Triggers and hurdles and cliffs, oh my! To be clear, I’m talking about pay plan mechanics and in particular about the kind of cliff that plays an … Read more
Ann Bares is the Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group. She has over 20 years of experience consulting in compensation and performance management and has worked with a variety of organizations in auditing, designing and implementing executive compensation plans, base salary structures, variable and incentive compensation programs, sales compensation programs, and performance management systems.
Her clients have included public and privately held businesses, both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, early stage entrepreneurial organizations and larger established companies. Ann also teaches at the University of Minnesota and Concordia University.
Contact her at abares@alturaconsultinggroup.com.
Your Pay Program Has a Big Mouth
You have a not-so-silent partner in your compensation communication efforts. That partner? Your pay program itself. That’s because compensation … Read more
Help Your Employees to Have a ‘Line of Sight’ to Goals
Incentives remain one of the most powerful, and yet also one of the most misapplied, management tools out there. While research has shown that group … Read more
What Pay Range Data Can and Can’t Tell You
Many pay surveys routinely collect and report salary range minimums, midpoints and maximums. This data can provide helpful context, but it is also at risk … Read more
Rewards Can Help Close the Strategy-to-Performance Gap
I like to argue that we should be holding our compensation programs – and the money they represent – to a higher standard. Research examining … Read more
How Does Your HR Budget and Staffing Compare?
How big should your HR staff and budget be? While this is a question best answered in the context of your unique talent strategy — what it will take … Read more
How to Price Comp When the Employee Wears Multiple Hats
In a variety of settings and for a variety of reasons, we see jobs that are essentially hybrids; that is, they cover a combination of functions that are … Read more
Are Pay Boundaries Empowering or Demotivating?
One of the challenges in compensation design and management is building programs that reward workers fairly, competitively and in ways that engage them in … Read more
Do You Know What A Bonus Is?
I’ve had an important lesson reinforced for me. I’m reminded again, via many conversations with employees and managers, of the wide range of … Read more
Are You Getting Any Value From Your Profit Sharing Plan?
Jack Stack, founder, president and CEO of SRC Holdings, and the author of The Great Game of Business and considered by many to be the father of open-book … Read more
It’s Bad For the Employee to Pay Too Much
What is the worst thing you can do to an employee? According to management consultants Doug and Polly White, authors of the article “The Worst Thing … Read more
Work is Work, So Stop With the Fiction
There’s no greater disservice to employees than trying to sell them a piece of fiction about the nature of their relationship with their employer. … Read more
Measuring Employee Happiness the Low Tech Way
As we develop and put in place ever more sophisticated talent management tools and systems, featuring increasingly granular tracking systems and flashy, … Read more
The Challenges Managing Pay in a Small, Entrepreneurial Organization
I had the chance recently to join a group of HR professionals who serve entrepreneurial, small to mid-sized organizations to talk about the realities and … Read more
Are We Ready For the Uber-ification of Work, Performance and Pay?
We want it both ways as employers. We want workers who keep their skills up-to-date and willingly pursue learning and development. In addition, we also … Read more
Is it Really Time to Say Goodbye to the Merit Matrix?
Bill Kutik hates the merit matrix and I suspect he is not alone. The merit matrix is not dead — not yet, with recent WorldatWork research confirming … Read more
The Problem When Managers Get Too Fond of Discretionary Rewards
Ah, management discretion. Leaders often have a great fondness for discretionary rewards, particularly in bonus and incentive plans. And why not? … Read more
Retention and Reward: Struggling With the Consequences
Employee retention is a double-edged sword. According to Merriam Webster, in addition to being a sword with two sharp edges, this is defined as something … Read more
Use of Sign-On and Retention Bonuses at an All-Time High
The use of sign-on and retention bonuses appears to be at an all-time high, according to a recently released WorldatWork survey on bonus programs and … Read more
How Will We Pay With Open Salaries and No Performance Reviews?
There are a number of movements afoot in the world of work that promise to impact the way we pay people. Two in particular may well converge to provide the … Read more