Compensation Philosophy
Robert Griffard and Geoffrey Griffard February 28, 2019 What is your company’s compensation philosophy? Did you know that you have one? Every company has a compensation philosophy. Some are explicitly published by the company while others are implicit in the actions taken by various decision makers in the company. There are many who feel they have a philosophy but their employees do not agree. A 2017 survey by Payscale revealed that among their respondents, 31% of employers reported having a transparent compensation philosophy but only 23% of employees agreed [1] The advantages of a published compensation philosophy are obvious. Compensation actions can be viewed in light of the company’s stated compensation philosophy to ensure conformance. It not only is more difficult to ensure conformance to an unwritten compensation philosophy, but such a philosophy can change without notice and is subject to the capriciousness of the person making the compensation decisio