Paying people fairly is hard. Pay too much and you're not competitive. Pay too little and they leave. There are many types of bonus plans, paid time off options, and base compensation practices. How can we get something that is easy to administer, yet effective? And how
can technology help - if at all?

First we'll go into base compensation...

Base Compensation

Market pay data is now free on the Internet, and it's a great place to start finding information. Salary.com, for example has a free tool that shows that Java developers in Austin make about $60k. This site can give you a quick idea if you're completely out to lunch on how you're paying your people today. Hint: Look at this site before you tell your employees about it and start working to correct problems right away.

If employees are paid hourly, timesheet automation systems can keep track of hours worked, feed the payroll system and eliminate buddy punching (where your buddy clocks in for you).

Next time we'll talk about PTO.

Curt Finch is the author of a book about employee time tracking.