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I am in a position in which i have a team of 9 transitioning from hourly pay to salaried pay.  I know they will be excited about the $6-$8k bump, but how do i make sure to get the most out of their performance when i previously was barred by the 8-5 workday.

SETM22's picture

It makes no difference whether a person is hourly or salaried when it comes to performance. It's measured the same way.

How do you make sure? Implement and consistently use MT O3s, Feedback and Coaching.

I'd also throw in the MT staff meeting structure. I've found this to be extremely valuable in creating a productive team. You'll find that the simple act of increasing effective communication works wonders.

Chris Zeller's picture
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Hi JWL,

How you handle this trasition is going be very important and it's worth planning both the general meeting and individual follow-ups. My immediate thoughts are to:

  • Provide context - What went into the decision to change things? How will the new structure support the team and organizational mission?
  • Address what's changing and what is not- Nominal pay is going up and I think you'll get into trouble if you allow people to see this as a pure windfall.
  • Reset Expectations - For example: if the needs of the business require communication outside of "normal" business hours, the new expectation might be that they take that client call, answer your email, or whatever is appropriate for your unique situation. Will they now sometimes need to come in early/stay late/work on weekends? What else?
  • Do your homework - Go back and pull time cards on all of your people. Is anyone currently working 40+ hours/week and getting overtime? How does the overtime figure compare to the salary increase? How do you make this not feel like a pay "cut?" Understand who has pumpkinitis (you know, turns into a pumpkin at 5:01 and drops what they're in the middle of, regardless of what's going on). Understand their behaviors up until this point and roll that into the Expectations Reset.
  • Acknowledge and be explicit about anything that is not optional for them. What are the effects and consequences of ignorning required changes in behavior?
  • Commit to specific behaviors of your own that you know you can honor in order to ease the transition.
  • Be honest and transparent about anything that's "less good" or that you know is outside your scope of control.
  • Leave the door open - for tweaks, changes, and refinement as everyone adjusts. The game plan may need to be modified or adapted in the face of reality, and you want to leave yourself wiggle room to do that.
  • Prepare for one on one follow-ups with each team member so that you can specifically apply the broad guidelines to each individual's own role/specific behaviors/etc.
  • Ask for explicit commitiment to grow/change/adapt from each of your people and take note of those who won't give it.
  • Modify go-forward Feedback to benchmark against the re-set expectations.

That's my first pass. Perhaps others will have additional or differing thoughts/suggestions/ideas.

It's probably going to take several hours to gather everything and organize it. You'll get that time back in the future when you don't have to run around like a crazy person putting out one-off fires.

 

Breanna_Ileen's picture

A healthy body and mind will lead to a better performance of an employee not being an hourly or salaried one. The key difference between salaried and hourly employees is how they get compensated for their work. Employees who work on an hourly basis get paid for every hour that they perform their job and have the right to receive overtime pay if more than 40 hours are worked. On the other hand, salaried employees are not generally eligible for overtime pay.