February has been an extremely busy month, as we are finalising performance ratings and calibrations, preparing salary reviews and promotions, and calculating potential bonus payouts – not just for us, but also reviewing the proposals from our major assets. I also sat on various Compensation Committees and gave feedback on a number of proposals of…
Are you using comparatios without thinking ?
In the compensation world, comparatio is defined as an employee’s base pay divided by the midpoint of the salary range linked to the employee’s job grade. Comparatios can be expressed as a percentage (110%) or a number (0.9). Uses of comparatios We use them mostly at the time of salary reviews, in companies that use…
Challenges facing HR in Merger & Acquisitions [infographic]
In a recent post, Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender drew attention to a very interesting infographic from Mercer. The infographic reveals the challenges faced by HR in supporting Merger & Acquisitions processes. I have been involved in such processes since early on in my career, and have to say that beyond being some of the…
All you need to know : common pay challenges and how to handle them
Some time ago, I published a resource page which I encourage you to explore and share : All you need to know: from compensation surveys to salary ranges and salary review. This page has proven very useful and many of my readers sent me emails to say they appreciated having a compilation like this available…
A useful reference matrix on equity compensation
In this edition of Sunday Skills, I want to lead you to a great synthetic document created by Performensation, a consulting company which “provides customized performance based compensation solutions to organizations of all sizes in the Americas and Europe”. Performensation is led by Dan Walter, an expert on executive / equity compensation who is also…
A nightmare about salary ranges
A few months ago an HR Manager showed me the (long, hard) work she had done on creating salary ranges for her company, and asked me for feedback. I have to say I was really surprised by what I saw : for a small-size company of less than 200 employees, she had created 9 different…
Full transparency about pay: is it right for you?
At the beginning of the year, it is not unusual to read articles about pay transparency, like this recent one from the Wall Street Journal : “Psst… This is what your co-worker is paid”. The season of questions about pay transparency In December-January, many organisations focus on evaluating past performance and setting goals for the…




