With Labor Day behind us, the unofficial end of summer is here. Children are back in school, nights are getting cooler, and football is back. That can only mean one thing, budget season is here. This begins the time of year when we get to reflect on our previous year, and start planning for the next. Forecasting revenues, strategic planning, and that dreaded expense line. With a dwindling talent pool available, here are a couple of things to think about while putting your 2014 budgets together.
- Compensation: Make sure to budget a little bit extra into the base salaries. With the difficulty in acquiring good talent, you need to make sure you have enough to attract the candidates that YOU desire.
- Merit Increases: As you are looking to hire externally, so are your competitors. Show your employees the love with salary increases. If you don’t, someone will!
- Relocation expenses: Your ideal candidate may not be in your market, don’t skimp on the relo package. You don’t need to buy their house, but don’t insult them by offering 2-3k to move their own stuff.
- Sign-on bonuses: It has been some time since we have needed them, but they are a useful tool if you have to offset costs (i.e. benefit differential, 401k, bonus money they are leaving behind).
Budgets can be a painful and arduous process. Make sure that you keep in mind ALL the expense tied to new hires.