Compensation Dreaming

In case you missed them, here are my most recent posts over at Compensation Cafe with teasers:

The Grass Isn't Greener:  Paying more for external talent doesn't pay off.  Find out why. "You found a great person, got them to sign and they’re starting tomorrow.  You sent them information about benefits enrollment and a nice welcome video from the CEO.  But how will you convey to them all the tribal knowledge of the company they will need to navigate the new role and succeed?"

Moneyball: Whenever Brad Pitt makes a new movie I try to write a compensation post about it.  Still working on Glorious Bastards. "The reason following the pack doesn't work is that ‘talent scouts’ in every industry tend to write off talented people based on personal preferences rather than actual skills or potential."

Part of the Team: Ever wondered how many companies actually consider the families of their employees when it comes to talent strategy and rewards? "If you pay decently and treat people fairly, families tend to have a stabilizing and retentive effect on employees.  But if your corporate culture is more of the crazy-hours-combined-with-eccentric-incentives variety, you might want to up your family values game a notch."

The Young and the Restless: Written in honor of the hot date I once went on with Michael Damien, this post explores the difficulty of retaining Generation Y. "A recent Mercer What’s Working survey found that although younger workers have a higher satisfaction rating than older workers, they are also more likely to leave their current jobs.  This may seem like a paradox but it isn’t."

Is Viral Pay Contagious:  This post takes a hard hitting look at the modern practice of letting employees vote on each others' rewards. "Who typically gets voted off the island, the least qualified person or the least likeable person?  I don’t want to generalize here but the last person standing tends to be a charismatic buffoon rather than a highly competent person with an offputting personality."