Compensation Archives

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6 Guidelines to Develop a Compensation Plan for Legal Associates and Support Staff

Nicole Sithithavorn Blog Compensation, HR, planning, Staffing, Strategy

Setting up a compensation plan can be a long-term and complicated process. You can get started, however, on this important task by keeping the following guidelines in mind:

Determine your law firm’s vision. How can your benefits package reflect this? A staff-oriented business wants to nurture its team and keep them for many years. A strong retirement plan with a generous matching system entices support staff to stay. You may want to consider options such as a tuition reimbursement plan or performance recognition programs.
Recognize that your compensation plan needs to fit your budget. Your compensation plan should stay consistent, even in challenging years. Especially in high-profit years, you don’t want to offer a meager compensation plan. Flexibility is the key: Offer bonuses based on performance. This serves as an incentive for staff to work harder.
Research the options. You can include many benefits in your compensation plan in addition to bonuses and merit incentives. In fact, the options are limitless. Talk with other firms about their solutions for staff loyalty programs.
Offer a compensation plan with a mix of benefits. Offer long- and short-term options: Reward your support staff in the short run, but also connect with such long-term benefits as a healthy retirement plan, health plans, and even dental plans, if you can swing it. And don’t forget flexible spending benefits. Consider family-oriented benefits, such as on-site childcare or day care reimbursement.
Don’t be too generous with your compensation plan. Avoid resentment among your staff — it’s easier to add a benefit than to take one away. If your business isn’t doing too well, don’t subtract benefits. A better way to go is to be realistic when designing your plan.
Put your compensation plan in writing. Make sure you’re following current employment laws to ensure compliance. Go over benefits plans with new associates and support staff when they’re hired.

Motivating your staff is the name of the game in this competitive environment. Controlling costs and ensuring equity of compensation programs are features of most well-designed plans. Mirror the culture of your firm by establishing a compensation philosophy that reflects your compensation strategy. This helps in recruiting and retaining associates and support staff. Does your compensation plan reflect how much you value certain positions in relation to other positions in your firm?

A growing number of law firms are incorporating performance-based compensation plans to boost productivity and maximize return on investment in compensation. Basically, the idea is to reward your most productive support staff. Traditional salary increases aren’t as connected to performance as they should be. Conversely, a well-thought-out performance-based bonus plan can be tied directly to the results of the firm.

Developing a performance-based compensation plan isn’t easy. Don’t set performance targets too low or use the wrong metrics to determine your staff’s performance. Instead, call us today and learn how to ignite your law firm through motivational plans that are positive for everyone.

Pro Tip: Equity Compensation

admin Blog, Pro Tip Compensation, Compliance, Corporate Structures, HR, Legal Considerations

Business owners often want to give some sort of equity compensation to their most vital staff members. While this is a wonderful sentiment, there are considerations before you take that step:

1. Corporate Structure – this can impact the way in which an equity interest can be bestowed

2. Tax implications for the current owner, the company and the employee

3. Future implications for things like profits distributions, decision making process and succession planning

4. Legal for the transaction and operating agreement moving forward

Using equity compensation can be a valuable tool, if done well.

Pro Tip: Operating Multiple Restaurant Units

admin Blog, Pro Tip Benchmarking, Compensation, KPIs, Pricing, Product Offering, Staffing

If you operate multiple restaurant units, don’t manage them in isolation. By comparing location-specific performance metrics—like table turn time, food cost percentage, labor spend, and average ticket size—you can spot where one store excels (and why) and apply that winning formula across all units. Here’s how:

Standardize KPIs: Identify a core set of metrics (e.g., weekly labor cost as a percentage of sales, average revenue per transaction) that every location must track.
Benchmark & Share Best Practices: Regularly review and compare these KPIs to uncover top-performing units. Investigate the operational strategies behind their success and replicate them in underperforming locations.
Align Incentives: Tie management and staff incentives to location-specific improvements in these standardized KPIs. Reward both individual unit gains and overall company-wide performance to encourage collaboration.
Refine Operations & Menu Offerings: Use the insights gleaned from the data to optimize labor scheduling, streamline supplier negotiations, and fine-tune menu pricing and promotions.

By continuously gathering and sharing location-level metrics—and treating success stories as replicable playbooks—you’ll not only improve operational efficiency but also activate sustainable sales growth across your entire restaurant portfolio.