The State of Ohio has released its new Minimum Wage poster for 2020. Ohio employers are required to post this in a conspicuous place where the employees can see the poster easily. Visit Ohio.gov to print your copy and post as many as needed in your workplace. Watch for new updates on workforce strategy or contact us for other helpful...
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We’ve worked with a number of municipalities over the years, such as the cities of Cleveland Heights, Strongsville, and others, and we were pleased to help another one this summer with compensation benchmarking for its management positions. The City of Rossford Ohio is located in Northwest Ohio, along the Maumee River and is an ideal destination for discovery as you explore its quaint downtown, beautiful marina, its Crossroads Shopping mecca, and its historic surroundings. Originally contacted by a member of Council for assistance with this project, we worked closely with the City Administrator and Finance Director on this project. Ed Ciecka, Interim City Administrator and Karen Freeman, Finance Director, were our partners and said: We were interested in understanding how compensation for our management positions compared to the market. This information would be helpful to both the Mayor and the City Council in planning for the next year. Council members reached out to OA and we worked with them to provide information and review the analysis before presenting it at a Council meeting. The OA team provided us insight into how we compared to the market, and gave us good information on compensation best practices and trends. They shared meaningful information both in the context of public-sector employers and the broader market for labor. They used both survey data and information they acquired directly from other municipalities that we deem to be peers. This information is important as we plan our budgets for 2020, and provide us and Council with a useful perspective on fair and equitable pay for our management team. The information in their report was clear. Furthermore OA was available to answer questions in person and provided both the Finance Committee and our citizens with a clear explanation of their work and findings. We appreciate their assistance and recommend them. Public sector employers are one of our specialties. Whether you are a municipality, agency, or public library system, we can help with your HR programs, including compensation benchmarking and pay structures, recruiting, and temporary HR assistance. If you need assistance with your compensation programs or other HR consulting needs, contact us and check out other success stories to learn...
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For most organizations, the fourth quarter is when compensation planning for the following year occurs. To make sure that you stay on track paying your people fairly and competitively, here are some things you should think about when you when you are planning for next year’s compensation budget. What should the merit increase budget be? Setting your merit budget is usually the first step. A number of consulting organizations conduct surveys through the year and publish results in the autumn to help with compensation planning. Using this information an organization can determine what its overall increase target should be. Most organizations use a system that rewards higher performers with a higher merit increase amount, while giving little or no increase to poor performers. Do your pay ranges need to be adjusted? If you rely on pay ranges to ensure internal equity and for ease of administration, you need to make sure they still have a relationship to the market. If it has been more than three years, you may want to check how your ranges compare to the market and if adjustments are needed. Are your incentives like commissions and bonuses driving the behaviors and outcomes you desire? If you pay bonuses or commission, how do you know you are getting the outcomes you want? Are they true motivators? Is the amount of incentive pay appropriate for the job performed? There are many things to consider when paying incentives. Spending some time analyzing what people are doing and what kinds of results they get is a good place to start when analyzing your incentive compensation plans. Are you rewarding top performers well? While studies have shown that there are so many other factors that determine how engaged employees are and whether they stay other than money, we do know that for top performers this is a key driver for them. Make sure that top performers are receiving better than average rewards, and that you demonstrate in a tangible way that you value their contributions. Who will ensure that increases and bonuses are being allocated fairly? When it comes to compensation planning and administration, we feel that the best programs grow from a collaboration that includes operations, finance, and human...
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Recently we had the opportunity to perform an executive compensation study for an organization that provides learning opportunities for physicians and health care professionals in all areas of clinical care and research. They provide diverse educational activities that aim to increase knowledge, attitude and skills, enhance practice performance and improve the health status of patients and the communities they serve. This organization is affiliated with several hospitals in the eastern part of Ohio. Because of the sensitive nature of this analysis, they wished to remain anonymous. This organization was recently set up as a separate entity and needed to develop a framework for compensating its staff, specifically the President. They contacted OA earlier this year to provide insight into senior level not-for-profit compensation, and provide guidelines for appropriate compensation levels. They told us: We found OA and realized quickly they had the tools and experience to help us. There are few organizations exactly like us so it is difficult to find comparable benchmarks. Additionally, we wanted to understand fully the elements that can make up a total rewards package in order to develop the most meaningful compensation system. OA not only provided benchmark compensation data using valid and reliable survey data, they analyzed elements of our current programs, reviewed public disclosures, and shared compensation best practices and trends to provide us with a thorough analysis and recommendations that we can take to our board. They worked with us throughout the process to keep us informed of their progress and findings. We got the information we needed to inform our board, and we also have a framework for compensation decision-making going forward. Helping not-for-profit organizations with their compensation programs if one of our specialties. If you need help with compensation or have other HR consulting needs, contact us and check out other success stories to learn...
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This month’s success story highlights our work with Scheeser Buckley Mayfield. Scheeser Buckley Mayfield [SBM] is a well-respected regional engineering firm serving clients in Ohio and surrounding states. SBM designs mechanical, electrical, site civil, and technology systems for buildings. SBM’s innovative solutions are operating in numerous health care, education, and government facilities Since 1959, SBM has provided exceptional engineering that is responsive to clients’ needs by working together. Their goal is to enhance people’s lives through effective engineering. We were contacted by the principals of SBM to help them with some challenging recruitment and retention needs. Organizational Architecture provided competitive data analyses and recommendations to assist the firm in setting and achieving their growth goals. Chris Schoonover PE is one of the principals and our partner on the project. He said: We work in a competitive industry and decided to engage with Organization Architecture for assistance with assessing our recruiting strategies for technical positions and developing new approaches for retaining and motivating our staff. The project team of Mark Fiala and Ryan Sheehan were quick to get started. We met with the leadership team to understand their challenges and goals. Our experience with engineering and design firms allowed us to get up to speed on understanding the landscape of their industry and provide meaningful insights and analysis into the processes already in place. We conducted a thorough analysis of the A/E industry, recruiting approaches, and retention activities. Using that analysis, we were able to provide meaningful recommendations to improve SBM’s position in the labor market and enhance their position as an employer of choice. Furthermore, We provided recommendations that were easy to understand and more importantly, able to be executed within the existing staff structure. Chris added, Throughout the project Mark and Ryan spent time with us reviewing data, asking questions, and making sure they were providing the analysis we needed to make decisions about our programs, even as the firm continued to evolve. Additionally, they helped present findings to our leadership team in a way that was clear and meaningful. We were very pleased with their work and hope to collaborate as we continue to refine our recruiting and retention programs Do you need assistance with a strategy for effective...
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Our clients contact us asking for guidance when they wish to implement leadership development programs. There are usually two needs they have identified: Helping senior management become more effective at leading the organization and becoming more strategic, and Helping front line supervisors become more adept at managing their teams and learning basic management skills to become more effective. Regardless of what the need is, we want to learn some information from the client to help guide them to select the best topics and also ensure there is a system in place to reinforce the learning and integrate it into the culture. Some of the things we ask the client are: What are your goals? More concretely, what do you envision the results to look like? You should have some idea of what you want to achieve. We recommend you take the time to write your goals down and what they will look like. How do you know what training gaps there are? How have they manifested themselves in how people manage or lead? What has the effect been on employees? Identifying the difference between long-standing issues and recent critical events will ensure you are addressing root causes and not merely symptoms. How open is the team to learning? Are they willing to change their approach, even if it is difficult? Work may be needed to ensure people are primed to learn. Do the actions of the leadership team model the behaviors you want to see in the supervisors? Do they walk the walk? Without alignment between what leadership says and how they behave the program will fail. What systems are in place to hold people accountable and make changes? Is there a robust performance management and coaching system in place? Training is used to set expectations. There has to be a system in place to measure and communicate results. Training and development programs can be expensive to implement. Determining your goals and defining the outcomes before you embark on working with a partner or sending people to training is critical to ensure you get the best return on investment. Making sure the means to measure behavior change is also needed to determine success or failure. Also remember that training...
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