At the annual meeting of the HR division at a consumer products company, the vice president of HR noted that pay compression was a problematic phenomenon for certain jobs for which there was high demand, but low supply. This problem was especially acute for jobs in information technology and software engineering. The vice president of HR has hired you as a compensation consultant to help the company formulate an action plan for dealing with this situation. What would you say in this situation about potential solutions to the problem?
1) Institute a 10 percent pay reduction for the bottom 20 percent of employees in terms of pay
2) Provide equity adjustments for employees hardest hit by pay compression
3) Offer a one-time bonus to high-performing employees
4) Freeze the pay levels of the highest performing employees for three years