Workplace Trends for 2017

It’s long been a corporate rite of passage: the 2% or 3% annual merit raise. But human resources consultants say more companies are questioning whether the annual approach is best.

For one, when spread out over a year, the small bumps are typically meager, barely registering in many workers’ paychecks. They also pull from the budget that companies can use to reward star performers or people with high-demand skills. And these annual bumps in base pay often end up measuring the same thing as bonuses — past performance — when salaries should be set on an employee’s value in the marketplace.

Patagonia last year stopped giving annual base-pay raises each March, which it had done for about 20 years. Although it still awards yearly bonuses for past performance, it instituted two windows a year when employees could see their salaries jump, based on whether their managers thought their skills had improved and how critical they are to the company. 

Exotic perks will start tapering off … but some aimed at millennials will grow

Recent years have brought an arms race to employee perks such as free meals and vacation benefits. One start-up’s CEO even offered employees Tesla leases to recruit top talent.

But Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at the careers site Glassdoor, believes the expansion will quiet down in 2017 as more companies take stock of how much employees really appreciate the perks. He says Glassdoor’s research compared 54 benefits with employee satisfaction and found that items such as on-site yoga classes or office video games held little value to workers.

Continue Reading: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-on-leadership-workplace-20170115-story.html

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Jena McGregor writes about leadership for the Washington Post.