Employee Salaries Are Going Up: Can Your Company Compete? |  |
- Employee Salaries Are Going Up: Can Your Company Compete?
- Have A Checking Account With A Big Bank: Buyer Beware
- 5 Easy Ways to Increase YOU on Your Web site
- High Hopes Carry Small Business
| Employee Salaries Are Going Up: Can Your Company Compete? Posted: 14 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT The PayScale 2012 Compensation Best Practices report polled thousands of HR and business leaders in small, midsized and large companies about the work force and compensation trends they saw last year and how those trends will affect pay going forward in 2012. The annual survey of businesses' compensation plans has some good news for employees—but for employers, the numbers might be cause more for worry than for celebration. Here's what Payscale found.
Raises made a comeback in 2011:
Pay-for-performance is hot:
Hiring is on the upswing:
Retention is still the number one work force issue:
Why would employees leave a job? While just a few years ago, employers usually held the reins in deciding when employees left a job, the reasons have changed. In 2009, the number one reason employees left a job was poor performance. But in 2011, the number one reason for leaving a job was to seek higher pay elsewhere. What's the outlook for 2012? Employers are feeling good about the coming year – and that's translating into more money for employees as well. Two thirds of employers believe their companies' financial performance will improve in 2012, and a whopping 93 percent plan to adjust employee compensation accordingly. In fact, 41 percent plan to give pay raises to more than half their employees. And 50 percent plan to use performance-based pay to reward and retain their top employees. If you're in one of the three industries with the biggest plans to hire, you might be wise to be worried. Eighty percent of business support services companies, 78 percent of information, media and telecommunications companies, and 77 percent of retailers expect to hire this year. So here's the big question: Will your business be able to keep pace with companies that are raising pay? What steps can you take to keep employees happy? The reality is, especially if you're in one of the three industries cited above, it's going to be harder to keep your team in place with what I call the "3 P's:" praise, perks and the personal touch of a small workplace. This might be the year you do need to figure out some way to reward employees with hard dollars. Hopefully, your company is one of the majority predicting better sales in 2012. If so, it makes sense to share the wealth. And a less risky way to reward employees rather than raising salary or base pay can be to tie compensation to performance. That way, employees benefit if the company does – but if they don't perform, and your profits don't live up to expectations, you're not stuck footing the bill. How will you reward employees in 2012?
From Small Business Trends |
| Have A Checking Account With A Big Bank: Buyer Beware Posted: 14 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT Unbeknownst to you, and for almost a decade in some cases, the banks have been playing a little game behind the scenes. It just so happens that the game that’s being played is with your money.
It was August, 2010 when the stuff kinda hit the fan as they say. That’s when Wells Fargo had to shell out $203 million after losing a lawsuit over their deceptive overdraft fee policies. It’s a little known trick called reordering or high-to-low resequencing. It basically means that a bank will settle out each day by ordering each of the transactions in a descending order from largest transaction to smallest. It may not be a big deal, but what if you became overdrawn on your account? You were out and about on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and bought lunch, grabbed some snacks, picked up a new shirt for work, saw a great deal on some shoes, and then capped it all off with a cappuccino/latte/espresso (as expressed by a non-coffee drinker who prefers his caffeine in the form of multiple diet cokes). But that was all in preparation for buying that new 50 inch plasma TV that’s on sale at Best Buy. You know payday is on Monday and your account is a little tight, but even if the purchase at Best Buy puts you a couple hundred bucks in the red you figure the overdraft charge is only $35 plus you get paid on Monday…heck, it’s the weekend and maybe you won’t even get hit with the $35 fee. Well, think again. Try $35 x 6 for a total of $210 in fees! It’s because the bank calculated the largest transaction (the plasma TV) first and then all those other transactions – even though they happened sooner – after the large transaction so by their calculations every transaction that day was subject to a $35 overdraft fee. The Wells Fargo decision by Judge William Alsup got additional attention simply because of how outspoken Alsup was. He called the Wells Fargo practices “gouging and profiteering.” He didn’t stop there and went on to say:
Then we’ve seen other banks settle class-action lawsuits like Bank of America who settled in Nov. 2011 for $410 million on this overdraft issue and Chase in Feb. 2012 for $110 million. Eileen Smith covered the topic well in a recent article about TD Bank’s charges. In fact, here’s a list of banks currently involved in lawsuits over excessive overdraft fees. There’s a decent chance your bank is on the list. Of course, the penalties are basically a slap on the wrist when you consider the profits that have been made on overdraft fees. It’s estimated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that banks made between $15 billion and $22 billion in 2011 from overdraft fees. That’s down from much higher estimates in previous years. According to American Banker, Chase made $500 million a year in post-tax income from high-to-low resequencing. How would you feel if your financial planner or accountant treated you and your money like this? You would leave him/her in a heartbeat and never let someone like that manage your money again…and why is this behavior from a bank somehow acceptable? So where are we now with all of this? It’s a good question. There are obviously many class-action lawsuits in the works and the practice of reordering debits or high-to-low resequencing has been illegal since July, 2011. The CFPB announced in late Feb that they are investigating banks’ deceptive overdraft practices. I’m sure the banks will find other ways to generate that precious fee income and they’ve obviously been exploring with ideas already as we’ve all been hearing about. It may be time to join the growing army of small businesses who are leaving the big banks for smaller banks and credit unions.
From Small Business Trends |
| 5 Easy Ways to Increase YOU on Your Web site Posted: 14 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Your customers are obsessed with social media. They've discovered that it's through social media that they can get to know more about your brand. They're able to peek behind the curtain and see what you believe in, what your team looks like, and if you're passionate about the same types of things they are. And believe it or not, it matters. We want to do business with companies we believe in, who believe like we do. But no one knows what you believe in until you take the time to show them. How can you increase the "you" on your Web site to bring people in? Below are six easy wins.
1. Talk About How You Do Business Sure, you need to talk about what you do and how customers can benefit from it. But spend more time talking about how you do business and why you do it that way. That's what's going to set you apart from your competition. Because oftentimes you're not competing on price. You're competing on your level of service, on your trustworthiness, on your values, on your culture, on what you believe in, and the story you're telling. This is what you need to show off to help you put more "you" in your business. This is the information people want to hear. 2. Focus On Your About Page I know. I've written about your About Page a couple of times here at SmallBizTrends. Your About Page has the distinct honor of being both one of the most important pages on your Web site and one of the most ignored. Instead of using this area as a place to tell the story of our brand, we use it as our personal Wikipedia page. Unfortunately, not too many customers are interested in the unabridged version of your life. Instead, use your About Page for more interesting purposes:
Use the page to show your personality, your company culture, and what you believe in. That's what a user is looking for when they visit your page. Not your biography. 3. Show Off Your Assets See this woman?
She doesn't work for your company. She doesn't work for anyone's company. So stop using generic images to show off your staff, your building, and your customers. Instead, show off real people and places. The benefit of this is two-fold. First, you give yourself more interesting images to work with. Your customers are bound to be more colorful than the faces of people you can buy on the Internet – let them shine. Maybe even leave a cheap camera lying around and encourage customers to take their own photos. Get images for your site and create a photo wall in your store. Two birds with one stone and you get to make customers feel more invested and more part of your business. The second thing this is going to do is attract prospective customers. When we're looking for information, we don't want to see stock images. We want to see what your business really looks like. This helps us find it when we're lost, but it also gives us a sense of what it's going to feel like when we walk through your doors. Having this information up front puts any customer at ease. 4. Adopt Video Create a video that shows off your business, your employees and what company culture is like. Once you have it, put it on your Web site and encourage your customers to share. Facebook it. Tweet it. Stumble it. Include it in company newsletters. Do your best to get it out there and to let people see what everything looks like behind the scenes. Video creates a more intimate experience between you and your customer. They're able to see you and to hear you and make note of your mannerisms. Break down that wall with them. 5. Show Social Conversations Working hard to build your Twitter following and engage with customers? Awesome! So don't hide it! Put your feed directly on your home page and let people see and hear these conversations in real time. Use Facebook plugins to show off the size and depth of your community. Embed company YouTube videos on your Web site. Link off to your favorite Pinterest boards even if they're not related to what you do every day on your Web site. Show your social conversations and add your voice to your Web site in new and dynamic ways. Your home page copy can only do so much. Giving a user the opportunity to see you having a conversation with real customers does a heck of a lot more. If social media has led us on to anything it's that our customers want more of us on your Web site. They want to see you and hear from you. By adopting some of the tactics above you'll highlight the "you" in your brand. From Small Business Trends |
| High Hopes Carry Small Business Posted: 14 Mar 2012 02:30 AM PDT There’s a positive, energetic mood in the small business community today. We hope you’ve felt it. Here are some links showing how that mood is being expressed, with some tips along the way. We hope they’ll help brighten your small business too. Where We’re HeadedSmall business optimism hits four year high. Sure there are challenges still looming, but small business owners are hopeful for the future, as this report clearly shows. How are you feeling about your small business? What gives you hope to carry on? WSJ Everybody makes mistakes. It’s not surprising that this happens even in business. But what’s important, says one source, is that businesses move quickly to correct those mistakes and to keep striving to be better. So, run your business, warts and all. Small Business Trends Tips for TransformationUsing humor in branding can set you apart. Don’t be afraid to show a sense of humor in your business, even when marketing to your customers. Here’s a look at how tickling the funny bone can pay off big. Noobpreneur Tips for keeping your business blog healthy. One popular business blogger describes her routine and techniques for keeping her Website running smoothly. If you have a business blog as part of your small business operation, we suggest you have a look at this routine to see where it will work for you. Basic Blog Tips Advice for EntrepreneursThe problem with online advertising revenue. One startup adviser keeps it real with a look at the realities of advertising revenue in the early days of an online startup. This may not be the revenue stream for you to count on. Startup Professionals Musings Becoming an expert in your field. Becoming an expert in your market can be an important part of building your niche business, but remember that establishing expertise takes time and effort. Here are some steps you will need to consider on your path. Naaree.com Investing Where It CountsDoes your business have personality? Don’t be afraid to let it shine through! That personality may be a key in distinguishing your company from all others. Who are you? Who is your business? What makes you special? E-Marketing Squash customer complaints…with understanding. You’ve probably heard the expression about not judging someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Try this approach with customer service and you will be amazed by the results. Inc.com Better Business ChoicesDon’t let your sales efforts fall short. Failing at sales in your business may not be about luck, having the right product, or targeting the right audience alone. Here are some tips on making the sales your business needs. Bloggertone The danger of shortsightedness in your business. Choosing the short term fix over long term goals that may be harder to implement and take longer to produce results can be a problem in any business. Where are your strategies headed? Respectfully Disobedient From Small Business Trends |
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