360 Degree Feedback: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Susan M. Heathfield writing in About.com Human Resources does a good job discussing the advantages and disadvantages of 360 degree feedback, as well as the questions that have to be addressed in implementing this type program:

• selecting the feedback tool and process,
• selecting the raters,
• using the feedback,
• reviewing the feedback, and
• managing and integrating the process into a larger performance management system.

Read more….

Updated Compensation Committee Charter

Michael S. Melbinger, from Winston & Strawn, recommends that companies update their Board Compensation Committee Charter based on the Dodd-Frank provisions on executive compensation and governance.  Some of the responsibility changes he would suggest are additions like:

• The adjustment or recovery of incentive awards or payments if the performance measures upon which such incentive awards or payments were based are restated or otherwise adjusted.
• The ability of any employee or board member to purchase financial instruments that are designed to hedge or offset any decrease in the market value of equity securities granted by the Company.
• The ability to review the company’s incentive compensation arrangements.
• The ability to select and obtain the advice of, and terminate, compensation consultants, legal counsel and other advisers.

Innovation Incentives

Susan Malinowski, from the Wilson Group, wrote an interesting paper summarizes the findings of a study of programs used to recognize and reward innovation by scientific and technical professionals.

Free Salary Data

If you’re looking to supplement salary survey data, or you’re having problems finding data on a particular job (or information about a particular company), try looking for free compensation data on this websit:  CareerBliss.

Compa-Ratio Analysis

In the BLR Compensation Daily Advisor, Steve Bruce shows that simple charts using
compa-ratios can help you pinpoint problems. 

Merit Budgets

In the latest C Notes newsletter from Stewart Daley, their feature article offers a pretty good list of things to do, consider, and communicate about merit increase budgets.  Here are some of the points they make:

• The merit budget represents planned growth in average salaries for the people you have on      board at one snapshot in time.
• A merit budget is different from the Finance department’s expected salary expense budget.  It is an estimate of the growth in your current average salary.
• Your organization’s financial strength will determine or modify your merit budget.
• You may be asked to carve out a portion of your budget for promotions and adjustments.
• Find out what other companies are doing are planning to do with merit budgets through the myriad of surveys on the topic.
• Show senior management how the merit budget you’re projecting will actually affect the      organization’s bottom line.