The Definitive Guide to HR Communication: Engaging Employees in Benefits, Pay, and Performance

14. Compensation

In this chapter, you learn how to

• Communicate clearly about pay

• Give employees tools to help them see the value of their compensation

• Help prepare managers to talk face-to-face about pay

Beware the Black Box

Of all the topics organizations need to communicate, you’d think they’d be most effective at communicating about pay. After all, although you hope that employees love their jobs, they work to earn money—to pay their mortgage, put gas in the car, and buy their children shoes. So employees care deeply about how they’re compensated.

But here’s the tricky part. Compensation is, appropriately, a delicate subject. For many good reasons, Person A may be paid differently than Person B, even though they’re doing the same ...