Q. I am an HR professional who has had difficulty persuading managers to accept the HR team's job matching to salary surveys. How would you recommend I proceed to get them to buy into the results? A. For companies that have difficulty getting managers to buy into the process of job matching, it can be helpful to start by providing them with data. Ask your colleagues in the employment department how many offers of employment are rejected based on what your company can offer. And then find out how many employees leave the company for more money and/or better career opportunities. Then, armed with your company's data, set up a meeting with your management team and give them three reasons why job matching is an important part of doing business. External competitiveness. For companies to be competitive, they must be able to pay their employees a competitive wage. In doing so, companies must benchmark their jobs to similar jobs offered by competitors. It is very important to match jobs to the appropriate survey jobs, as mismatches can have an impact on the survey results. For this reason, knowledgeable managers should match their own jobs. Internal equity. Many companies pay recent hires more than tenured employees relative to the market because new employees are more likely to command the competitive market rate. But such companies sometimes sacrifice existing employees for the sake of new ones. Companies who participate in salary surveys know what skill sets and competencies are in demand and what competing companies will pay for their competencies. To reduce turnover rates its important to remain ahead of the curve and pay employees before they leave. Turnover costs. One way to get the attention of your managers is to tell them the cost of replacing an employee. For instance, some IT jobs can cost a company up to $20,000 to fill. When managers know what an employee will cost the company in real dollars, they are more likely to see the virtue of participating in the process. Also, think about charging some of your recruiting costs to your manager, and see how soon they become interested in benchmarking jobs. Good luck. - Erisa Ojimba, Certified Compensation Professional