Thanks for the feedback and the insight. I agree with you 100% about setting a scale and communicating your performance requirements. It can be work to get it started, but it is well worth the effort.

Let me know if there are any topics you think would be especially useful to see on the blog.

Best wishes,

Mary Pat

I enjoy your articles and find them very useful. I am grooming a candidate from my staff to become a manager and use some of your articles for a training resource.

You are right about the impossibility of being fair. It is a subjective thing that everyone has a different opinion on.
I have found that one thing that helps is to spell out as much as possible what the requirements are for determining employees salaries. It is only “fair” to employees to have some idea what you are judging them on. I solved a lot of problems by developing pay scales for every position, what factors were involved in determining those rates and what things I am looking for to get to the next level. It is no longer good enough to expect great employees to just show up and work hard and give them raises from time to time without giving them input. That type of management from the 1900′s is out the window. Today’s great employees want more communication with what is required of them and more input with their futures. Educating staff and setting clear expectations about salaries and future pay levels while not solving all problems with fairness, definitely helps foster a team attitude.

Keep up the great articles!