Explaining Pay Raises

How often in HR have you had to smooth over some ruffled feathers with an employee who is upset about his or her pay increase?

You might want to share with them an article on HRWhatnot called How to Maximize Your Pay Raise. This article explains to the layperson how he can improve his increase and provides information on grading systems including a simple explanation of compa ratios. (How the employee is paid relative to market.)

I'm not sure why in HR the grading and rating compensation methods tend to be shrouded in secrecy. This article does a nice job of removing the mystery by providing employees with a list of 14 things they can do to improve their chances of increasing their compensation.

The 14 points covered in the article include:

- Do an Outstanding Job

- Understand Your Rating System

- Toot Your Own Horn

- Don't Discount Alternatives

- Know Your Market

- Do More than Expected

Getting this information to employees in advance might save those of us in HR the headaches of trying to explain this one-on-one to an already disgruntled employee. As the saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.