Form a Game Plan The kind of hat you wear can speak volumes about you, and set you apart from the crowd. A trendy fedora might mean you’re a Brooklyn hipster or a big Don Draper fan. Perhaps you don the type of pork pie hat that Justin Timberlake often rocks. A knit skullcap might keep you warm in the winter, or send another message if you wear it year-round. And even the brim of a baseball cap is polarizing: flat as a board or curved like an upside-down U.Sometimes however, wearing many hats in the workplace – figuratively, doing several different jobs – can make it a challenge to di... view article details

Don't Be Short-Sighted Life in 2013 moves fast. Some would say too fast. Our tweets are only 140 characters, social videos on Vine max out at 6 seconds, and we’d all like to get six-pack abs in just a few minutes. What surprises some job-seekers when they learn about salary negotiation, is that sometimes the entire conversation around your future compensation is wrapped up in just a few short minutes, but can have a lasting impact for years to come.If you’re not prepared, it can fly by in an instant. If you don’t have the right approach, you leave money on the table.Here are two cruci... view article details

Compensation SurveysPaying people fairly is good for business. Underpay, and employees will eventually look for a better offer. Overpay, and the payroll budget and profitability will suffer. That's why companies use market data to research the value of their jobs. But what is 'market data' anyway?To determine the prevailing rate for a job, companies can 'benchmark' jobs against compensation surveys that are detailed and specific to the companies' industries and regions. A good compensation survey uses standard, proven methods of data gathering and statistical analysis to determine how much com... view article details

Educate Employees as to How Performance Reviews Affect Their Pay It's Performance Review Season. Is Your Process Working? Insight from Employees on Performance Reviews and Seven Tips for Everyone to Get More from the Process EMPLOYER MYTH #1:  Your employees "Get It." FACT:  Many employees don't understand how the performance review impacts their compensation. Generally speaking, the majority of employees don't have a clear understanding of how their employer links pay to performance. For managers who have been trained in the organization's performance management program and merit budg... view article details

It’s 8 A.M. on a Tuesday morning and adrenaline is coursing through your veins as you “sing” along with SZA to the chorus of the Grammy-nominated “All the Stars” in the bathroom mirror: “This may be the night that my dreams might let me know, all the stars are closer, all the stars are closer, all the stars closer…” No, you’re not working on your new LP with Kendrick Lamar, and you 're not the new Aaron Burr understudy in “Hamilton.” You’re getting ready for a job interview. You’ve probably read interview guides written by folks who expect you to go through all the robotic motions – “show up... view article details

5 things you need to know about employment background checks Nowadays, Human Resource departments are facing a series of risks caused by carelessness. This is simply because some candidates are not reliable enough to take a position within the hiring organization. With senior management often spread thin, promoting the company's interests can become less evident. This can run the risk of people leaving the company to form their own, similar company – providing them higher salary and personal gain. So employment background check is an important step before salary negotiation.... view article details

It Starts with the CEO Chief executive officers (CEOs) get paid lots of money for being the top employees in the company. Why do they get paid so much? Like athletes and actors, CEOs provide a level of talent that is required to produce the desired product - in this case, a strongly performing company. The skills and responsibilities that come with the job of CEO are extreme and the number of people who can fill these roles is limited. That is why the market has determined that people with these skills are worth a lot of money to their companies. Only about 20 percent of a CEO's pay is base... view article details

Chief executive officers (CEOs) get paid lots of money for being the top employees in the company. Why do they get paid so much? Like athletes and actors, CEOs provide a level of talent that is required to produce the desired product - in this case, a strongly performing company. The skills and responsibilities that come with the job of CEO are extreme and the number of people who can fill these roles is limited. That is why the market has determined that people with these skills are worth a lot of money to their companies. Only about 20 percent of a CEO's pay is base salary; the rest is made... view article details

Don't Make Virtual Meetings a Bore You have to hold a meeting, but everyone who should participate is somewhere else. What should you do?Hold the meeting virtually.More than 20 million virtual meetings are held every year. Some 85 percent of projects now include remote team members and that percentage keeps rising. If you plan it right, a virtual meeting will let you accomplish everything you could with an in-person meeting. Here's a guide for doing that.7. Set a Goal As with any other kind of meeting, be clear on what you want to accomplish. Do you want to convey information... view article details

If you take a job in a small, publicly held company, should you expect to earn less than at a large, public company? The surprising answer is no. Compensation survey data shows that a person working in a company with, say, $50 million in annual revenue should be making the same amount as a person doing the same job in a company with $500 million in revenues. 'The overall job market, not the size of the company, determines the value of the job,' said Erisa Ojimba, compensation consultant at Salary.com.Executives' pay may be the exception, she said, because of the mix of executives' pay in small... view article details