With the changing face of the organisational structure today, organisations are paying tremendous importance to salary planning

What is the first thing you look at while you take on a new job? The most important thing an aspirant looks for, apart from the job description is the pay that s/he will be entitled to. Many even base their decisions of accepting or declining the job offer on the basis of the salary s/he would draw. So what is the deciding factor when it comes to one’s pay package? While joining an organisation, a new entrant is usually paid based on the designation s/he is given. However, after a certain period of time, what should be the deciding factor for an employee’s salary? Experts say that salary planning is one of the most crucial aspects in deciding an employee’s growth in an organisation and every employee’s salary planning should be done with utmost care.

Proper planning   
Even though career planning takes the cake when it comes to an individual’s career, salary planning is just as important as it eventually becomes the deciding factor. Experts say that equal importance has to be given to this so that an individual does not feel that s/he is being compensated less in the organisation. Experts say that there are certain basics that need to be kept in mind while salary planning. Though it is not considered to be rocket science, the organisation has to make sure that they do justice to an individual’s qualification, experience and past work.
  
Ravi Verma - president and global head-HR, Nucleus Software expresses, “It is one of the most important aspects for an employee’s development in an organisation; not only for motivating the employee but also for developing a suitable career plan.”
  
Experts say that though it is an important part of an employees’ career, it is not an easy job. HR needs to keep quite a few things in mind to make sure that they have been fair to the employee. Sudeshna Datta, co-founder and EVP corporate development & HR, AbsolutData Research and Analytics explains, “When an employee joins the organisation, we plan the salary for one year and the decision is entirely based on his/her experience, expertise, performance in the past organisations/institutions and his/her fitments with our needs. Over the years, salary decisions for the employee then depend on merit and performance.”
  
Designation v/s performance   
With the passage of time, every employee’s salary package changes. And when the time comes, the employee expects that his/her compensation package would show a considerable change. Though this usually happens during the appraisal process of the employee which is performance based, many employees feel that they are rarely adjudged on their complete performance and usually designation of the individual takes more priority. So the question here arises is what should be the basis of salary planning?
  
Salary planning should always be more value based. It depends a lot on the specific performance of the employee in that given value period and this should be shown in the feedback. And this should not be done during an appraisal period and should be given immediately as it becomes easier for the employee to understand as to what has happened and the reason for the outcome.
  
Rajesh Padmanabhan, executive VP and head – Global HR, Patni opines that it should be and is more role-based as the organisation needs to keep more than just the performance and designation in mind while planning. He adds, “We follow an EQ model of compensation which is a function of educational qualification, experience and performance in the company for experienced employees. For us, role is externally benchmarked for industry parity with the best player and EQ is for maintaining internal parity.”
  
Though a common consensus cannot be defined when it comes to salary of the employee and how important it is for him/her, one thing is for sure, salary planning is important for an individual to feel content in an organisation and it is the ‘duty’ of the organisation to make sure that the employee feels that, no matter what the benchmark is for a raise.