Working hard: If you grew up believing that if you worked hard your job tenure would be safe for a lifetime, you may want to revisit that philosophy: Being diligent may not be enough.
“Workers in all pay ranges and ages will bear the brunt of cuts if their capacity to fulfill their jobs has not kept pace with market conditions,” said Bob Megargel of Bellevue, Wash., owner with his wife, Val, of a Merry Maids home cleaning franchise and a Home Instead Senior Care franchise.
The businesses employ 100 people.
Megargel, who has a bachelor of science degree in business administration and additional certification, says that “many employees I’ve worked with throughout the years never thought it necessary to continue their education after high school or college. They fail to realize that to prosper in a rapidly changing business environment they have to learn the skills necessary to adapt.”
The business owner praises “doctors, accountants and attorneys who learn more about their professions and continually reinvent themselves.” And that, Megargel says, is what employees must also do.
“Companies need more than someone who `works hard,'” he said. “They need employees who can think, design and innovate.”
His conclusion: “Hard work alone isn’t good enough anymore!”
My conclusion: But it’s still a good start.
– The payoff: Variable pay is a monetary bonus based on your achievements that is given on a one-time basis and doesn’t increase your basic yearly salary. And when companies first started offering it, employees weren’t that enthusiastic: They wanted a raise, a higher annual salary.
But more recently, with pay increases that are low–and even those are hard to get–employees are enthusiastic about getting any extra money they can.
Yet, according to Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing firm based in Lincolnshire, “although 80 percent of 111 organizations surveyed nationwide offer broad-based variable pay . . . not all are reaping the full value of these programs.”
The firm reports that in fact “41 percent of companies with single-digit revenue growth said the cost of their variable pay programs outweighs the benefits.” Additionally, 25 percent of these firms said variable pay “did not improve business results, and 26 percent said they actually led to adverse results.”
But there was a positive aspect to the study: Companies that had double-digit revenue growth asserted that variable pay did result in “positive outcomes and did contribute to business results.”
Is variable pay in danger of disappearing? Probably not. Especially since, according to Paul Shafer, a senior consultant for Hewitt, employers “are spending more than $54 million a year on this type of pay.”
He points out: “In general, high-growth companies do a better job of developing goals and communicating what needs to be done to accomplish them.”
And that shouldn’t vary.
– The resume game: “Interviewers are so subjective and inconsistent in their responses to resumes that I have described their use as `resume roulette,'” says Jeffrey G. Allen, author of “How to Turn an Interview into a Job” (Fireside Book Original, $11).
That’s a good term to keep in mind as you await the turn of that capricious hiring wheel.
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Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Monday’s and Tuesday’s Business sections. Hear her on WBBM Newsradio 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and 11:20 a.m. Saturdays. Watch her “Career Coach” segments on CLTV. E-mail ckleiman@tribune.com.
