Is it about the money, honey? No, don't be funny!

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Recently the CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, Kevin Kelly, was in India and during his interactions with the media he mentioned that CEOs don't always get motivated to move for higher compensation. And that at this level the bigger motivation is the challenge and the ability to make an impact.

Sonal Agarwal, CEO of Accord Group, in her recent article in the Mint, also elaborately discussed this topic of compensation and what you should bear in mind while negotiating an offer, especially if you are changing industry or country (It's not always about the money!).

I wanted to share a few thoughts based on my recent interactions with a few people on this topic. (Well, this happens to be a topic which most people want to discuss with us folks! :) )

• Compensation is a very important reason why you are staying in a particular company or why you want to move to another company. It might not be the most important or the only reason, but it surely plays a big role.
• As you move higher up in an organisation, or as you spend time in your career, compensation tends to move lower down in your list of reasons for making career move decisions. (If this is not true in your case, then that's ok too. But you might like to ask yourself, why this is the case!)
• I have also noticed that, all things being equal, people who have moved jobs frequently, especially after 12-15 years of their overall experience, tend to draw lower compensation packages than the ones who have not.
• Sometimes it doesn't seem fair that some companies or headhunters do not consider you for a role because your compensation is lower than that of the other candidates they are considering, despite your experience. But compensation does tend to be a proxy barometer of your competencies and achievements. And many hiring officials tend to have misgivings about you if your compensation is lower than the average drawn by your peers in the industry.
• As a corollary, getting a job-offer which pays you far higher than your current compensation and much higher than the average compensation for the industry could lead to a tricky situation. This usually happens when a company is starting operations in the country and does not have a benchmark to go with, or is using internal parity with a country with much higher PPP, or is trying to start a new business and assumes that you will be able to deliver.
  This situation could create problems at multiple levels :
• The company might realise that they are over-paying and want to scale back later, which leaves you in a difficult situation.
• Or worse still, they might decide to eliminate the role and bring in someone at a lower level.
• The company might expect you to deliver impractical numbers and results and you inadvertently end up becoming a non-performer.
• Moving to another company also has its own challenges since you are over-priced. And any attempt by you to peg your compensation back to reasonable market-levels also tends to create misgivings in the headhunter or company officials.

If you are looking to make a change it is important for you to have a clear plan on how you would address the compensation related discussions - what you expect, what is non-negotiable, what does the company pay other leaders, etc.

Compensation might not be the biggest reason for business leaders in making their career move choices, but it is definitely a big reason for many conversations breaking down between companies and people they are trying to bring on board.

So its not all about the money... but then its also about the money, honey!