Compensation Seminar

Last Thursday I attended a seminar at put on by the Alliance for Innovation. The seminar was titled “Compensation and benefits Issues and Trends Across the Generations” and was facilitated by Rollie Waters. It was very interesting for me considering that I wasn’t very familiar with the subject so my mind was like a sponge just trying to absorb everything. Rollie Waters is the president of Waters Consulting. The Waters group focuses on many human resources related issues and also works conducts executive recruitment.

The seminar went for 3.5 hours and a great deal of information was covered. I especially found interesting his point about internal equity. I never really think about fairness in jobs between two different positions in an organization. What he means is that you have to understand and be ok with other positions earning what they earn. In other words a planner and recreation coordinator understand the responsibility, demands, qualifications, etc. that both positions entail. This leads to acceptance of the salary each earns.

It’s easy to have feelings of unfairness in an organization. In today’s economy employees look at each other and perceive their positions in a much more critical manner. As salaries are being cut and layoffs being implemented, this forces people to become defensive. As one progresses in their careers and naturally earns higher salaries it becomes easy to for people to judge. The challenge will always be in trying to find a balance for fairness in an organization.