Until now, human resource and compensation professionals in the public/not-for-profit sector didn't have a compensation guidebook specifically for them. Unlike their for-profit counterparts, specialists in the not-for-profit sector wrestle with such questions as:

• How is merit defined when "good years" in the customary business sense (a burst of revenue from successful operations) either cannot exist or cannot be used for compensation purposes?
• How do you structure executive compensation in the absence of stock options?
• Where does the organization obtain bonus money when even exceptionally successful operations may bring in no additional revenue?
• Is "growing the business" even relevant in a public or not-for-profit environment? And if so, how is business growth identified?

Written by recognized not-for-profit HR specialist JoAnn Senger, Designing a Not-For-Profit Compensation System helps human resource and compensation professionals design and maintain compensation structures that withstand the test of time within their own unique public/not-for-profit environment.

Designing a Not-For-Profit Compensation System takes readers step by step through the process, beginning with an assessment of the nature of the organization, its financial framework, and its workforce before examining the jobs and related compensation issues. Assuming a familiarity with current compensation structures and bases—including overlapping ranges, broadbanding, step structures, commission structures, merit- and competency-based pay, and other basic aspects of compensation systems—this practical guidebook answers the all-important question: How do you evaluate whether a compensation technique is relevant to a specific public or not-for-profit environment?

Designing a Not-For-Profit Compensation System helps readers determine what compensation structures will bridge the gap between theory and practice within their own organizations, covering such topics as factoring budget cycles, regulatory constraints, and the role of boards of directors.

Each chapter highlights Excel® spreadsheets intended to help readers document the information needed to make compensation structure decisions. Working through one flexible spreadsheet at a time, Designing a Not-For-Profit Compensation System helps professionals develop an effective, tailor-made compensation system that reflects and embraces their unique environment.

About the Author

JOANN SENGER is founder and President of Senger Services, a consulting firm offering such services as counseling, recruitment, policy development, compensation studies, workflow and staffing analysis, training, and targeted interviewing to a large variety of not-for-profit organizations. Clients have included: Ventura County; U.S. Navy through VRMack Management Consultants; Screen Actors Guild; Investigations Etc.; California Institute of Integral Studies; California Institute of Podiatry; Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; the Fielding Institute; and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Senger currently teaches economics for the University of Phoenix; information and cost analysis in HR management for the University of California, Santa Barbara extension program; and preparation classes for the SPHR/PHR certification examinations for California State University at Northridge and Professionals in Human Resource Association (PIHRA). She has also taught benefits and compensation for the California Lutheran University extension program.