How to Determine Compensation (Subjectively)

If you have staff (or plan to have staff one day) one of the many things you must decide is what you will pay them. There are both objective and subjective factors that will go into determining this. In my previous post (click here to read) I covered the objective factors I use to help me determine salary ranges for my staff. In this post I will cover some of the subjective factors that help me determine where exactly my staff will land within their salary range. The subjective factors are…well…subjective. That is, they will change from employer to employer. It all depends on what’s important to you and what you’d like to see from your staff (in regards to their performance). Here are the factors I take into account when determining whether or not I will place someone at the low end of their salary range, the high end of their salary range, or somewhere in between. I will place them high or low depending on how I feel they have performed in the following areas:

1. Did they raise up volunteers and effectively delegate?
2. Did they develop professionally and apply that new knowledge to their department?
3. Did they take their department to the next level this year, or is it at the same level as last year?
4. Did they produce an adequate quantity of work?
5. Did excellence mark their work?
6. Did they go above and beyond?
7. Did they show initiative?
8. Did they bring solutions, not problems?
9. Were they punctual to meetings?
10. Were they eager to help when I asked for it?

In addition to tracking how my staff are doing in relation to the ten questions above, I’m also continually evaluating how well my team is doing at living out these core values. At New Day we’ve made our staff core values into wall decorations, so they are hanging around the office. Here’s three examples, though there are more:

1. Excellence is in the details.
2. Bring solutions, not problems.
3. Five minutes early. Right on time.

The objective criteria gives me a salary range to work with. The subjective criteria helps me pin point where their salary is within the salary range.