It does not have to be a math exam to figure out how much to pay your staff. Use these guidelines to determine reasonable and fair fees that will not break the bank.
Setting pay for your employees is always a challenge. It is particularly difficult if you have never done it before since you are likely unsure where to begin. On the one hand, you want to offer a high enough salary to attract the top people. You do not want to overspend, on the other hand. So, what is a business owner to do?
First and foremost, do not be alarmed. Keep in mind that your objective is to recruit and compensate competent employees properly. However, when it comes to the precise quantities you should spend, keep in mind that you should never pay more than the task is worth to you.
That is just sound business. Because, at the end of the day, a wage is an investment that should provide a profit, just like any other company cost. So you start by choosing what the maximum sum you are ready to spend is.
The easiest approach to figuring out what that ceiling is is to think about how much more valuable this individual will make my firm. When it comes to compensation, your response is the maximum you would be willing to pay that individual.
That is a simple question for a salesman or a business development representative to answer. Because this personnel generates income, you can simply inquire whether the sales they generate pay their compensation. If your new sales prospect can generate $500,000 in profit, it could be worth it to pay them $200,000 plus commissions to get them on board.
But how can you figure out how much to pay for administrative and support personnel? Those you can not live without despite the fact that they do not bring in any money? Their worth is measured not by how much money they produce, but by how much money they save. So, calculate how much it would cost you not to have them on board, and use that figure to justify their pay.
Take, for example, your IT worker. How much time, effort, and money would you spend if you had to set up your own Windows network? Include your counseling fees, divorce settlement, and the stitches you received after hurling your monitor through your office’s plate glass window. Then increase that figure by the number of employees at your firm. You now understand the true worth of your IT employee.
When determining how much a job is worth to you, you may find that it is not worth the money you are paying. For example, your new $50,000-a-year front desk receptionist could be the greatest in the world, but you do not see enough value in the job to justify the pay. If you know the worth of a job, you may swiftly dismiss individuals who are too pricey when rehiring for available jobs. (However, if you automatically dismiss everyone who asks for too much, you are either undervaluing the task or you should simply do it yourself.)
Identifying the Bottom Scale
So now you know how much you will have to spend. The next step is to find out how much you are willing to spend. This is when the market enters the picture. Candidates’ expectations are established by market rates. The market undervalues worth at times. Knowledge workers who are really exceptional perform ten times the work of those who are simply okay, yet they are only paid 20 to 30% more.
Occasionally, the market overvalues something (can you say “Fortune 500 CEO salaries”?). Unless you can provide viable alternatives, prospects will expect you to at least pay market prices. Pay.com has salary ranges organized by job title and location. You will learn what the high, low, and average salaries are in your state and area, so you can start your staff hunt knowing what to anticipate.
Pay scales may be obtained from other company owners, who can share their market-rate experiences. Contact members of your local chamber of commerce or join a business networking club to mingle with other company owners and compare salaries. For administrative positions, contact a local temporary staffing agency to get a quote.
Then, based on that, calculate the wage for permanent employment, keeping in mind that you will not be paying agency overhead but will be providing benefits. Headhunters and recruiters are excellent sources of information for high-level positions. They will often provide free advice in the hopes that you would engage them when you require a formal search.
You will pay a mix of what the task is worth to you and what the market requires at the end of the day. When it comes down to it, it is also vital to examine each new recruit individually. As much as we all appreciate pay bands, the usual method should not blind you to the necessity for exceptions. Feel free to overpay for a salesman who has deep personal ties with your five most important prospects. I certainly would.
Choosing a Payment Method
So, after you know how much the work is worth and what your prospects anticipate, you must determine how you will compensate them. Will you pay a set wage or on an hourly basis? Although you may have a choice in certain cases, many workers believe that particular occupations will pay one way or the other.
While managers and white-collar occupations often pay on a salary basis, hourly compensation is common for temps, certain consultants, and some blue-collar industries. When the task is closely tied to time, hourly compensation is natural. Assembly line employees, for example, are paid hourly since their output is directly proportional to the number of hours they spend on the line. The same goes for cashiers at stores. You would think that a retailer would pay for excellent customer service.
However, this is only partially correct. While it is true that serving customers well makes a difference, a clerk who is not at work can not provide that level of care, thus they are stuck getting paid for the hours they are in the shop.
Next, depending on your business, you may need to consult with a lawyer to ensure that what and how you are proposing to compensate for a certain position is legal. Some employment, for example, has minimum wage or other legal requirements, such as waitstaff positions, which are paid a low minimum salary yet are presumed by the IRS to generate money via tips. Contracts with unions may also stipulate certain compensation levels or overtime pay.
Jobs that pay a salary are a different story. Salaries are set, so no matter how much work an employee accomplishes, they will get the same amount each week in their paycheck. The initial intention was most likely to compensate for contributions that were difficult to quantify in terms of hours. For example, an ad manager who generates multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns gets paid a flat wage since her work is based on insight and outcomes rather than hours.
However, as time has passed, the practice of giving a flat income has taken an unanticipated turn. Overtime pay is higher for hourly employees. Overworking an exempt salaried employee, on the other hand, has no legal or moral consequences for you, so you may recruit someone on salary and then demand 60-hour weeks at the wage of a regular 40-hour-per-week position. Of course, morale will plummet and people will despise you, but if you can live with that, it is an option.
Another option is to pay through commission. Some occupations immediately contribute to income. You may pay a commission depending on the money earned for certain positions. One sort of employee that is often paid on commission is salespeople. The rationale is straightforward: we know how much a salesman is a worth based on the dollar amount of their sales.
As a result, by tying their salary to their sales volume, we may encourage them to sell as much as feasible. The majority of salespeople receive a modest base wage with the possibility of earning a percentage of what they sell. The percentages vary, but I know someone who earned a 5% commission on a jet aircraft sale. If you can obtain it, it is not a horrible job.
However, do not fall into the mistake of mistaking commission percentages with the money you pay your salesmen. Allow your salesmen to take home as much money as they like if you feel your commission rate is correct. I have seen firms grow greedy and drive away from fantastic salesmen.
When they see a salesperson earning $1 million in commissions per year, they get envious and lower commissions or terminate the salesperson. Heck, if a salesman makes a million dollars, let them! That implies they are raking in tens of millions of dollars for your business. If you do not set a limit on their commissions, you risk losing the golden goose.
Finally, you may wish to provide direct income incentives to your salaried employees. The time-honored bonus is the wage equivalent of a commission, and it is a popular incentive for positions that do not immediately generate revenue. Bonuses are often linked to particular project outcomes or general business performance: if the firm succeeds, a portion of the earnings is set aside and awarded as a bonus.
Bonuses are intended to incentivize employees to work for the company’s or project’s benefit. That method works well as long as employees believe they can have a significant impact on the organization. People’s work is only tangentially tied to the bottom line in reality, therefore incentives have inconsistent success as motivators.
Furthermore, if incentives are consistent, individuals may start to anticipate them, turning them into implicit promises. Bonuses, on the other hand, are useful for rewarding employees who go above and beyond or for giving a share of remuneration that might increase or decrease based on the company’s performance.
It is never a bad idea to be a little flexible.
If you are employing CEOs and upper-level managers, be prepared to be quite flexible now that you know what you will pay, what the market expects, and how you plan to connect compensation to performance.
That is because when it gets to the higher levels of the corporate ladder, rules become hazy. A complicated dance of greed, market rates, and conventional practice typically results in a combination of stock, pay, and incentives for executives.
Executives and stockholders are said to be aligned by stock options, but be cautious! This may work in a private corporation. Options, on the other hand, might promote stock manipulation in public businesses without resulting in long-term commercial gains.
What is the appropriate amount of stock to offer? That is contingent on how you value the stock and what you believe it will be worth in the future. There is not enough area to go into depth here, but check out my website for some suggestions on how to divide up equity.
You will have to bend the rules if you are recruiting an expert, which means someone with a unique talent, reputation, or network, and everything becomes negotiable. Their expectations will be shaped by their previous experiences and knowledge of market rates.
You will have to be flexible if you want them to work for you. So, like building bricks, create a package that includes short-term pay, long-term bonuses or shares, and performance-based targets—you will fulfill their demands while still leaving them hungry for more incentives.
Finally, if you consider beyond money, you will find that you have a lot more freedom. Some individuals place a higher value on things other than money (it is real!). You may be able to entice folks by offering non-monetary incentives. Flexible hours, casual attire, extra vacation time, telecommuting, and impressive or imaginative titles may all be substituted for money.
People value education and professional growth as well. When selecting how much to pay, consider market rates, compensation expectations, the job’s inherent value, and your ingenuity. When you are working late, having an on-site massage might be really beneficial!
Set your upper wage limit based on the value of a certain job to you.
- To establish the lowest price you will spend, research the market.
- Match hourly compensation to occupations whose value is determined by the number of hours worked.
- Match salary compensation to occupations whose value is derived from knowledge or ability.
- Jobs with a high-income value should be matched with commissions.
- u ready to go through your notes? Here’s a brief rundown to assist you in determining pay for all of your employees:
- Use incentives to get everyone on board with the company’s, product’s, or division’s objectives.
- Make the transaction special for specialists and high management.
You may be able to exchange your cash compensation for intangibles or services on occasion.
If you are interested in more articles like this, here’s one about expanding your company globally.
