In the war for talent one thing is clear: high-tech employees win big. Extravagant employee benefits are officially back on the table.

The idea of rewarding your employees may conjure up visions of broken piggy banks and shattered budgets in your head.

Not every employee reward has to be pricey, however. Roberta Chinsky Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions, outlines 30 ways that a company can make employees feel valuable without overspending. Here are some of Matuson’s suggestions: Think there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Your employees shouldn’t. By proving a free weekly or monthly lunch, you can foster a sense of community between the staff. Offering compensation benefits for wellness is another…

Wallets have been bound fairly tightly since the economic downturn, but 2011 prooved to be a year of resurgence.

According to this infographic created by PayScale, once-reluctant employers spent much of 2011 dolling out raises to employees. Almost half of employers said that they increased pay ranges in 2011. Not only that, but hiring is also on the rise. According to the infographic, 57 percent of media and telecommunications companies have expanded their employee base in 2011. Rounding out the activity that the infographic highlights, social media usage for recruiting has seen a significant increase — approximately…

Sales compensation planning at a company should generally be viewed from four different perspectives, each representing a line of unique thinking.

And in this regard, each perspective has the potential to add value to the sales compensation planning process. In a recent article for Sales Benchmark Index, Ryan Tognazzini outlines each of these vantage points and their relevance. For example, consider the executive’s perspective. An executive will look at sales compensation from the top, down. Budgets will usually be a chief consideration here and most other factors will become secondary. This differs greatly…

The Great Recession all but eliminated frivolous spending and high-end perks.

In place of this came bang-for-the-buck rewards that intended to genuinely make employees feel rewarded without sacrificing payroll budgets. It became increasingly important to reward employees based on their personalities, unique contributions and roles within the company. Contributing writer for The Business Journals Linda Bryant believes that companies must now understand how to maximize their investments in employee perks. Also as a result of these changes, truly meaningful employee rewards have become less standardized. To get a sense of what kinds of perks might interest an employee, your best bet is to go directly…

In a post for Tony Wright’s Startup End, Wright looks into the topic of startup compensation, focusing in the area of stock options.

Joe Reynolds discusses why giving your employees unlimited vacation days can in some ways boost productivity, promote employee development and solidify employee retention.

In a post for TNLT, Ann Bares looks into the idea of a viral bonus plan and discusses its merits for growing companies.

Sales analyst Ryan Tognazzini explains why companies need to abandon the top-down approach to sales compensation planning.