Now is the time to fix your worst incentive plans, or adjust pay structures that have crumbled under the weight of furloughs, lay-offs, remote work, shrinkage, growth, or any other of the myriad of issues that are being faced in business. Yes, you are tired. But so are your competitors. The best time to win is when they can’t respond. In a world where increases have been in low single digits for a decade, it doesn’t take too much to set your company above the crowd.

More and more companies have compensation programs that look like this guy. Pay for executives is muscular and impressive. It has outpaced pay at lower levels for a long time. Despite how strong and impressive these companies’ pay look, the truth is they are vulnerable to a competitor kicking their…

Let’s start by discussing a couple of the new things where you will need to help. Publicly-traded companies need to produce a Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A) and a Summary Compensation Table as part of their public filings. The CD&A is a narrative document that tells the story of your executive compensation program. The Summary Compensation Table details the prior three years of compensation for your Named Executive Officers (the Top 5 paid officers including your CEO and CFO.

SPAC transactions move fast. They move so fast that it can be difficult to know who Is doing what, and when. The first thing you need to identify your team. Unless you are part of the inner circle, much of this will likely be done before you even know about the potential transaction. Once you are brought into the process you need to learn…

Here are some good considerations when you are hiring a consultant…

Equity, as a compensation tool, is a finite resource with an infinite value. There is only 100% of your company. Only a fraction of that amount can be used to compensate employees. When that approved fraction is gone, it may not be possible to use equity as a compensation tool any longer. This challenge has always existed, but it has worsened over the past several years.

The upcoming year of hybrid work, returning to a new version of an old normalcy, becoming good at paying and rewarding remote workers and so much more will challenge all of us.

Employee burnout is something all organizations face regardless of industry, employee experience or position within the company. When that is coupled with the stress of the past 18 months, including COVID, political unrest, and other stressors in our lives, we find that people can begin buckling under that pressure. Keeping that in mind, as leaders, we need to figure out ways to not only retain our employees but, keep them from reaching the point where they burn out. We addressed retention in our last blog post and went into detail about ways to improve your culture and unearth underlying issues within your team.

During challenging times, focus your efforts on the things that are absolutely required for future success. Every working veteran who has survived tough times in their career has become stronger for the experience. Dealing with challenging conditions is a vital, if not career-essential practical lesson. Solid contingency plans followed with calm resolution, patient endurance, and unflappable confidence can and will succeed.