the BUBBLER RECAP: APRIL 2017
By: Neil Lappley, founder of Lappley & Associates and proud member of The Water Council
Lappley & Associates recently conducted a survey of The Water Council members to learn their compensation-related priorities and create a discussion topic surrounding this for a business development session, the Bubbler, held in the Global Water Center in Milwaukee.
Members surveyed were primarily mid-sized organizations. Of the 50 members that were eligible to participate, almost all inputs were from chief executive officers or c-suite executives. Participation rate was approximately one-third, a high participation rate for this type survey.
Midwest Organizations Compensation Priorities
Before examining the results of the survey, I would like to also explain a larger survey of the compensation priorities of a broad cross section of Midwest organizations. A colleague and I regularly conduct seminars for senior executives, and human resource and compensation professionals in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. At the end of each session, we ask what are the biggest compensation issues facing their organizations. Based upon several hundred inputs, the following issues consistently emerge:
- Competitiveness: This typically includes attraction, retention, motivation and engagement of staff.
- Retention: Often broken out within competitiveness, however, is the issue of retention. As the economy steadily increases and unemployment falls, it is increasingly hard to replace high performing staff. Employers recognize the need to reward and take care of the top performers and high-potential employees.
- Communicating Compensation: Although of a somewhat lower priority, employers are realizing the need to communicate their compensation strategy and explain each program in an employee’s pay package to get the returns from compensation that they have envisioned.
Member Company Compensation Priorities
Priorities of mid-sized members of The Water Council are more diverse. All areas noted below were at about equal importance.
- Executive Compensation: Much of our experience with executive compensation has touched on both competitiveness and the possible addition of a program such as a long-term incentive plan.
- Turnover & Retention: A priority to keep high performers.
- Competitiveness: As noted above, attraction, retention, motivation and engagement are dimensions of this concern.
- Annual Incentive Plans: One solution to retention is to improve competitiveness either by increasing the number of variable pay programs or by increasing the number of participants in current plans.
- Sales Force Effectiveness: Many organizations are looking to ensure that they are paying for the right behaviors in their sales force.
Please contact me at nlappley@lapppley.com or (847) 864-8979 to discuss any questions you may have from the results of the survey. Feel free to forward this report to anyone else who may be interested or you can view The Water Council’s event calendar to see when the next Bubbler takes place.
