Included in every session will be one or more Skill Set exercises to help you engage with the Big Ideas presented. While this is optional, don’t cheat yourself and move through the Roadmap without applying the concepts you’re learning! Challenge yourself to complete every Skill Set activity and see what changes in your business as a result. We promise good things will happen.
What is your compensation model in your business? Do you have a clear path laid out for new employees that details promotions and pay increases? Studies show that clear career paths towards promotion and pay increases are a part of what makes employees want to stay at your company and become more invested over time. Check out this article and answer some of the following questions.
- Do you have a clear and carefully structured path for growth in your company?
- If not, what is stopping you from creating a plan at your company?
- If so, check to see if it meet the following criteria:
- Does it allow employees to progress quickly through beginning stages?
- Does it measure job skills and attitudes?
- Does it include pay increases?
- Does it clearly define positions and differentiate those positions so employees know when they have moved from one to the other?
These are important questions to ask yourself as an employer. The line from the HBR article cited above states the urgency of having clear paths in your company– “…workers who don’t see a clear progression from their current role to a better position in their company ultimately turn to opportunities elsewhere.”
Walls By Design has made it’s pay/promotion system available for purchase, but if you’re designing your own, here are some helpful tips to making it effective. Bring your leadership team together and go through these questions together.
Positions/Roles
Create a list of all positions in your company. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Are these the positions that will get us to the next stage of growth in the next 3 years?
- If not, how should this list change? What positions need to be created?
- Are all of the tasks of each position clearly described?
- Are all of the interactions between roles described (see session 13-14)
- Is the structure simple to understand?
Promotion
Determine how movement between the roles occur
- What competencies are being learned in each position to progress to the next?
- What competencies are being perfected in each position?
- What is the timeline for promotion between each position? Note: progression between positions should occur more rapidly near the beginning of employment, and should slow down as mastery is developed.
- Is there an end to promotion? If so, are there ways you can continue to grow your employees and reward them as they develop consistency and mastery?
- It might help to define roles that are hired distinctly from automatic promotion so employees can better understand what to expect. If employees are able to apply for open management positions, identify the levels of promotion you would consider to be eligible to submit an application. Eligibility for application to a management role is a benefit of promotion.
Pay
- Determine what pay rate belongs with which positions
- Will there be pay raises within a position, or only between positions?
- Will pay raises coincide with any newly learned skills?
- Will there be a bonus structure coinciding with production rates, leadership, or other behaviors?
- Consider special awards for customer satisfaction, reviews, profitability, team growth, idea submissions, and extra work.
