Employee Compensation Strategies for 2015

Marcianne Kuethen

May 18, 2015

Is employee retention keeping you up at night? As the war for talent escalates, two new surveys about perks and compensation have just come out that are of interest to employers.

The first survey, designed to learn what perks employees desire beyond salary, revealed that employers need to communicate with their employees! “When asked which workplace perk they think their employees are most interested in receiving this year, 41 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) interviewed said better benefits, and 19 percent said more vacation days. In a separate survey of workers, however, more paid time off (30 percent) narrowly edged out better benefits (26 percent) as most desired in 2015. These far outranked options such as flexible hours/telecommuting, professional training and development, health and wellness, onsite meals, and subsidized transportation.”

The second survey, conducted by PayScale, gleaned information from 5,500 business leaders at companies of all sizes. Here are a few main points of the survey as reported by the Society for Human Resource Management:

Retaining top performers in an increasingly competitive talent market is many employers’ top worry. As more employees jump ship to chase higher compensation with other companies, employers continue to find a lack of qualified applicants for positions that require higher training.

63% of employers state that their primary compensation objective is to retain top employees. But 57% still plan to link pay raises to merit, and 60% will offer development and training as their retention strategy.

89% plan to give raises in this year, while 43% have increased their bonus budget from what it was in 2014.

Approximately 20% of employers plan to give pay raises to those earning the federal or state minimum wage.

More employers are working on making pay ranges public and sharing how they are set and adjusted.

In light of these two surveys, you would be wise to communicate with your high performers to stay in touch with their needs and desires. As you look to retain and attract top talent, you may need to recalibrate your employee compensation strategies for 2015!

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