Pay Surveys are So Dead. Not.
I saw a website that claims they can tell you what you should be paid just by popping your job title into this website. (I’ve seen lots of others out there too, this is just one example.) Hey, so much for salary surveys and data checking. Just for fun, put your own job in there.
What troubles me about this kind of “data” is that it’s not adjusted for credentials, company size, experience, competencies or much of anything else (except geography). It’s misleading, kind of like those unscientific pay “studies” published in trade magazines when they ask anonymous readers how much they make. Science has proved that people over report their pay levels (kind of like they do on sex surveys, where they over report on other things). Another thing that’s unclear: Is the number reported the maximum for the job? The minimum? Why isn’t there a range?
I’m not sure what to make of all this. There’s a single number displayed, and it’s not clear if that’s salary, total cash, or total compensation. From a communication perspective, this is more of stirring up trouble than it is about giving substantive data for salarly negotiations. For you compensation professionals out there, here’s another of the “forewarned is forearmed.”
Random Management Statement Generator
We need to evolve cross-media mindshare.
If your managers are suffering from a bout of brainlock to “motivate the troops,” worry no more. The Random Management Statement Generator is available. As the instructions say, “Click on the Create button to produce a statement that you are likely to here a manager say.”
Now let’s get out there and optimize our strategic initiatives.
(via The Generator Blog)
Your Future Employees are Networkers
Do you know how networked your future employees are? Are your managers aware of Facebook and MySpace - and all the implications they entail?
Your future employees are the social network generation. They make “friends,” and some make thousands of connections. An article in USA Today titled Meet My 5,000 New Best Pals outlines the mentality of the NetGens:
Call it a hobby. Call it an obsession. Call it the new way of socializing in the networked world. Call it “friending,” the way millions of teens and young adults obsessed with social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are making connections.[...snip]
For some, friending is not just a pastime, it’s also an indication of social success or failure, says Susan Lipkins, an adolescent psychologist in Port Washington, N.Y.
“If you go to college and you don’t have a full bunch of people on your MySpace or Facebook, then it’s implying that there’s something wrong with you,” Lipkins says. “Listing your buddies and your friends is a way of establishing yourself, of feeling connected and feeling like you’re accepted.”
Connections matter to NetGens. In business, we often talk about peoples’ ability to network. How cool would it be to create a Facebook for your company, especially if you’re trying to lure in “the cool kids”? In some way, your employees would certainly get to know each other faster. After all, some things haven’t changed, whether you’re a Baby Boomer, Gen Xer, Gen Yer, or NetGen. It’s not what you know that matters, it’s who you know.
Is the Glass is Half Full? Or Half Empty?
I saw The Pessimist’s Mug on Awesome today. Great stuff. Here’s the sales pitch:
In these irrationally exuberant times, it’s getting harder and harder for the self-respecting pessimist to stay unhappy. So pervasive is the hope, so overwhelming the positivity, that without the firmest grip on your sullen perspective, you might actually lose it. Then one day, you wake up looking at the bright side, whistling some inane showtune, and generally annoying everyone around you.
Fortunately, we’ve created a solution. Despair, Inc. is proud to introduce The Pessimist’s Mug‚Ñ¢ Specifically engineered by the chronically cynical pessimists of Despair Laboratories‚Ñ¢, this crystal-clear mug will help all who drink from it to Stay Grounded‚Ñ¢ by forever reminding them to see when the glass is half-empty.
Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s dump all those HR motivation programs. Or else let’s work on keeping the glass more than half full. That would be a start.
Incentives, the Dogbert Way
This Dilbert comic strip in today’s paper about Dogbert’s School of Management is a funny one. It just goes to show you, sometimes incentives just aren’t enough.
-
SUBSCRIBE
-
-
-
