Seer Compensation Strategy November 2016 Prepared for: Seer Team
Seer Compensation StrategyNovember 2016
Prepared for: Seer Team
INTRODUCTION
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Background: why are we doing this?
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Background: why are we doing this?
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Background: why are we doing this?
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Exit Interview Data showed that 2 in 5 employees who left Seer indicated that Career Opportunities (upward mobility) and [lack of understanding surrounding] Compensation were the largest contributing factors to their departure.
Background: why are we doing this?
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I got you.
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Ground Rules & Expectations
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1. THIS IS CONFIDENTIAL and intended for internal use only; please respect that
2. There will be mistakes; help us to find and fix them respectfully
3. Understand that this is something that we, as a company, will live into over the next several yearsa. Creating ranges for all role levels is the first phase
4. Compensation is personal; just because someone has the same title as you ≠ same exact compensation within specified range for the role
Ground Rules & Expectations
Goals
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Goals
Understanding Transparency Correlation to Performance
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Understanding Transparency Correlation to Performance
Immediate Immediate Immediate
● How does Seer view and manage my compensation?
● What’s my earning potential and why?
● When am I eligible for a raise?
● Access to all Seer Division & level salary ranges
● How we stack up against the market & why
● Performance matters; we’ll keep processing & assigning raises accordingly
Ultimate Ultimate Ultimate
● WHY (quantitatively) you fall within the range you’re in
● Maintain level of transparency
● How you can impact your raise
● Ability to forecast what you can expect
DIGGING IN
Philosophy
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Compensation Philosophy: General
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We Believe in Total Compensation
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We’re competitive.
● Every year, we’re committed to completing an industry benchmarking survey to ensure that our ranges are competitive within our competitive set.
● We’ll update ranges annually to reflect market compensation to ensure that our ranges reflect the 40th to 90th + percentile of the market.
Compensation Philosophy: Cash Money
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Your compensation will be reviewed at least 1x per year.
● We review your compensation once a year. But, we believe in hustle, and you’re all pretty ambitious. That means you may get more than one raise within a year...or you might wait longer than a year. However, we’ll review your compensation at least once a year.
○ Things we take into consideration:■ How are you staffed, impact to Seer, revenue, retention, task forces; additionally, future
looking, how can we staff you in the future
Compensation Philosophy: Cash Money
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Performance drives compensation.
● Experience counts, but performance primarily drives compensation. Growing client accounts? Have 100% client retention? Helping mentor and grow your coworkers? Consistently working to level up & share ideas? Awesome, you’re probably paid more because of it. Twice a year you all have the opportunity to opt-in to performance reviews to understand how you’re doing performance-wise. [current state]
Compensation Philosophy: Cash Money
Tool, Process, Methodology
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Considerations:● Goal
● Current state
● Resources other agencies / companies use
● Output / variability in different resources vs. cost
Tool
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Identify All Roles & Respective Skills
Create Role Bank Define Competitive Set
Define Percentiles per Role
Build Ranges per Role
Process
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Process
Step One: Role build-out
➔ Identify ALL roles within company / DIVs
➔ “Shop” several relevant skills within Payscale to create a bank of skills relevant for each role within each division.
◆ Survey team to identify top three skills required for their job [role + level]
➔ Collaborate with Division Directors to cross-check & adjust skills identified by the team as appropriate
➔ Finalized top three required skills for each role
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Process
Step Two: Create role bank
➔ To create ‘role bank’ determine and build the following for each role level in the company:
◆ Seer title vs. Industry Recognized title
◆ Three top skills
◆ Years of experience required [MINIMUM] for each role level
◆ Define people management experience & type for each role level
◆ Add location parameters
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Process
Step Three: Define industry competitive set
➔ Defining industry competitive set:
◆ Company size [number of employees]
◆ Type of company
◆ Industry
◆ Privately held / not publicly traded
◆ Location(s)
Note: “Who do we want to compete with” was considered. I.e., should we broaden size, shift parameters to go outside of our competitive set as it relates to compensation.
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For every role, we ‘shopped’ the following parameters to come up with five percentiles of compensation:
Process
● Location [PHL vs. SD]
● Type of company [privately held]
● Industry of company [Marketing & advertising]
● Size of company [# of employees]
● Industry-recognized title
● Top three skills required
● Years of experience [MIN] for each role level
● People management experience required
● TYPE of people management experience required
○ Assigning and evaluating work vs. hiring, firing, setting compensation, etc
Step Four: Define percentiles
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per·cen·tile/pərˈsenˌtīl/
A percentile (or a centile) is a measure used in statistics indicating the value below which a given percentage of observations in a group of observations fall. For example, 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20% of the observations may be found.
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Step Four: QA data // spot check percentiles pulled
➔ Re-run criteria built in role bank to confirm no inconsistencies in data …
AND THEN...
Process
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Inconsistent Data.Everywhere.
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Step Four: Define percentiles per role
➔ Data changes all the time. The numbers that you run will differ from the percentiles shared with you.
➔ To most accurately build ranges that reflect data fluctuations, all roles were pulled a total of 5 times over the course of a two week period.
➔ Once we had 2 weeks of data, we averaged each percentile.
◆ So, for example, each percentile you see [10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th] is the average of 5 different data pulls for that specific percentile.
◆ Data was scrubbed for any large variances. e.g., if there was an up or downswing in a day of ~10K, that data was removed from the set by which the average percentile was built.
Process
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Percentiles Example
Comp Percentiles
10th 25th 50th 75th 90th PHL
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx SEO Associate
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx Sr. SEO Associate
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx SEO Manager
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx Sr. SEO Manager
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx Team Lead
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Step Five: Build ranges per role
➔ Review data
➔ Consider “Seer data”
◆ Role difference across divisions & impact to Seer
◆ Division size / revenue
◆ Career trajectory; considering roles where someone may choose to stay vs. move on (want to enable this and ensure earning potential exists)
➔ Determine where we are comfortable falling for ranges across the board; put a stake in the ground. e.g., our range minimum doesn’t dip below 40th percentile and extends to 90th sometimes far exceeding 90th percentile for specific roles
➔ Federal Overtime Legislation
Process
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Step Five: Review ranges with Division Directors
➔ Identify any issues / challenges with proposed ranges
➔ Identify team members that are outliers within ranges
➔ Confirm adjustments & payroll cycle adjustments will take place to communicate to team members
Process
IMPACT: IMMEDIATE + FUTURE
Impact: Immediate
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Impact: Immediate
You could be impacted in two ways:
● Your salary is under the minimum role level range
● Your salary exceeds the maximum for your role level range
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You could be impacted in two ways:
● Your salary is under the minimum role level range: we’ve already met and it’s been adjusted
● Your salary exceeds the maximum for your role level range
Impact: Immediate
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You could be impacted in two ways:
● Your salary is under the minimum role level range: we’ve already met and it’s been adjusted
● Your salary exceeds the maximum for your role level range: we’ll meet and discuss. Don’t worry, no one’s salary is going to be decreased!
Impact: Immediate
Impact: Future
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Understanding Transparency Correlation to Performance
Immediate Immediate Immediate
● How does Seer view and manage my compensation?
● What’s my earning potential and why?
● When am I eligible for a raise?
● Access to all Seer Division & level salary ranges
● How we stack up against the market & why
● Performance matters; we’ll keep processing & assigning raises accordingly
Ultimate Ultimate Ultimate
● WHY (quantitatively) you fall within the range you’re in
● Maintain level of transparency
● How you can impact your raise
● Ability to forecast what you can expect
Raise Cadence & Process
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There are two types of raises that can occur:
● On-cycle
● Off-cycle
Raise Cadence & Process
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Raise Cadence & ProcessOn-cycle raises
● Occur once a year at the same time each year
● Compensation is / will be reviewed annually at the time of your Seer anniversary
● Performance warranted raises occur at this time (with or without a promotion)
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Raise Cadence & Process
Process [Immediate / Current]:
● Conversation with your Director
● Your director will reach out to schedule time to chat with you to discuss compensation at the time of your employee anniversary
● Raise is communicated [or not] and email confirmation sent to you, Finance, People Team for processing
On-cycle raises
Process [Future]:
● More involvement at Team Lead level
● Direct correlation between performance review(s) + raise amount
● Ability to forecast how this conversation will go in advance
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Raise Cadence & ProcessOff-cycle raises
● Occur… yep, you guessed it, off of the regular cycle (i.e., your Seer anniversary cycle)
● Occur because you’ve been kicking major ass + working hard so one of the following things is happening:
○ You’re being promoted!○ You’re taking on a brand new role!○ You’re shifting into a new role within an existing Division [just changing your career-course a
bit!]○ You’re in the same role but taking on additional responsibility and having major impact on the
company!
● Any promotion or position shift with new / additional responsibilities (unless it’s a completely lateral shift) will warrant a raise
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Raise Cadence & ProcessOff-cycle raises
Process [current]:
● Team Lead or Director will schedule time with you & communicate promotion
● Promotion & raise will be confirmed via email to you, Finance, and People Team for processing
● People Team will work with you on #promotioncommotion
How can YOU impact this? [future]
● Consider what you want; are you gunning for something?
● Understand what you need to do / have experience with to get it
● Tell people what you’re aiming for, namely, your Team Lead and Director
● Set goals, measure progress, work & check in on how you’re doing … even if it’s not an official performance review
Performance Integration
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Performance Integration
Current State: Performance matters and is taken into consideration for all compensation decisions
Things that are reviewed internally / discussed:
● Current role level
● Staffing: current projects vs. projects that you’re slated for [More complex? Larger revenue? More responsibility?]
● Accomplishments over some period of time [6-12 months]
● Ambition [what have you run with?]
● Overall impact to the company [task forces, team player / helping to grow others, culture, etc]
Although you might not notice, the bullets above although worded differently, are all item outlined and reflected in our performance anchors.
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We’re going to keep on doing what we’ve been doing for the time being. Why?
● It’s the right thing to do, it’s fair.
During Phase Two, the primary focus is performance integration:
● Making refinements
● Implementing appropriate system and process to support needs
● Launching this!
Performance Integration
SALARY RANGES
Range Groupings
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Seer Divisions + Role Considerations:
● Difference / variance in cost of job specific “skill”
● Seer role vs. industry definition○ Does a PPC Manager’s role differ from an SEO Manager’s role? There are a different set of
skills required, but foundationally, these roles do the same thing for the company.
● Revenue of Division○ Does the revenue of the Division appropriately warrant the compensation rate extended to the
team? It’s the same mentality of “start-ups” typically paying less until they’ve established some footing.
● Impact / value of role to Seer○ Does the value that a certain Division or role drives warrant a greater differential in
compensation? In general, we didn’t see any roles fall into this category.
Seer Salary Ranges: Ranges & Logic
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To be fair & equitable, and in some cases, to protect confidentiality within small Divisions, we created location-specific Role Groupings.
The following disciplines are grouped together and share the same range minimums and maximums for all role levels:
● SEO, Technical SEO, & PPC
● ANA
● CRE: Design, Dev, & Project Management
● CE: Client Engagement
● Business Strategy: Business Strategy & Marketing
● Operations: People, Account / FIN, IT, & Office Management
Seer Salary Ranges: Ranges & Logic
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Seer Salary Ranges: Ranges & Logic
Let’s walk through an example...
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Percentiles
10th 25th 50th 75th 90th
SEO Associate
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Tech SEO Associate
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
PPC Associate
$xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Let’s walk through an example: Associate [PHL] - SEO, Tech SEO, PPC
Seer Salary Ranges: Ranges & Logic
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Philadelphia Associate: SEO, Tech SEO, PPC
Variance in Cost of Skill
Seer role vs. industry definition
Revenue of Division Impact / value of role to Seer
Small Min: $1.6kMax: $3k
Similar Close Equal
Role Grouping Example
Ultimate decision: Group SEO, Tech SEO, and PPC together
Seer Salary Ranges
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Philadelphia
SEO, Technical SEO, PPC
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Associate DIR $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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Philadelphia
Analytics
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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Philadelphia
Creative, Design, Dev, Project Manager
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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Philadelphia
Client Engagement
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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Philadelphia
Business Strategy, Marketing
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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Philadelphia
Operations: People, Accounting/Finance, IT, Office mgmt
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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San Diego
SEO, Technical SEO, PPC
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Associate $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Associate DIR $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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San Diego
Client Engagement
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Sr. Manager $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
Team Lead $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
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Philadelphia & San Diego
Executive Leadership: Directors
Role Seer Min. Payscale Min. Seer Max. Payscale Max.
Director $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx $xx,xxx
RANGE FAQs
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“I’m at the bottom of my range...why?”
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“You talked about a ~2K differential in using the paid version of payscale, that 2K matters to me!”
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“I’m pretty far from the top of my range...and I’ve been with Seer for a little over 2 years?”
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“What if I’m at the top of my range?”
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“What if I get promoted, but my current compensation is above the minimum for the role I’m promoted into?”
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“How do you make the determination of where a new hire will fall within a range?”
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“I feel like I’m underpaid, I’d like to understand more about ranges and why I fall where I do.”
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“I’ve been getting feedback that I’ve been absolutely “killing it” over the last two months; can I expect a raise sooner than a year?”
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“What if my anniversary just passed? Should I have gotten a raise?”
NEXT STEPS
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Next Steps
● Deck + content arsenal to be shared out to company by EOD
● Specific compensation appointment slots with Em / Directors to discuss / ask questions on wiki [Employee Resources → Compensation]
● Video to be produced and available in Q1 to watch @ anytime [will be segmented]
● Q1 start to Phase Two; timeline and roll-out / launch plans to be shared in 2017 Company Kick-Off Meeting
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Supporting Resources
Submit your quick one-off questions here
Request a meeting with Em + your Division Director here
Seer Salary Ranges
Compensation Philosophy One-Sheeter
Payscale benchmarking raw data [to run a report on your own]
FAQs
The end.
To learn more about the process of launching compensation strategy and salary transparency at our company, visit our website!