The tech sector is easily one of the most competitive sectors in terms of acquiring and retaining top talent. High-quality tech workers are hard to find, so companies cannot afford to lose those they have and fail to find those they need. A big part of competing for top talent is compensation planning.
A company’s compensation strategy can make the difference between success and failure for a Tech Sector business. A well-designed plan that supports the particular goals and metrics of the organisation, can shape a company’s culture and balance, making it easier to recruit, hire and retain top talent. It will help to shape conversations while senior executives are out of the office, and it will open new possibilities for both internal and external service and process innovation.
Compensation is certainly not the only influence on employee behaviour, but it is a significant one nonetheless. Highly skilled staff, particularly in the tech sector, are not likely to stick with a company where they do not feel valued. If they do not feel their compensation is commensurate with the contributions they make, feeling valued is out of the question. It therefore behoves the high value B2B company hoping for a sharp inflection in sustainable business growth to prioritise compensation planning.
Planning Makes a Difference
A company’s compensation plan is never neutral. It will make a difference to business success – good or bad – in the short, medium, and long term. A good plan can shape a company’s culture and balance, making it easier to recruit, hire and retain top talent. Ironically, a creative approach to compensation planning is something that otherwise accomplished tech sector leasers are sometimes reluctant to explore.
Partnerships and family-owned companies are especially vulnerable to bad compensation planning or the total lack thereof. Why? Because there can be a tendency within these companies to keep most of the wealth generated by the business within the family. This is a short-sighted mistake that often leads to negative long-term consequences. It is more effective for growth to ensure attractive market-driven rewards are in place for incentivising key areas of growth in appropriate ways.
Compensation Planning Not Just for Sales
Compensation planning for the sales department is alive and well in Britain’s tech sector companies. That’s a good thing. But incentives for success should not be the exclusive domain of sales. A smart and effective plan that is shaped appropriately for every department, every management team, and every low-level staff worker can make the difference to achieving an organisaton that works well and effectively towards meetings its goals.
Profitable services, products, client cycles, and business units need to be supported by well-developed compensation plans that are complementary to the specific goals of those entities. When each individual entity’s goals are supported, those entities support one another to contribute to the overall evolution of the company.
All of this is not to say that compensation is the most important determiner of success. Compensation may not even be the most important influence on staff behaviour. Yet without a compensation plan that reflects a company’s success strategy – which happens to include culture and staff behaviour – everything else becomes more difficult to manage. The other side of that coin reflects the fact that a good compensation plan that makes staff feel valued makes the rest of the business easier to manage.
If you have any questions or concerns about team performance or if you would like to review or develop new incentives for staff, we would be happy to talk with you in confidence. Please call David Orren at 07914-223 691, or send an email to david.orren@tvba.co.uk.