Competencies Replacing Jobs as the Compensation/HR Foundation
From WorldatWork Journal, 3rd Quarter 2009: "Competencies Replacing Jobs as the Compensation/HR Foundation" by Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster

Twenty large, publicly traded, private, nonprofit and governmental organizations replaced jobs with people’s competencies and skills as the foundation for HR practices. This paper shares what they did, why, and how it worked in the words of senior-leadership team members. As competencies and the people who possess them became the center of their HR programs, the study organizations reported a significant improvement in their ability to engage, communicate with, develop, provide career growth for and reward their work­force. All but one of the 20 study organizations use a scorecard to evaluate an individual’s competencies, and all but two organizations use competencies to determine pay.

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Compensation, Reward and Retention Practices in Fast-Growth Companies
From WorldatWork Journal, 2nd Quarter 2009: "Compensation, Reward and Retention Practices in Fast-Growth Companies" by Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster of Schuster-Zingheim and Associates, Inc. and Marvin G. Dertien of ERI Economic Research Institute

The study featured in this article by Pat Zingheim and Jay Schuster with Marvin Dertien of ERI Economic Research Institute (published in in the 2nd Quarter 2009 WorldatWork Journal) provides insight into how top executives of fast-growth companies have managed the transition from startup to sustained fast growth from the standpoint of talent-management strategies, practices and programs. Interviews with members of senior-leadership teams were used to learn how these successful companies have moved beyond startup. The leadership challenge is to sustain business growth and success while stabilizing a workforce of high-performing key talent who possess the company’s core competencies. These fast-growth companies have chosen an integrated view of total compensation and total rewards, including training, development and career opportunities. They customized their performance-based compensation approaches.

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New Incentive and Performance Management Metrics
From WorldatWork Journal, 4th Quarter 2007: "Measuring and Rewarding Customer Satisfaction, Innovation and Workforce Engagement" by Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster

New SZA study of America’s fast-growth technology companies indicates that new measures and goals are being deployed to meet challenging times. Pat Zingheim and Jay Schuster’s new study (published in the 4th Quarter 2007 WorldatWork Journal) suggests that top-performing companies are adding new metrics to incentives and performance management, namely:

• Customers

• Innovation

• Workforce engagement

This is the first evidence of new measures and goals being used by top-performing companies. The attached article may help you in 2008 and beyond refocus and revitalize incentive plans from top to bottom.

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Retaining Scarce, Critical Talent
From HR Pulse, American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration  (ASHHRA), Fall 2008: "Retaining Scarce, Critical Talent: How the Best Health Care Organizations Do It," by Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster

How do the best health care organizations attract and retain scarce and critical employees? A research study queried 21 leading organizations to find out. Get the results here...

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Developing Total Pay Offers for High Performers
From Compensation & Benefits Review, July/August 2008: "Developing Total Pay Offers for High Performers," by Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster

Recruiting and retaining employees who perform in the top 20% require astute management from total rewards professionals...

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Workforce Retention and Pay and Reward Practices in America's Best Hospitals
From WorldatWork Journal, 2nd Quarter 2008: "Workforce Retention and Pay and Reward Practices in America’s Best Hospitals" by Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster

New SZA study of some of the best U.S. hospitals shows what they are doing to attract and retain scarce medical and technology talent. Pat Zingheim and Jay Schuster’s article (published in the 2nd Quarter 2008 WorldatWork Journal that suggests “best practice” of top performers is different from “prevailing practice” of hospitals in general.

Sample findings include the following:

• Expanded use of variable pay based on clinical and patient metrics

• Pay and rewards focused on skills and competencies at the core of hospital excellence

• Total rewards model changed to focus on talent upon whom the hospital relies for operational and patient care excellence

If you are an organization even outside healthcare with scarce dollars but a specialized need for essential talent, this article may be of interest. It provides a building block to the design of retention, pay and reward programs for hospitals to consider.

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Latest SZA Book

High-Performance Pay: Fast Forward to Business Success by Pat Zingheim and Jay Schuster is now available through WorldatWork for $24.95 USD (WorldatWork members: $19.95 USD); e-book $19.95 USD (WorldatWork members: $15.95 USD)
Click here to purchase book from WaW.

This is the third in the series of books written by us. The first is The New Pay: Linking Employee and Organizational Performance  (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992, 1996), and the second is Pay People Right! Breakthrough Reward Strategies to Create Great Companies (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000).

The New Pay is credited with starting the transformation to the expanded use of variable pay below the management level—some 80% of organizations now use some form of variable pay for non-management personnel. Pay People Right! was one of the first to pose a model for total rewards—total rewards has become the cornerstone of pay and rewards design since 2000. High-Performance Pay suggests the business case for the why and how of really paying for performance as a concrete and effective business strategy to create a performance culture and a high-performance organization.

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Pay for Performance--An Essential Tool in a Down Economy

Webinar with Pat Zingheim and Jay Schuster

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HCI Audio Interview: Pat Zingheim & Jay Schuster

Listen to an audio interview of Pat and Jay by the Human Capital Institute (HCI). Featured in the HCI March issue of Rewards & Incentives Magazine and based on February HCI Webcast of Pat and Jay, "The Buck Stops Here: Execution of Performance Incentives."

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MWorld Article: Managing Total Compensation to Achieve Multiple Objectives

MWorld, one of American Management Association’s largest subscription leadership publications, published Pat Zingheim and Jay Schuster’s article, "Managing Total Compensation to Achieve Multiple Objectives," that addresses the challenging and perplexing issue of the role pay might play in communicating to the multi-generational workforces organizations are challenged to retain and engage. Review the article here, and we would appreciate any comments you care to share.

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High-Performance Pay

Read a summary of our book High-Performance Pay: Fast Forward to Business Success from BusinessSummaries.com.

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Article Award

Jay Schuster and Pat Zingheim's article with co-author Paul Weatherhead of the U.S. Postal Service, "Pay For Performance Works: The United States Postal Service Presents a Powerful Business Case" published in WorldatWork Journal (First Quarter 2006) won an Honorable Mention award announced by Bob King, Editor of WorldatWork Journal, on May 8, 2007.

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