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Paromita Pain

You might compute your worth in a certain way. And your boss in another. It doesn't hurt to be in touch with what's happening around you in the work-wage spectrum.

CALL it moolah, dough or simply pay. However you say it, it has a nice ring to it, right?

Who doesn't wish for a pay packet that weighs heavy on the hands or a cheque that sends one's account skyrocketing?

Coming to more practical matters, if you are keen to evaluate your worth, and fix the salary you think you ought to be drawing, there are Web sites to take you part of the way.

Try out, for instance, www.salary.com and www.payscale.com.

PayScale, Inc. at http://www.payscale.com/about.asp, as the site says, is a Seattle-based company launched "to provide people around the world with compensation information that accurately represents their unique mix of skills, attributes and experience."

The employee or job candidate can evaluate a job offer or raise, evaluate salary for current jobs, check salaries for a future job, and also research multiple jobs or locations (business). Users have different things to say about it.

Dr T.R Gopalakrishnan, Department of Communication, University of Madras, says, "It gives you a global perspective on your job profile and value in the global labour market. Critical reports are generally paid-for services and hence only the general summary is free. It is very useful for mainstream labour markets, such as management, engineering or software."

But what is not so good, he feels, is that it takes one time to get used to the site interface.

"Your definition of your job profile should match the profile pre-conceived by the site designers. If not, accuracy might be compromised and you might not get the answers you are looking for. For professionals with less popular specialisations such as journalism, or for academicians and researchers, the only way to get some answers is through trial and error, which is very time-consuming," he says.

Also, "if you are an Indian looking for jobs in the US, it might provide useful information, but if you are an Indian looking for a job in India, the information might be a little unreliable," says Gopalakrishnan.

Varghese George, Principal Consultant, Trinity Associates, says, "Ideally, the home page of a Web site should have all the links in terms of offerings. The content could be made more attractive. It takes time to delve into the details and seek information and someone who is not computer savvy cannot easily use it."

Since it has options for employers as well, V. Chandrasekaran, VicePresident-Technology & Infrastructure, Secova eServices Ltd, says, "Purely from the employer's perspective, I am sceptical about some of the numbers the reports threw up. Personally, if I were to look at raises, I would consult my HR manager and look at the Nasscom data available."

Salary.com provides employee compensation data, software, and services to enterprises, small businesses, and individuals.

"Our enterprise software helps companies manage their compensation expenditures with real-time, decision-ready data and analytical tools," says the site.

It also has information on negotiation skills, interview tactics, and more employment and workplace-related issues. It advises employers on how to value their workers and sensibly asks managers, especially of small businesses, not to overpay or underpay because they are different. Twinkle Xavier, a PR consultant, says "The idea of coming up with a Web site to evaluate salary has merit. Yet, I would prefer it to be more India or geography-specific rather than bring the world on a single platform."

Kalpana Srinivasan, HR Manager, Aspire Sytems, wants such sites to offer better customisation for the Indian market, better navigation, improved visual design, including font and presentation, elimination of pop-ups and some screen scrolls that seem a kilometre long.

But all said and done, anything to do with salaries is important, wouldn't you agree, since wages are often key reasons for people quitting jobs or switching careers.

Gopalakrishnan recommends that students check both the sites and compare information to get a better understanding of pay scale range. It certainly will enable them to bargain better. This should be supplemented by inputs from professionals in the field to make the picture more rounded."

Paying attention to where one is placed in the salary spectrum is important - as important as doing one's job professionally.

paromita@thehindu.co.in

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