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Foundations of a Compensation Strategy

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Foundations of a Compensation Strategy
Dana Williams
BUS434: Compensation & Benefits Management
Instructor Gwendolyn McCants-Allen
July 7, 2014

An effective compensation strategy is made up of many different components and will directly support the organizations business strategy. As stated by Steve Elliott, the compensations strategy is “externally competitive, legally compliant, compatible with the culture and appropriate for the workforce” and above all it is perceived as fair (Miller, 2014, p. 1). When a company is creating a compensation strategy there are four components that should be reviewed in order for the company to be competitive in the global economy. The four components are; as stated by Henderson, (2006), “1) the work that must be performed by some work unit or individual, 2) the kinds and levels of knowledge and skill required, 3) the quality of people needed to promote organizational success, and 4) the rewards the organization can offer to its members that promote a work culture that ensures accomplishment of organizational strategy” (p. 5). In order for the compensation strategy to be effective, the process needs to create a clear link between the job description, performance evaluation, internal salary comparison and the external salary survey. A good starting point in creating a compensation strategy is to create a job description for each position within the company. A job description can be defined as a written statement that completely and accurately describes the job activities the employee will perform. The information that is used to write a job description comes from the job analysis, which is a more detailed statement that describes the process of performing a particular job function, from start to finish. The job description will allow the employee to view the required tasks involved, and the knowledge and

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