I'm all for a good process, I love ticking things off a list, and knowing what the next step will be.  It kills me when I don't know or understand what's involved in a process.  I absolutely hate it when consultants tell me "not to worry about the detail" when they're doing things for me.  I'll admit that for some people this would be seen as needing to be in control (maybe I am a control freak!) and for others it might be seen as just good practice.  Whatever, I have a process for pretty much everything my business does.  I've even got the processes written down in many cases.  There's still a few things that would benefit from being tried and tested, but we're getting there.

Here are the headlines of my pay review process:

1. Source the market stats and benchmarking data
2. Run a report of those affected by the review (exclude and document why for those not affected)
3. Model the impact and get approvals
4. Communicate the headline outcomes, timescales and process
5. Send out spreadsheets and guidance to managers for their input and decisions
6. Ensure IT/payroll are geared up ready for the change
7. Collate managers decisions and sense check outcomes
8. Communicate individual outcomes and timescales
9. Support managers with additional queries and issues
10. Implement the outcomes and publicise new pay scales
11. Review the whole process for improvements, document it, have it ready for next time

That's the nutshell version, the major process document runs to 2 pages.  Why?  Because someone somewhere needs to know what the history is, or have checked past reviews for anomalies and know what policy decisions were made, or what went wrong, so that these can be take into account for the future.  This will probably be the person everyone goes to with the "can you remember why......" queries and issues.

Of course I know that not all of these steps apply in every organisation, and some will not be applied even if they should, but that's just reality in practice.

Hopefully I've helped someone with these thoughts.  My next blog will be on the decisions you really should document, and the one after that will be about supporting managers with the process.

If there was one piece of advice you could give someone undertaking a pay review for the first time, what would it be?