Fred Whittlesey Compensation Venture Group, SPC An oversize postcard in my mailbox today – yes, a real physical heavy stock paper postcard – is touting the value of the 44th annual salary budget survey from a compensation professional association. The pitch says that this survey “will provide the knowledge you need.” If I told you that the message on the … Read More
Restructuring Executive Incentive Metrics for Sustainability
The growing global movement of corporate social responsibility, sustainability, conscious capitalism and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria is on a collision course with the executive compensation world’s focus on shareholders and adherence to proxy advisers’ checklists. Executive compensation performance measures must evolve quickly, but what’s lacking is a cohesive and comprehensive framework for defining metrics that are consistent with … Read More
Compensation Venture Group, SPC Earns the Green Business Certification
Compensation Venture Group is a Washington Social Purpose Corporation, a Certified B Corporation, and now a Certified Green Business Read Green America’s blog here
The Real Risk of Working at a Startup
When we think of working at a startup, we might imagine a lower base salary, no annual bonus, sparse benefits, and lots of equity – usually stock options. Most realize that equity is a highly risky form of compensation and few startups ever make it to the IPO, another small number get acquired (at a much lower multiple than … Read More
Compensation Integrity: What the Heck is Going On?
Fred Whittlesey Compensation Venture Group, SPC An update on this continuing theme. Disney will pay $38 million in back wages after feds allege wage and hour violations Wouldn’t it be better to have competent compensation professionals who have the “spine” to stand up to senior management and ensure compliance? It shouldn’t take a judge to know the right thing to do. Conscious … Read More
How much is turnover costing your company?
Fred Whittlesey Compensation Venture Group, SPC Since the 1980s there has been an empirically validated methodology for calculating employee turnover cost. The concept of human resource accounting, created by Eric Flamholtz, Professor at UCLA Anderson business school, includes detailed approaches for determining these costs. I had the honor, as an MBA student, of working with Dr. Flamholtz on … Read More
Microsoft battles decision on “joint employer” status
Back in March 2015 I blogged about Microsoft’s new policy of requiring its US suppliers to provide their employees with 15 days of paid time off. I took issue with this approach to changing compensation practices in the name of “corporate social responsibility” as I don’t agree that a company should be telling its suppliers how to compensate their employees. … Read More
Conscious Compensation® Principles: Not transaction-dependent or exit dependent
One of the sources of extremely high pay to CEOs and other executives has been the compensation resulting from a “change in control” – when the company is acquired by another company, and several layers of cash and equity compensation are paid out at the time of the transaction. These payments may result merely from the transaction occurring (a … Read More
Conscious Compensation® Principles: Equitable, But Not Always Equal
This week, the White House posted “These Businesses Are Taking The Equal Pay Pledge” listing 28 companies that have done so. The blog post opens with, and some companies repeat, the misleading datapoint that “the typical woman working full-time all year in the United States earned only 79 percent of what the typical man earned working full-time all year.” One company, Glassdoor, … Read More
