Although inflation has been on a gradual decline, it has significantly increased in recent years and some of your employees may be struggling to keep up with their day-to-day expenses. It is essential to the success of any organization to keep employee pay competitive with the current cost of living.  

Staying up to date with competitive pay rates and the latest salary trends is key to attracting top talent and retaining valuable current employees.   

Location-based pay is common across today’s labor market. Since geographic location matters, it’s important to be aware of the local cost of living for each city in which you operate. For example, a general manager or software engineer in New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area will need to earn a different amount than professionals in the same positions in smaller cities with a lower cost of living.  

Use online resources to access specific market rate data: This cost of living calculator provides comparisons of salary ranges across different cities and states, and this salary calculator provides salary data for specific roles in a wide range of industries.  

There are many solutions and incentives you can implement to make sure your organization’s salaries, hourly wages, and total compensation strategy remain competitive. This article explores some of those ideas and methods.   

4 proven solutions to raise the value of employment with your organization

1. Increase pay, when applicable  

A good first step is to outline your company’s cost of labor to hire, train, lose, and then retrain new hires. Preparing these metrics is proactive, providing a financially smart reality check. It allows you to see what it looks like on your P&L if a good employee leaves for a competitor – and compare it to offering a higher salary that keeps that good employee on board.  

Excellent employees, including critical team members who earn pay differentials, drive high-level productivity and sales and efficiently flow revenue to the bottom line. They bring much more to a business than their less-experienced counterparts, and their achievements are felt when they leave. And it’s no secret that turnover and retraining are costly.  

If an overall pay increase or cost of living adjustment is not feasible, which is often the case with smaller organizations, performance bonuses can be a cost-effective way of challenging your best performers to deliver even more, while engaging them and increasing retention rates. This is a win-win solution! And especially for sales or commission-based roles, make sure your top performers have the potential to earn incentives that are commensurate with their productivity.

2. Offer work-from-home options 

If it’s doable, offering a hybrid or remote work model is a simple way for your organization to pay a little less while attracting the talent you need and retaining current employees. Many of today’s best job candidates view remote work as a trade off to a higher salary, as they don’t have to spend time commuting to and from work each day, they save money on gas and vehicle maintenance costs, and they achieve their desired work-life balance. Everybody wins here, too.  

If fully remote work isn’t an option, find ways to be more flexible with scheduling. For example, allow top performers and tenured employees to conduct regular or repetitive tasks from home at a designated time of the week, such as ordering, scheduling, and other recurring functions that are just as easily and effectively performed remotely. You could also allow your valued team leaders, managers, and project managers to conduct monthly meetings virtually instead of requiring onsite, in-person attendance.

3. Introduce unique benefits  

Offering childcare allowances, travel vouchers, unlimited paid time off (PTO), free meals, and other incentives beyond base salary can really show that you’re invested in employee satisfaction and well-being. Consider providing PTO bonuses in creative ways, such as giving employees an extra day off each year, or offering additional PTO based on their number of years with your organization. These perks can mean a lot to core team members without having to rewrite the company handbook from scratch.   

Many employers encourage and subsidize the cost of continuing education (CE) and certifications for their people. Even if these professional assets aren’t required by your organization or industry, doing this augments employee compensation, increases the value of employment with your company through professional development, and pays off business-wise by strengthening employee knowledge and expertise.

4. Collect salary feedback from your team  

Be transparent with your team, keep a pulse on what they’re looking to earn, and gauge whether they’re feeling good about the amount they earn. Pay transparency laws in many states require clarity around fair compensation practices, including employees’ ability to openly discuss compensation amongst themselves, which is a right that’s protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).   

Just because you’ve always done things a certain way doesn’t mean you’re still competitive as an employer in your market. Your leadership or human resources team should periodically perform a local market and industry compensation analysis to ensure you remain competitive and able to attract and retain talent. You can do this through the use of online tools and resources or review your compensation structure with a reliable and trusted third party.  

Stay on top of it all with a leading talent recruiter  

If you’re looking for current, transparent insights into your salary ranges and overall pay structure, your best resource is a trusted talent recruiting firm – one that works nationally across multiple industries. The experts at Goodwin Recruiting can provide informed, candid feedback on how your offerings compare with other companies in your industry and local market. And when the need arises, we can also help you find the best talent for your team.  

Reach out today and let’s get to know each other.