MAY/JUNE 2018 23 Mathew MacFinefellow was sitting in his office on a Wednesday afternoon when one of his employees, Oliver Winsome Homes, knocked on his door. “May I come in?” Oliver asked. “Sure,” said Mathew, “I was just reading this article on compensation and job satisfaction and I’d like to talk with you about it.” “Good,” said Oliver, “because I was just wondering if you were going to give me that raise we talked about a couple weeks ago.” “Well,” smiled Mathew, “I’ve just been reading this article that says job satisfaction is more important than compensation, so I thought we’d do something to increase employee job satisfaction at work. We’re going to begin having small group meetings once a month to give employees an opportunity to express their opinions to management.” Oliver swallowed hard and said, “Well, that’s very important and I’d like to do it, but what about that raise?” “Just think for a minute, Oliver,” Mathew responded. “Wouldn’t it be good to create a working environment where employees feel that their opinions are important to management?” “Of course,” said Oliver, a bit plaintively, “but I was really looking forward to that raise.” “You don’t understand, Oliver,” said Mathew. “Here, take this article home and read it and then you’ll understand how a satisfying working environment is more important than wages.” “All right,” said Oliver, as he took the article from Mathew and turned to leave, “but if I read this article, will I get that raise?” Asking About Compensation History For as long as employers have been hiring employees, part of the interview process has been to ask candidates for employment about their compensation history. This has been an important question because it helps an employer understand the candidate’s pay expectations. If a candidate has made significantly more money for a previous employer, he or she is unlikely to be happy with a lesser rate, even if the person is moving from a high cost of living area where wages are generally higher. If a candidate says, “I know wages are lower here than where I’m coming from, but I’m willing to take less because the cost of living is less,” that willingness is likely to last no longer than the first five minutes of employment. The reason is because once a person has received a certain pay rate, he or she feels “worth” that amount of money. The thought is, “I’m worth $18.00 per hour because that’s what I made in my last job.” As Maslow taught us years ago, a satisfied need is not a motivator. In this case, the candidate has an unsatisfied need, which is a job offer, and is therefore motivated to say, “I’ll take less.” Once a candidate receives the job offer, however, the need is satisfied and the person is no longer motivated to take less, but is motivated to lobby for more. Another reason for asking about compensation history is that you want to compensate an employee properly and fairly, based on experience and qualifications. If a candidate has earned, say, $12.00 per hour at a previous employer, and your pay range for the position is $12.00 --$20.00 per hour, you may want to offer the candidate $14.00 per hour, which is a nice increase from the person’s previous position and provides the person with an opportunity to grow within the range. If we don’t know the candidate’s compensation history, we’re shooting in the dark and may offer too much or too little. We know that compensation, standing alone, is not a motivator for increased productivity.[1] If it were, we would not have school-teachers, EMTs, or caregivers for disabled children. There are some elements of the job that are more important than money. Compensation is, however, a “satisfier,” which is to say that if pay rates are not competitive at some level, the employees will, to some degree, be dissatisfied Compensation can be something of a sensitive subject in an interview, and sometimes candidates are reluctant to reveal their compensation history. I’ve found that a good question to ask is, “I know it’s sometimes tough to talk about pay, but do you have a particular pay range in mind?” If the answer to this question is a pay range significantly higher than you want to pay, then it’s likely that you will probably not want to move MANAGEMENT Matters Matters BULLE TIN By Sandy Seay, Jr., Ph.D., Seay Management Consultants, Inc. NO. 42 How Much Money Did You Receive At Your Previous Employer? It is illegal in some areas to inquire about salary history.