Managers are the Home Page of Your Pay Programs

Our approach to communicating pay needs an update. Luckily, we can emulate a model that has evolved and proven effective over the past 25 years. Web sites have tried to be many things over the past couple of decades. Some of those attempts have been difficult but effective, others were very cool but abject failures. During all of the innovation, the venerable home page has proven to have efficacy and staying power, within its purpose and limitations. Your managers are essentially your compensation home page, and we need to respect their power and limits.

First, I recognize that we can and must communicate pay often and through a wide variety of mediums. Compensation departments create the equivalents of research papers, opinion pieces, dramatic productions, mini-series, high-school presentations, and virtually any other method of communication available. Despite all of these amazing tools, the source most likely to be accessed by an individual is the person directly above them, their manager.

In a healthy company, people regularly talk to their managers (unhealthy companies are a topic for a different post). This is similar to people wanting to know more about your company. The first step is heading to your website. The place they land has headlines that your company thinks are important for people to know. Connected to that page are links to tons of other information, some very specific, some arcane, and some that needs to be updated. Your home page is not only your first impression, but it is the starting point for nearly every other impression. Your managers serve the same purpose.

Website interfaces and functionality have continued to advance. Despite this, the home page remains the most important resource on your site, despite its obvious limitations. Home pages have limited space. Only the most important information can be included. This information should spark curiosity and easily lead people to more specific information that can satisfy most of their questions or needs. This is true when you click on the Facebook icon or when you go to my company’s home page. They look very different, but each is easy to navigate and provides an important snapshot. Each provides curious minds with access to more information.

We tend to spend most of our time educating individuals about their programs. This is important, but it may be even more important to make sure our managers are populated with the information they need to serve as our compensation home pages. As a home page, managers should be able to answer questions almost instantaneously. Their answers should satisfy immediate needs without getting bogged down in minutiae. They shouldn't need to dig into a bunch of documents and presentations to answer common questions. They should be confident, able to communicate both main themes and important points while knowing exactly where to direct people to get additional information.

Your marketing and communication department can adeptly help you in changing the face of your pay communications. If you explain to them your desire to make your managers your home page, they will quickly and expertly guide you to a new way to communicate pay that has proven to be effective over the years.

Dan Walter is a CECP, CEP, and Fellow of Global Equity (FGE). He has convinced himself he is a “Compensation Futurist” and works as Managing Consultant for FutureSense. Dan is also a leading expert on incentive plans and equity compensation issues. He has written several industry resources including the only resource dedicated to Performance-Based Equity Compensation. He has co-authored ”Everything You Do In Compensation is Communication”, , “Equity Alternatives” and other books. Connect with Dan on LinkedIn. Or, follow him on Twitter at @DanFutureSense.

Posted by DanFutureSense on 10/14/2020 at 07:45 AM in Compensation Communication, Small Company Compensation | Permalink