It’s true that many employees these days place a high value on non-monetary perks like flexibility and greater work opportunities, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want money, too – and you need to make sure your compensation package is in range with the rest of the industry.
To start, you want to make sure that you offer some kind of retirement savings plan, like a 401(k) – 99 out of the 100 firms on the 2016 Best Firms to Work For have them. You’ll also want to consider some kind of profit-sharing – that’s available at almost two-thirds (62) of the Best Firms. At Boston’s Wolf & Co., for instance, the firm has a “points-based incentive compensation program designed to reward activities and results that is available to management and seniors. This is tied to firm profitability, and the reward varies, depending upon performance, from 4 percent to 20 percent of base salary.”
And Las Vegas’ JW Advisors has an annual bonus pool calculated at 6.5 percent of net income before partner compensation: “Every employee from the receptionist to the most senior accounting/tax staff (not including partners) participates.”
Only a few of the Best Firms have employee stock option plans – among them, Las Vegas-based small firm Fair, Anderson and Langerman, Maryland-based midsized firm SC&H Group.
Beyond broad compensation-boosters like those, however, many of the Best Firms have set up more tailored, flexible ways of rewarding employees for going above and beyond – we’ll share some of those later in the series.
