June 24, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Hiring managers
looking for a way to increase diversity may be interested in
the results of a new online recruiting alliance.
The new alliance between recruiting Web site HotJobs and
diversity business magazine DiversityInc may help employers
more easily locate diverse job prospects, according to a
news release. The announcement said HotJobs could now offer
recruiters a range of diversity-related products and
services, as well as diversity-related editorial content
for both employers and job seekers.
The available diversity products include job postings,
resume search and online sponsorship on the DiversityInc
Web site and print ads in DiversityInc magazine, which
allows the hiring company to promote itself to a diverse
community. In addition, DiversityInc will provide a series
of articles for inclusion on HotJobs.com and for
distribution through HotJobs’ newsletters, the announcement
said.
June 23, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Salary budgets are
averaging 3.5% in 2003, significantly lower than the 4.1%
projected earlier and at a 30-year low for the WorldatWork
Salary Budget Survey.
This year’s decrease from 2002’s numbers is being
attributed to an ongoing sluggish economy that continues to
depress corporate salary budget increases in 2003.
Further, looking toward 2004, the survey could only see a
slight improvement to 3.7%, according to a news
release.
To help alleviate the strain on already pressured salary
budgets, survey respondents indicated that fewer employees
would receive pay raises.
Nationally, just fewer than 83% of employees are likely to
receive a pay raise this year, as compared to 85% last
year, and 94% who received an increase in 2001.
Additionally, the survey indicates workers of all ranks may
go two years between increases.
Overall, WorldatWork found salary structures increased
an average 2.1%, yet more than a third of those polled
reported no increase in their structure. While an increase,
the movement is less than what was projected a year ago and
continues the decline, setting a new low for the 30-year
history of the study.
However, projections for 2004 indicate the salary
structures will climb an average of 2.3%.
Total compensation also is expanding outside of just
salary with respondents reported an increase in the use of
variable pay – cash bonuses and other incentives to reward
performance – increasing to a record high of 75% in 2003.
The amounts paid ranged from 5.7% of base pay for hourly
workers, 11.7% for management and 29.8% for executives.
Looking toward 2004, the outlook on incentive pay is
similar.
Additionally, stock-based incentive programs continue to
be popular with 70% of respondents reportedly using them.
Not surprisingly, stock options were the most popular
stock-based program by far, followed by restricted stock.
Breaking it down:
84% of companies report using stock options as an
incentive for executives
63% report using stock options as an incentive for
managers
15% are utilizing stock options as incentives for
hourly workers.
Bright Side
However, inflation is running almost a point less
than salary increase budgets. The Conference Board, which
earlier released similar salary budget projections (See
Conference Board: Salary Budgets At 3.5% in
2003
) is projecting a 2.6% rise in the Consumer Price Index for
2003 compared with a 3.5% average salary budget. The
2.7%-inflation increase projected for 2004 maintains this
differential.
These numbers are encouraging for employers that are trying
to avoid a “double whammy” of declining salary increases
and rising inflation.
Respondents to the survey are WorldatWork members
who are employed in the compensation and benefits
departments of more than 3,100 companies, representing a
total of 15.8 million US employees.