The Data Doktor
Volume 1, Number 3
January, 2005
Planning for Survey Submission:
Are you ready to feed the beast?
In a world of uncertainty, there are three universal constants: death, taxes, and the new guy gets to do the survey submissions this year.
 Seriously, in terms of status, survey submission ranks below being the “Fire Safety Floor Coordinator”. However, like that job, survey submission is an important activity, and one that fosters an understanding of how pay market information is created and later how that market information can be used.
So how do you implement this onerous activity while minimizing the impact on the rest of the department AND creating value in your newest human resource? Focus on three objectives:
- Treat survey submission as a process and create a PLAN: a plan will map out the process and reveal opportunities for improved efficiency.
- Think VALUE: garbage-in creates garbage-out. If you want high quality market data, ensure that your staff does not treat survey submissions as busy work.
- Reward staff for doing a good job but measure performance both on timeliness and DATA QUALITY. Vendors would much rather have a high-quality, slightly late submission than an on-time crappy one.
In this issue of the Data Doktor I’m going to begin to sketch out a high-level survey submission plan based on my ten years of experience as a producer and consumer of survey data. I believe that this plan, or something like it, can make the process of feeding the beast more efficient and less painful.
A Checklist You Can Clip and Save
As a bonus, I’ve posted a Survey Submission Checklist on the NPKtools web site. This is a
a comprehensive, 9-page road map to guide you step by step through
the submission plan that I’ll be discussing over the next couple of issues. In this issue we’ll launch our plan and chart our course. In following issues we’ll go into detail on job matching and data quality assurance.
But first…
Self Promotion Department
If you are not a Data Doktor subscriber, maybe you should be. Sign up using the button at the left.
If you know anyone else who might benefit from this newsletter, please forward this message.
Yes there really is software that will do this. In our years of experience doing compensation analysis for clients, NPKtools has searched for a software product that would orchestrate and facilitate the process of preparing, submitting, and analyzing survey data. We never found it. So we built it. Sign up for an online demo of the CompXpert Survey Submission Module: “Feeding the Beast: Preparing Survey Submissions Without Getting Bit.” February 10, 2005
Survey Submission Plan, Part 1: Gearing Up
Make a Mess: Literally, you need to gather all the materials and results from last year’s effort and move it into the office of this year’s lucky analyst. Unless you’re using some really good survey submission software, this pile of papers is probably the best source of knowledge on how the process has been done in your company. Mining it can help you identify issues early and ensure consistency.
Map the Process: Never underestimate the power of a calendar. As you plot the dates below you’ll identify things you can do now to get ahead of the game.
- When do submission materials arrive and when are they due?
- When is merit / bonus data actually loaded into the HRIS system? (And is that timing different by country?)
- What is the plan for surveys with end-of-last-year effective submission dates? (Key here is what was done last year)
- Do you need to translate your generic HRIS job coding into more specific groupings to conform to survey benchmark jobs? If so, mapping out that translation now will save headaches during the data crush
Set Some Standards: Determine up front how you are going to recognize the staff for this project. Set some goals for the team Timeliness should be one of criteria, but data quality should also be valued. Remember, the better the data you and everyone else submits, the higher the market data quality that you use in the fall
Anticipate: If you have automated submission and market pricing systems, pay particular attention to vendor actions that may alter your naming conventions, job descriptions or data conversion methods. Call the vendor up and ask them what changes are in store.
Document Everything: Establish a simple method for documenting all the steps in the process. The biggest time-waster in survey submission is follow-up calls from the vendor. If you take care to document your decisions as you go you won’t have to spend hours trying to reconstruct them later. This will also be valuable guidance for next year.
Next time we’ll look at methods for Job Matching, focusing on getting it right before you submit.
Till then, keep compensating.
Lindsay
Oh yeah, don't forget to check out that checklist.
About the Data Doktor
 I am Lindsay Scott, managing partner of NPKtools, a compensation analysis software, consulting, and outsourcing firm. I am a former Hay consultant, where I focused on software development, information analysis, and information delivery. I have an MBA from Duke University, and before joining Hay, I consulted on energy, economic and regulatory issues as a senior management consultant for EDS, Energy Management Associates, and DRI/McGraw Hill.
I like to believe that my background as a market analyst in broader industry settings gives me a unique perspective on compensation markets. I definitely believe that understanding pay markets can be an important ingredient in company competitiveness. I hope that the Data Doktor will help compensation professionals bring better information to bear on company decision-making—and thereby raise their profile as organizational contributors.
The Data Doktor is a free bimonthly newsletter packed with useful insights, tips, and solutions for everyday compensation analysis and planning problems. We probe the secrets of salary surveys, provide suggestions for market pricing, and describe best practices and software tools that can help compensation management add more value to the organization.
What you can do now:
Suggest a topic for future issues (or call me at 770-740-8660).
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