Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/295251
[ 27 ] APRIL 2014 | www.hrotoday.com Skilled talent. The skills gap also continues to be a top concern for most businesses. Half of companies surveyed cited they are struggling to fill skilled job positions with nearly two-thirds of companies in the information, media, and telecommunications industry and manufacturing companies reporting concerns. Data accuracy. Few companies are confident in their data. Even though getting pay right is a crucial component to retention, only 26 percent of companies reported being very satisfied with the salary data they use to set compensation. Organizational growth. Of the 52 percent of organizations that reported increasing the size of their workforce, 46 percent reported grew up to 10 percent. Medium companies are growing fastest. Medium-sized companies were the most likely to increase workforce in 2013 (58 percent), with large companies close behind (55 percent), and small companies less likely (47 percent). Information, media, and telecommunications industry leads the way with 63 percent of organizations increasing their workforce. Previous work experience is the leading factor that impacts hiring decisions (40 percent), with skill set not far behind (31 percent). Turnover. The top two reasons for people leaving an organization in 2013 were the same as 2012 and 2011: personal reasons and seeking higher pay elsewhere (21 percent). Relocation, retirement, and cultural fit remained stable as additional reasons for leaving an organization in 2013. Relocation remained at 5 percent, retirement likewise remained at 7 percent, and culture fit rose from 9 percent to 10 percent. For small companies, poor performance was the most important reason for someone leaving an organization (23 percent), and 56 percent of small companies said it was one of the top three reasons. For medium and large companies, seeking higher pay and advancement opportunities elsewhere were the two most common reasons. Compensation Data While companies are striving to secure talent, they lack sufficient insight about effective compensation to attract and retain the right people. In our 2013 survey, a whopping 75 percent of respondents reported some degree of dissatisfaction with the compensation data and insights available to them. This underscores a huge need for access to better compensation data reflecting real-time market trends. Since 2009, the majority of respondents report the CEO as the individual responsible for setting compensation (see Figure 1). The least popular choice in all years was outside compensation consultant, with 2 percent in 2013, and 3 percent or less of the responses in 2012 and 2011. The same pattern appeared across most industries and company sizes, except large companies, where the head of HR (48 percent) is usually responsible for setting compensation budgets, while CEOs and CFOs are second (38 percent and 39 percent respectively). Across all industries, the main reason why companies adjusted compensation was performance- based pay increases (54 percent) and second was cost of living adjustments (20 percent). The most important compensation objective guiding the respondents' 2013 decisions was retaining top employees, which was chosen by 66 percent of respondents (identical to 2012). This was true across all company sizes and industries. The second most common response was attracting new talent with 11 percent of respondents choosing it as their primary objective, and 39 percent choosing it as the second most important objective. Payroll Note: Multiple answers were allowed to be selected for this question which is why the percentages add up to more than 100 percent. Figure 1 Who is Responsible for Setting Compensation Budgets?