Considerations of an employee pay plan presented at COE sessions

James L. Spires, MBA, CMPE, certified ophthalmic executive (COE), Premier Medical Management Inc., explained the practice of awarding raises annually to different level employees in his presentation, "Developing an Employee Pay Plan." Spires' talk was part of the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators-sponsored COE rapid-fire presentations.

"No matter what your practice size is, it's good policy to have a plan of some kind," Spires said. "You need to have consistency when you're hiring people relative to having people that have been there for a while."

He discussed how to determine the market rates for certain job classes, which can sometimes be a daunting task, according to Spires.

Spires also described a step-by-step system to establish pay grades, from the first step being a beginner with no experience to the sixth step being the maximum in which an employee has topped out.

He suggested ways to apply a pay plan, including wage increases for topped-out employees. Spires also offered tips for how to maintain a pay plan that reflects annual increases in the cost of living and how to establish pay grades for job classes that currently do not fit the model.