Broadbanding, according to WorldatWork's glossary of reward terminology, is defined as follows:
A pay structure that consolidates a large number of pay grades and salary ranges into much fewer broad bands with relatively wide salary ranges, typically with 100 percent or more difference between minimum and maximum.
Like many reward concepts and approaches, broadbands seem to cycle in and out of popularity, being frequently re-discovered and even re-purposed as The Answer to common salary management challenges. On its surface, the appeal of this is easy to understand. Fewer "grades," coupled with wider ranges sounds like less structure, less bureaucracy, less administrative work and more flexibility. In theory, that's true.
In practice, it can be a little more complicated.
For my thoughts on why this is true - as well as what broadbands might offer us in the dawning age of analytics, please check out my post at the Compensation Cafe.
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