MGMT 549

I think most people would consider this quite the opportunity, but I would consider it a major dilemma. I suppose a lot comes down to age, pay, career development, and even relationship status. I would likely only consider this opportunity if it were a very short-term job with a contract of 6 months or less, depending on vacation benefits. I would likely be most intrigued by two aspects: pay and enhanced benefits. I would expect some sort of spot bonus, cost of living adjustment, and relocation. If it were a true contract role for less than 6 months, it is unlikely I would receive the typical international benefits from a full-time, such as education, childcare, etc. It depends on the country and culture, but I would likely be intrigued more so by the cultural benefits of moving abroad. It’s likely that the foreign vacation policy would not apply for such a short contract, but that would be an additional benefit to consider (since most countries have much longer vacation policies than the United States).

I mentioned pay and enhanced benefits being my top 2 priorities, but career advancement would be another to make my top 3. I would be interested in taking on an international move if it meant taking on some sort of advanced, leadership role. For example, my husband was offered a 6-month contract in Austrailia early on in his career with his previous company to lead the implementation of new software at the company’s Sydney office. It was an awesome, career-advancing opportunity that he wouldn’t have been able to take on with his role at the time in the United States. Essentially, I would consider taking the job if I would not have access to such responsibility in my current role, enhanced benefits, and significantly increased pay.

There are many factors that go into the decision-making process for discretionary benefits. For the sake of this blog post, I will assume I am in charge of making these decisions for a well-established company that has the means to offer competitive benefits. It is essential to consider that no matter what size of the company or how much they produce, benefits are costly. They are often factored into TC (total compensation) internally, but not usually externally when comparing competitive offers. I asked a few friends that were willing to share with me the value and cost of their benefits. The benefits were valued from $7K to up to even $40K. The companies also ranged from small, retail startups to large, tech giants.

If I were determining benefits, some factors I would consider are the employees’ needs, wants, demographics, and my company’s goals. Depending on my employees’ demographics, I would want to provide different benefits. How old are my employees? Do they have families? Do most of them live in a city needing public transportation? There are some bare minimum benefits, but the extra benefits are something that we should decide on based off the employees’ and their interests. Employees surveys could be a helpful tool to utilize to gather this data and best support employees.

The benefits can greatly impact employee behavior. For example, by offering generous PTO, employees can take time off from their job to relax and avoid burnout. Another example is offering tuition assistance of professional development credit. Employees can feel empowered to further their careers within the company if the company is encouraging and sponsoring their development.

Here is my unofficial list from most likely to eliminate to least likely:

Tuition reimbursement

Counseling

Employee assistance services

Transportation services

Family assistance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

Retirement programs

Paid off time (outside of what is legally required)

Swift, Michelle (2022) Week 7 Lecture 1 Discretionary Benefits

Sr. Enterprise Sales Account Manager – DMe | Adobe | LinkedIn

I sorted through job postings on LinkedIn for the Greater Portland, Oregon area and stumbled upon the Sr. Enterprise Sales Account Manager role at Adobe. I have heard good things about working at Adobe from colleagues, plus the job genuinely intrigued me and seemed to match up with my career path. I began to research Adobe on LinkedIn and Glassdoor. The job posting notes they would like a minimum of 5+ years of sales experience and a good track record of selling complex solutions. The rest of the qualifications are relatively standard for any job I would be applying for in the tech industry. I would expect to be offered a generous base salary and likely uncapped commission. With a senior employee working with enterprise (top spending) accounts, I would estimate the base salary starts at a minimum of $100K with the potential to earn at least another $100K in commission. Given the 5 years of sales experience, it leads me to believe the pay could be lower. Based off my research on LinkedIn and Glassdoor, it sounds like the pay would likely be much higher. A candidate would be looking at more like $150K based with $100K commission. I cannot find whether the commission is capped or not. If I interviewed for this job, I would likely ask for at least $170K base, considering the average on Glassdoor is $150K and potentially negotiate from there. I’d be curious to hear about their current sales reps attainment numbers and take home commission to ensure it was a good compensation structure. After reading the qualifications, I am more than qualified for the job with 7 years of technical sales experience with a proven track record of good success and exceeding quotas. I have worked in numerous fast-paced, team environments. I also have excellent professional communication that would be demonstrated in my interview. If I were looking for a new job, I would totally apply!

It is possible for companies to develop compensation systems that are internally consistent and market competitive, but it is very difficult. In order for a company to do so, they must be regularly researching the market and adjusting their compensation systems to align with the market. This can be quite tedious. Advanced HR systems have assigned teams to monitor the market’s compensation systems and still cannot keep up because it is ever adapting. Tech is a great example. There are new updates about tech compensation systems, benefits, accommodations, etc. ever since the start-up/tech boom. The only way for tech companies to recruit and retain talent, they must stay competitive within the market.

              The biggest challenges to developing internally consistent and market competitive compensation systems are the time associated with analyzing markets, cost of living in certain areas, and the overall health of the labor market.

              With technological advances, like Glassdoor and PayScale, they take a lot of the guessing of it. Employees no longer must coyly ask their friends or coworkers about their compensation packages. They have everything at their fingertips from these user-generated sites. While these sites are likely trustworthy, there is a good chance they are not totally accurate. It is fair to question whether HR professionals within companies can heavily rely on sites like Glassdoor and PayScale, but it is generally good guidance. We have also experienced a bit of a societal shift where people are more freely talking about their jobs and compensation packages amongst themselves.

In 2022, is there a company more universally known than Amazon? The company started as a low-cost bookstore in the 90s. They are since turned into the e-commerce giant that usually sells anything and everything at a significant discount. Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. I also cannot mention Amazon without mentioning its extremely notable Amazon Prime, which guarantees 2 days shipping and a generous return policy to most major cities in the United States.

                 Amazon has always relied on its cost leadership for its competitive advantage. Now, they pride themselves on it more than ever. It is truly difficult to find a product that is cheaper than Amazon’s listing price.

                 As far as compensation goes, Amazon divide itself its three categories: HQ employees, delivery drivers, and warehouse workers. For the sake of brevity, I would like to highlight their HQ employees’ compensation. I can speak in-depth about their HQ compensation policy, as I have personal interviewed and have several friends and colleagues that work there in various roles. For this blog post, I will dive in to analyzing a technical recruiter’s compensation plan.

                 Technical recruiters at Amazon are typically offered a generous base salary, stock, and a sign-on bonus immediately after accepting the position. In some circumstances, they also offer re-location (~$20K). They are set up on a sales-style compensation plan with commission to incentivize their hiring and keeping their talent. They also receive a year-end bonus of a percentage of their salary (performing permitting). Amazon deals with extremely high turn over rates, so they have specific rules when bringing on employees. For example, employees must forfeit their sign-on bonus if they do not stay for a full year at Amazon. Their stock is also given in a dragged-out vesting schedule, which makes it difficult for employees to actually obtain stock without staying at Amazon for a certain length of time.

                 Amazon’s HQ pay structures and overall compensation does not match up with their competitive strategy of cost leadership. Without the personal knowledge I have, I would assume that Amazon pays their HQ employees fairly poorly or at least at a much lower rate in comparison to the industry. Their warehouse and delivery drivers make up most of the workforce and does follow the low-cost model. While HQ employees are paid very well, it is well known that warehouse and delivery employees are not only paid poorly but treated poorly as well. This is more in line with Amazon’s competitive strategy.

                 The labor market and industry is deeply affected by Amazon’s compensation practices. Amazon is known to offer lavish compensation packages in comparison to the retail industry. Even for the tech industry, they remain towards the top of the list for compensation packages, as far as monetary rewards go (non-monetary rewards, like benefits, are another story).

I can easily speak from experience for this week’s blog post. I will start off by including some context. I work in sales and have been in sales since the start of my career. I currently work for a large, tech company, but have experience working at much smaller, tech start-ups.

As I am sure many of you can imagine, compensation is an immense part of sales. Most people I work with have chosen a job with the idea that the more they produce or sell, the more compensation they receive. My first job out of college was working in sales for a start-up. The pay structure was set up so that we made most of our money in commission. In fact, the base salary was hardly liveable in a big city. This is fairly common in the tech start-up world. Another common part of the tech start-up world: incomplete or failing products. As we ran into issues with the product, fewer and fewer hit quota and compensation started to drastically decrease. This left many employees uneasy and nervous about not only their compensation but their job security as well. The everyday stress we experienced knowing next month’s check relied on us hitting what felt like an unattainable quota was exhausting and difficult. After experiencing this firsthand, I made a decision that I would focus on a career in sales with a different type of compensation plan. I would only be interested in more stable jobs with higher base salaries and smaller chunks of motivating commission. Lucky for me, I found the perfect mix in my current role. I feel safe at a reputable company with a higher base salary, but I am still motivated by significant bonuses I am able to receive based on my performance.

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