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IREI's CEO may indeed be considered arrogant by some, but he is not involved in reviewing or approving any salaries except for the three people who directly report to him.
Salaries levels at IREI are set by each department manager working in collaboration with our COO and Controller.
Every effort is made to provide every employee with competitive, fair and equitable compensation based on industry data obtained from a single, trusted, independent third party employment database (the Employment Research Institute or ERI database).
Job titles play no role in setting salary levels at IREI, as job titles for the same job can vary from company to company, industry to industry, and region to region. Instead, salary ranges for each job at IREI are based on a comparison of the job duties outlined for each individual in their job description with comparable job duties embedded in the descriptions for jobs listed in the ERI Database. Again, titles in this matching process are not a criteria. Job duties are being compared, not job titles.
The data in the ERI database is based on millions of jobs, and can be segmented by industry, geographic region and company size to ensure fair comparability.
Employees are "placed" with the range established for their job in the ERI database based on their length of time with the Company, and their performance as measured in their annual written performance review.
IREI does not believe in granting "merit increases." IREI believes that it is inappropriate to raise an employee's base compensation permanently in recognition of a single or series of accomplishments. Rather, our intention is to make sure they are placed higher within their salary range if they consistently are meeting or exceeding our expectations.
IREI does believe in recognizing and rewarding exceptional performance and contributions. IREI Managers are empowered to authorize the payment of individual merit bonuses to recognize outstanding performance or exceptional contributions in support of the Company's mission. Bonus awards that exceed annually budgeted amounts must be approved by the COO prior to payment. Requests for bonus payments must be fully substantiated so as to avoid favoritism.
In addition, it's been our practice to reserve a portion of the Company's annual profits for distribution to all non-commissioned employees (not just managers) from the Employee Bonus Pool.
In addition to our cash compensation program, all permanent full time employees at IREI receive company paid health care coverage and have the opportunity to participate in the company's partially subsidized family coverage program as well. IREI employees also have the opportunity to contribute to the Company's 401 K program, and are eligible to participate in the Company's profit sharing program whenever contributions are made by the Company.
Employees also participate in a generous Personal Time Off (PTO) program which provides each employee with flexility regarding the use of their accrued earned vacation and sick time.
IREI has a policy of encouraging its employees to maintain an appropriate and healthy work/life balance. No one is encouraged nor are they expected to work extra hours or weekends on a consistent basis. (The proof of this claim is, IREI's parking lot is almost always empty shortly after closing time, and is almost always empty on the weekends. In fact, any employee observed to be excessively working over time or on weekends typically will be counseled about the importance of engineering greater balance between their family and work commitments.)
The performance of each employee is evaluated by their manager annually. These evaluations are based on the employees' performance of the job duties outlined in their job descriptions as well as on the accomplishment of the personal goals the employee helped set and agreed to during the prior year's evaluation. Working extra hours or weekends is not even considered when conducting performance evaluations at IREI, and certainly has no role in setting wage rates.
Although it admittedly may not always have been the case, all of IREI's managers today are well qualified to do their jobs, and most have been in their current management roles here at the company for three years or longer. Several have been in their roles for ten years or longer.
Many of our employees have risen through the ranks, including most of our managers.
The company's revenues and profits have shown a healthy, consistent growth pattern over the past several years which has created the opportunity for individuals to be promoted. Promotions at IREI are based on merit and contribution, not on favoritism.
IREI always attempts to deal with its employees fairly, although we may sometimes not do as good a job as we hope and want to do. There is always room for improvement, and we both encourage and welcome feedback from our employees.
