. It worked just fine though.



It was interesting this time since we're in a new office. I had to try a few different locations and angles of the camera. I didn't want too much clutter in the background. Notice that I covered up a few boxes with some artwork, in the background on top of the closed cabinets.



It's little stuff in the video that I'm looking for at this stage.

Once I've found the right angle, I'll actually record the introduction and wrap-up. I may do this a few times to get the wording correct and the framing of the video correct.

Next I'll switch to the screen recording. I'm using a tool called ScreenFlow. It's awesome for screen capturing. It's Mac only, but since I'm running Parallels virtual machine I can screen capture my Windows desktop if needed.

The next step, once the screen capturing is complete, is to add the zoom and pan effects to the captured video. This is a fun exercise and really lets me focus in on the important aspects of the demo. It's also really easy to accomplish with ScreenFlow.

I'll watch the video a few times and I may edit out some segments that seem off point or don't add to the demo. Then I export the movie for importing into iMovie 09.



iMovie 09 is where I combine the live video introduction and wrap-up with the screen capture. I add transitions to the video and titles. This is another fun part of the process because I can be creative with the titling.

Finally I export the finished movie to iTunes in three sizes: mobile, medium and large. The mobile version runs on iPods and iPhones the medium and large versions are used for uploading to the web for embedding in web pages.

The large size video is uploaded to Viddler where it's converted to a Flash video format. I can then embed the video in my web pages for viewing in any web browser.

That's about it. It takes some time, but hopefully the end result is worth the effort. We have many more demos planned and they will all be available on the Help Page in Version 3 under the Videos section and some of them will be available on the Demos page of our public website.

Here's the finished video.

Tweet In Review

Here's a list of tweets from the past week related to human resources, compensation, surveys, and a few fun items as well.

Level 4 gym meet for my daughter, busy day of sports http://twitpic.com/3jv73
about 3 hours ago from TwitterFon

1st baseball game of the season http://twitpic.com/3jfca
about 6 hours ago from TwitterFon

This css/javascript modal dialog is awesome in it's simplicity and flexibility. http://tinyurl.com/5mdpmh
2:12 PM Apr 16th from TweetDeck

Best compensation related blog post title I've read this week "The Sight of the Gallows Really Clears the Senses" http://tinyurl.com/cdvwuv
12:40 PM Apr 16th from TweetDeck

Interesting article on Compensation Force about how "New Graduate Salary Offers Dip" in 2009 http://tinyurl.com/cm5ue2
12:26 PM Apr 16th from TweetDeck

For coffee lovers, you should try this Vietnamese coffee by Trung Nguyen. It's so good! http://tinyurl.com/6et23y
9:45 AM Apr 16th from TweetDeck

Just returned to the office from a Northwest Compensation and Rewards Forum luncheon. It was really great seeing everyone!
2:12 PM Apr 15th from TweetDeck
(Learn more about this group.)

"Do your work. Do it well... But that shouldn’t be the only thing you do. Take a little time to build relationships, too."
9:35 AM Apr 15th from TweetDeck
(This was quoted from http://tinyurl.com/dzrqt4)

New Culpepper e-bulletin includes some updates on 2009 merit budget figures. http://tinyurl.com/cssqnx
9:24 AM Apr 15th from TweetDeck

Interesting series of articles comparing a well run symphony to a well run company. http://systematichr.com/
9:13 AM Apr 15th from TweetDeck

"Incentive Plans for the Small Business Owner" http://tinyurl.com/dndl69
9:12 AM Apr 15th from TweetDeck

I just found a new compensation related blog. My friend Doug Sayed is one of the writers: http://tinyurl.com/dxz5v6
9:12 AM Apr 14th from TweetDeck
(The blog is called Compensation Cafe and I'm really enjoying this blog.)

There are just 47 days until the 2009 WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition in Seattle!
9:10 AM Apr 14th from TweetDeck

"Dhani Tackles The Globe" is a lot of fun to watch on The Travel Channel.
9:37 PM Apr 13th from TweetDeck

"Interesting Times Ahead" by Anne Ruddy http://twurl.nl/xkojdb
1:46 PM Apr 13th from TweetDeck

53 days 17 hours and 45 minutes to go to the WorldatWork 2009 Conference and Expo in Seattle, Washington, USA.
11:19 AM Apr 8th from TweetDeck

I'm very excited about the next blog post. I'll be posting several demos of Version 3 in action. So stay tuned!

User's Group Meeting, Market Pricing, Salary Planning and Twittering

It's been a busy week and I'm having difficulty believing it's Friday already. The week started off kind of slow with the kids home from school and then the excitement built as Tuesday morning approached. Wow! What an incredible day for America. I had to work that day, but I caught up on all the events later that night on cspan. It was also fun reading all the tweets and blog posts from around the world. So many people were excited for the new President to take office. I'm also very pleased that my kids were all able to watch the inauguration at school. They watched it online projected on the screens in their classes. Very cool! I know that Tuesday will be a day I remember for a long time to come.

Closer to home, it's been a busy week here at NextComp. Here's a summary of what we've been up to this week.

User's Group Meeting

I've been quietly planning a user's group meeting in the Seattle area, all the while working feverishly to implement Version 3 of NextComp before the meeting. Well it looks like I'll have Version 3 completed and ready by the end of February. So I'm working on the details to have the User's Group meeting in Issaquah sometime the first two weeks of March. I'm still nailing down the space availability. I'll have that finalized early next week, so the blog post next week will have more details.

Salary Planning

This past week I was working extensively on an update to the NextComp salary planning application. I re-wrote the database engine to enhance performance and scalability. This tool was originally designed to run on smaller networks and in smaller to medium sized companies. One client is running it on a larger network with over 500 managers having access the system. Of course, before the re-write, the database crumpled under the load. I think smoke might have been coming out of the server! :-) After a series of late night programming sessions, I was able to redesign the database to effectively scale up to over 10,000 employees and over 500 managers. Whew, that was some serious work. It's done now, and I'm moving on to create a cool Quicktime training video.

Here are some screenshots...








Of course that's not the only project that's going on. Never a dull moment here in Issaquah.

Version 3 Update

I've been working on NextComp Version 3 with the goal of having it completed by the end of February in time for several of our clients to transition to the new application before the WorldatWork Conference being held in Seattle in June. I've been getting really helpful feedback from a couple of larger subscribers that have volunteered to transition early to Version 3, while still using Version 2 primarily. Thank you to them! More updates next week on Version 3.



The Tweet In Review

Continuing on the post from last week, I've been trying to tweet on any interesting articles that I run across during my blog reading. I use NetNewsWire on the Mac to consolidate the blog posts into one list of updated information. I have over 100 blogs that I read on a regular basis, and the list keeps growing. I enjoy everything from compensation related blogs, to listserve type blogs, to art and photography blogs. Here are some highlights from this last week.

Sitting on top of my roof taking Xmas lights down http://twitpic.com/13z8v. Nice view from up here! 1:20 PM Jan 17th from twitterrific

AMD cutting 1,100 jobs and cutting salaries by 5% to 15%. http://tinyurl.com/7r4g2g 10:01 AM Jan 19th from TweetDeck

@annemareemoore Here's a blog with a copy of the President's speech in PDF format... http://leifbrostrom.com/?p=153 1:58 PM Jan 20th from web in reply to annemareemoore

Over 7 Million Workers to See Lowest Pay Raise in 30+ Years http://tinyurl.com/9ch9ub 9:44 AM Jan 21st from TweetDeck

iPhone development webinars, five total for $97 each. Good deal! http://tinyurl.com/885fc8 10:16 AM Jan 21st from TweetDeck

Just received an e-mail: There are just 130 days, 2 hours and 50 minutes until the 2009 WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition. 12:40 PM Jan 21st from TweetDeck

Check out the resolution of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II http://tinyurl.com/bhhn8c What an awesome place for skiing too! 10:44 AM yesterday from TweetDeck

Inauguration in Tweets: http://projects.flowingdata.com/inauguration/ about 18 hours ago from TweetDeck

New ski related blog post http://photomatto.typepad.com about 16 hours ago from twitterrific

President Obama is a good Dad too... http://tinyurl.com/8q3yp9 about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck

"Four sure fire ways to get laid off" http://tinyurl.com/bte4zc about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Links to information on the Leadbetter Fair Pay Act that looks to pass Congress soon. http://tinyurl.com/d4xhz4 http://tinyurl.com/bbzstn about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

"Washington’s three largest insurers were down a combined $194M in October" http://tinyurl.com/dms7jv 43 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Thanks to "The Industry Radar" http://www.theindustryradar... for all the great links.
42 minutes ago from TweetDeck



Well that wraps up another week here in the cold, damp and foggy Northwest. We're supposed to get some snow over the weekend. Oh boy! Well at least that will help the ski resorts.

Until next week, have a great weekend!