Total Compensation Management: Taming Costs and Rewarding Employees

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 6, 2008) - In the new benchmark report, "Total Compensation Management: Taming Costs and Rewarding Employees," Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), found that organizations are turning to total compensation programs to better align employee performance with business goals, and to increase employee satisfaction and retention.

Incentive compensation has been used successfully for years to motivate sales professionals. Now, a growing number of companies are looking to build on that model and apply it throughout the organization -- with total compensation management.

"Money talks. In fact, there is nothing else in the workplace that sends a louder message to employees," according to David Weldon, research analyst in the Human Capital Management practice at Aberdeen. "So it comes as no surprise that when organizations want to get the attention -- and retention -- of employees, the first place they turn to is payroll."

"But in the midst of a sour economy and tight labor budgets, the answer doesn't lie in padding out payroll," Weldon says. "It comes from using payroll more wisely. This is driving new interest in total compensation programs."

Eighty-seven percent of organizations that achieved our Best-in-Class status have partially or fully integrated their total compensation data collection with other workforce management applications. In doing so, 90% have increased their revenue per employee, 83% have decreased labor costs as a percentage of sales, 73% have improved employee job satisfaction, and 64% have increased employee retention.

The study also found that Best-in-Class organizations with respect to total compensation management are more likely to:

--  Integrate total compensation with employee performance management
    applications
    
--  Survey the local market to ensure that compensation plans are
    competitive
    
--  Determine who the top performing employees are, to ensure that the
    plan rewards them based on their contributions
    
--  Clearly communicate with employees what goals they are being measured
    against, and how their compensation amounts are determined
    

The report sheds light on the usage of technology to achieve Best-in-Class performance in total compensation management, and examines how global enterprises are implanting total compensation management programs and systems to improve performance in critical workforce management metrics. Report findings provide insight on what Best-in-Class companies are doing, and offers recommended actions to implement to impact how total compensation management can be used to drive improvements in payroll, performance management, budget forecasting, and employee retention.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part to the following underwriters: Cezanne Software, VURV and Green Total Compensation. To obtain a complimentary copy, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4737.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
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www.aberdeen.com

Contact Information: Media Contact: David Weldon Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5374 David.weldon@aberdeen.com