By Kristin Gilpatrick
Are we paying our executives a competitive salary? Have they earned a raise, and if so, how much should they get?
Those are questions that Gary Sanford, SPHR, manager of compensation and benefits for $3 billion Mountain America Credit Union, with 373,000 members, in West Jordan, Utah, answers every year before he presents compensation recommendations to the credit union’s CEO and board of directors. The board and management team then can use the benchmark information that Sanford gathers to evaluate the compensation plan for the coming year, as well as the credit union’s long-term compensation philosophy and overall strategy.
Sanford pulls compensation survey data “from four to five different executive level compensation surveys,” including CUES Executive Compensation Survey, Cardwell, Executive Comp Solutions and RSG, “when I’m doing executive compensation analysis to present to the CEO and board.”
For example, the 2010 CUES Executive Compensation Survey (read related article) revealed that most credit unions were granting top executives salary hikes and bonuses, but increases were more modest from 2009 to 2010 than they had been from 2008 to 2009, with the rate of increase in total executive compensation ranging from 1.22 percent to 3.41 percent.
Other executive compensation surveys reported similar trends. Such data is critical in decision making, Sanford adds. “This way, we have facts and benchmarks, not just assumptions or desires, upon which to base increases for different executive positions.
“Our CEO and board values what we think, of course, but they aren’t going to make a decision without valid data sets and research to back up our recommendations,” he explains.
Kristin Gilpatrick is a writer for CUES’ Credit Union Management magazine.
Gathering valid and reliable compensation for executives and staff is critical, and CUES Executive Compensation Survey and CUES Employee Salary Survey are respected sources for your ongoing compensation research.
Furthermore, your annual participation in these surveys is vital to maintaining accurate benchmarking statistics. Participate by April 17, 2012, and you’ll be entered into monthly drawings for thank you prizes and CUES products--plus a grand prize drawing in May! Share your data for the Executive Compensation Survey here, and contact Dana Murn about participating in the CUES Employee Salary Survey: 866.508.0744, or e-mail surveysupport@cues.org.
