factors affecting compensation
From the perspective of the employer, the factors that affect compensation are:
- The Overall Macroeconomic situation where in the state of the economy of the country in which the firm is situated plays a major role in determining the compensation to be paid. For instance, if an economy is booming or is in a high growth trajectory, chances are that the employers would pay the employees more and conversely, if the economy is in a downward trajectory, chances are that the employers would pay the employees less. We often hear about how because of the recession, salary hikes have been deferred or cut down. This is a direct result of the linkage between firm performance and the performance of the economy.
- The Demand for a particular skill weighs heavily on the way in which the employer fixes the compensation for the employee. For instance, premium skills like Consulting and Accountancy are paid more as are the Technology Professionals who might be experts in their chosen field. As discussed in earlier articles, it is the expertise and the relative scarcity of such experts that determines how much the employer is willing to pay.
- The Position of the company in the Business Cycle often determines how much the company is willing to offer to the employee. For instance, if a company is a start-up, chances are that the company would pay more because of the need to get the best possible talent into the company. Further, many start-ups give their employees ESOP’s or Employee Stock Option Plans wherein the employees can redeem their stocks after the lock-in period.
- Finally, the urgency of the firm in filling up the position plays an important role in determining how much the employer is willing to pay the employee and in many cases, if the time to get on board the employee is less, staffing managers along with the line manager in charge of hiring the employee might decide to pay more because they want the employee to come on board as quickly as possible.
There are several kinds of negotiation with the employer. For instance, the employee can negotiate at the time of the hiring process or can negotiate at the time of the appraisal cycle. In this article, we consider the strategies available to the employee at the time of the hiring process.
There are several parts to the employee’s strategy to negotiate with the employer. Some of them are:
- Plan and Communicate: The most important part of the employee’s strategy must be to research the compensation trends in the market and then negotiate with the employer based on how much the other companies are willing to pay for a similar role combined with the fact that the company hiring him or her pays for the same role. Hence, it is advisable for the employee to keep in touch with compensation trends in the marketplace and also talk to other employees before he or she decides to communicate his or her expectations to the prospective employer.
- Timing makes the difference: In any negotiation process, time is the key element and hence timing the negotiation process is important. The best possible option for the employee would be to wait for the company to make an offer and then pitch in his or her expectations about the compensation. There is something called overkill which must be avoided and the employee must avoid going overboard. At the same time, the employee must also ensure that he or she does not start the negotiation process early on in order not to lose out on the offer. Hence the timing of the pitch makes all the difference.
- Consider the Alternatives: When you are deciding about prospective offers, ensure that you make the pitch for your expected compensation level after taking into account all the alternatives and not simply rush into something that does not value your experience and expertise adequately. At the same time, do not harangue the prospective employers though you might have several alternatives available to you. The point to be noted is that different companies react to compensation negotiations in different ways and hence you must play the field according to these points.
Internal Factors
These factors include the following:
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Ability
to pay
This is one of the most significant factor influencing employee compensation. Generally, a firm, which is prosperous and successful, has the ability to pay more than the competitive rate. This way it can attract a superior caliber of personnel. Often the labor unions also demand an increase in compensation on the grounds that the organization is prosperous and is able to pay more. -
Employee
Numerous employees related factors also influence his or her compensation. These include rhe following: - Performance—It is always rewarded with pay increase and as a result it motivates the workers to do better in future.
- Experience—This makes a person perfect by providing valuable insights and thus rewarded also. Today companies are demanding for 10 to 20 years experience candidates especially for the executive positions. The companies presume that experience candidate posses leadership skills which influence the other behavior and performance. Generally experience candidate perform the job without need of training which is time consuming and deals with matter of cost to company. Hence the experience candidates demand more pay than an inexperienced candidate.
- Seniority—In today's environment seniority of employee making difference in payment of compensation compared to Jr employees. Naturally senior employees demands for more salary than fresher because of their hold on related job and its functions. Today many companies are demanding senior employees for key positions by offering fat pay and even sometimes retired employees are offered with handsome salary for key positions which deals with multitasking in organization. Trade unions always prefer this objective criterion for pay rises.
- Potential—Firms also pay their employees, especially young ones on the basis of their potential. software companies are very good example for this, IT graduate just who completed his education having potential in the subject can gain a good job with high payment anywhere in the world. Good example, student of Indian Information Technology (IIT) from Delhi had bagged job of payment 7 million Indian rupees per year in Twitter Inc famous social networking website