Starting at 8am this morning, Compference attendees have had a jam-packed day networking, learning and knowledge sharing everything under the sun related to compensation. Needless to say, it’s been an amazing and comptastic first day of Compference. But just like any other conference you might attend, the vast amount of information you’re presented with can sometimes feel, and be, overwhelming at times. The good news is that we’ve put together this day one recap to elaborate on some of the most important conversations, insights and keynotes throughout the day. If you weren’t able to join us in Austin this year, this is a great way to keep up with all of the Compference17 highlights.
Modern Comp With Mike Metzger
PayScale CEO Mike Metzger kicked off Compference with his keynote on the future of Modern Compensation. Mike’s talk centers around the factors that really move the needle and help modernize compensation as we know it. Factors include things like transparency, engagement, communication, culture and pay perception. In short, this trifecta of factors or pay values can make or break your compensation strategy.
Mike talked a lot about how employee engagement can mean the difference between success and failure, and the fact that compensation drives trust and fairness. Which in turn, drives employee engagement. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from Mike’s talk on modern comp.
- Fair pay doesn’t always mean more pay. It’s about transparency.
- If you don’t provide your team with information around comp, they’ll invent their own narrative about it.
- The missing link in the comp process? Clear communication to employees.
- If you’re having one dimensional conversations with your employees, they will share a one dimensional story about how you pay.
- Organizations need to focus on their pay brand. What do your employees believe about how your organization pays it’s people?
Interview With Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments
Dan Price is the CEO of Seattle-based Gravity Payments. Whether or not you’ve heard of the company, most people have heard of Dan Price in one way or another. He’s most famous for giving each and every employees at Gravity Payments a raise, which included a minimum salary of seventy thousand dollars per 
year. Whether or not you agree with what Dan did in terms of compensation, it was fascinating for all of us at Compference to hear how the minimum salary changes have impacted his workforce. Here’s some of the surprising highlights from Dan’s interview.
- On the minimum salary change: [Stakeholders] tried but failed to make a win-lose out of it for the company. But when you pay people fairly, profits increase too.
- After the 70k minimum pay change, company pregnancies rose from 0-2 pregnancies per year, to 15 pregnancies per year.
- New company metrics of success should include the number of new company babies per year and the number of first time home buyers per year.
- Every single person is an entrepreneur. You are capable of impacting huge change.
The Formula For a Winning Company Culture with Chris Martin
Chris Martin is the lead data analyst at PayScale. Needless to say, he’s spent a lot of time looking at the PayScale data set in order to get a better understanding of how compensation and engagement work together to create a winning company culture. For his talk, first Chris pushes through the noise around engagement to show managers and stakeholders what truly matters to employees and how that affects company culture. Here are some highlights from his talk.
- The data doesn’t lie. Sometimes transparency is better than a raise.
- Millennials are most likely to leave an organization even if they’re highly satisfied with their employer.
- Appreciation and company outlook have the most impact on employee satisfaction.
- Have you heard that employees leave managers, not companies? Not completely accurate. “Good” manager relationships are good enough.
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