Market competitve pay and its dynamics

In todays world of rising attrition and increasing employee demands, I feel that market competitive pay makes sense. That can be said atleast of some industries. I work in marketing research and in similar industries wherein employee talent rather that employee numbers make more of a difference, i feel that this system might work a lot for corporations. In our industry, talented employees are generally the drivers for firms, as clients are always demanding and performance is guaranteed only with a quality workforce. We get direct client feedback, as well as cases where particular employees are demanded for by the clients. Hence in such cases the job satisfacion is immense, be it any organization. This does not change with different organizations, as your quality of work travels by word of mouth. In such as case, companies can lose employees easily purely on the basis of the remuneration that is awarded. And with the options available, it is easier to switch between jobs and find the satisfaction levels that are desired. The present jobs are also much more stressful. I spend almost regular 15 hour days regularly, and hence if i feel that the pay package does not match that which is given in the market, I would definitely be pushed to take a call.

I also think in a way, it is the way companies strategize. Some of the players in the market use that as a basic calling card. Their competency is the fact that they govern market pay and make their pay the comparable base. So although you might go for such companies, some thought is also given to the quality of work that is provided. But these are only a few cases. In most of the cases today, a large chunk of employees work for better remunerations and also decide on career paths on the sam factor. With the huge demand for quality labor in India, it has become a different scene from about 5-10 years back when you would think thrice before thinking of a switch.

In conclusion, with today's market dynamics it is important to go by market based pay. Quite a few industries are there where employees are driven purely by pay, as other factors that add to the job such as quality, satisfaction, learning etc. are minimal. Hence here i feel that market based pay works out as an important strategy. With jobs that are more involving and are more satisfying, one can do without this philosophy, but i think in many cases it might just backfire if you stay away from market competitive pay.