The dreaded topic – PAY

Business owners, senior managers and whoever wants to run successful businesses…pay your hard-working, fantastic people well!

How much? I will tell you. Now we can just Google anything. Type in a job title on your computer and add the place of your work and shazam! You got the information! Also, there is the “imposed” national minimum wage. So nothing is difficult about just following what the minimum wage thrust upon us. Like it states – minimum not maximum. So everyone just gives the minimum. Very convenient isn’t it? But the big question is…is the minimum wage or what Google search comes up with shows the real representation of your hard work? Pay is defined as: money due for work done. Is the minimum wage really the going on rate for your hard work? For supervisors, assistant managers and managers, does the Google search engine really gives justice to your commitment to the job? Your unquestionable honesty and dedication? How about those extra hours you put in just to make sure your team is ok and business is doing well? But how about those missed out family gatherings and celebrations due to the “unavoidable work”?

The funny and sad thing is, I have witnessed many cases when one great manager is paid less than a crap manager for the same or similar job. How is this possible when we stated that there is a search engine, a sort of market value marker to follow that helps us level all salary and wages to fair and equal status? You would think that is the case isn’t?  Like everyone will get same salary for the same job. No, we are wrong. It seems you can make your employer raise or decrease your salary rate depending on how good you are in haggling/negotiating. Or how desperate the company or business is to fill that key position. So this means, with all that information out there that says this is the salary for that kind of job in that kind of place is just full of nonsense.

The reality is, asking for the right salary for you is like playing poker. Even if you are rubbish manager/team member but knows how to “read the desperate cards” of your employer, you can still win big time compared to the hard-working, dedicated and honest manager/team member who does not “play poker” at all. Why can’t it be just simple? Pay the good people good salary and the great people great salary. Of course these people need to prove their worth. A year or two will do it. You would know already if its worth to invest good money to that one who makes your business work well and gives you the profit you desire. Dont wait for these people to beg for a raise. If you wait too long you might lose them and you will end up with the burden of training cost again and again and still get those rubbish ones.

But how do we weed out the bad from the good? From my experience, I would check how long this candidate stays in his/her present or past jobs. Anyone who stays longer than 3 years in a job for me is worth offering more than the base entry-level salary. Why? Because these people show stamina, dedication, stability, dependability, sense of loyalty, ability to commit to progress, or withstand changes/challenges of the times. These are the people we need even they don’t know how to play “poker”.

To sum it all up and answer the question, how much do we pay great people? My answer is in the form of a question…how much does your business means to you?

Remember, great people makes great businesses.