Setting Pay Priorities Becoming More Critical for All Businesses

Irvine, CA, April 17, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Many businesses struggle with prioritizing their pay strategies, according to Ken Gibson, senior vice president of The VisionLink Advisory Group, a compensation consulting firm headquartered in Irvine, CA. Because compensation represents such a large deployment of a company’s capital, it is critical that companies learn to meet this challenge effectively, the firm leader said.

“In the economic environment of recent years, companies have become somewhat hypersensitive to how their capital is being allocated,” Gibson explained, “and what kind of return they are getting on that deployment. As a result, organizations are paying close attention to which compensation programs are being implemented and what kind of results are being generated.”

Given the importance of this topic to so many businesses, VisionLink will be broadcasting a free webinar on April 23, 2013 entitled, “The Most Important Compensation Program a Company Can Have.” (More information and registration for this event can be accessed at: http://www.vladvisors.com/business-growth-strategies/event-details.aspx?ID=112.)

According to Gibson, some business leaders can become paralyzed when trying to determine how to best approach compensation planning. As a result, poorly conceived plans end up remaining in place essentially because of inertia on the part of company leaders.

“Determining what’s most important ‘right now' can be difficult in any context," the compensation consultant offered. “The issue can take on an additional layer of complexity when trying to address which compensation program should get most of your attention at a given point in time Should you perform some kind of salary study to see if you are competitive with the market? Is it time to revise the annual bonus plan? How are you going to address the promises made to key people that they will participate in some kind of long-term value-sharing arrangement? And so on. The list of issues can be endless–and every item on that list is important.”

The VisionLink leader went on to point out that there is no silver bullet solution for setting compensation priorities. However, there are some logical questions that companies should be answering that will help them effectively sort through the issues. “We’ll be talking about those questions in our webinar,” Gibson said. “Those questions and their answers will help frame what is likely most critical ‘right now’ for a company as well as what should be on the docket for the future.”

The VisionLink principal went on to point out that sorting through these priorities is an important skill for any company that wishes to develop a value proposition that is a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining premier talent.

“The bottom line is compensation usually represents the largest budget item on a company’s financial statement,” Gibson concluded. “As a result, it’s a significant capital deployment that needs to be allocated properly—and in the right order or sequence—much as you would an investment portfolio.” Because so much is at stake, many companies seek professional help in addressing this issue.