Services

Dedicated to providing
customized human resources solutions

WHAT CLIENTS SAY

Quatt is a gem of a firm: knowledgeable, responsive, relates well to clients and has a particular focus and sensitivity to the needs to the nonprofit sector.
– Celia Roady, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

Since 1997, Quatt Associates has offered an array of human resources services including executive and staff compensation, performance management, strategy and planning.

We work with a wide range of nonprofits to customize solutions that are both dynamic and adaptable.  In particular, we focus on systems and processes that recognize and support an organization’s culture, operations, and strategic direction.

For more information on our core services, please click the titles below.  We also welcome inquiries about our services through the “Contact” tab.

Compensation

Executive Compensation
Quatt Associates develops customized executive compensation packages for a wide variety of not-for-profit clients. Our executive compensation recommendations are consistent with legal standards, which include the IRS Intermediate Sanctions regulations, as well as the expectations of the organization’s supporters, funders, and other stakeholders. To meet the IRS standards we base our recommendations on rigorous, in-depth market analysis. Our studies draw on our extensive proprietary database, which we supplement with IRS form 990 data and published data from both local and national surveys. We then develop a customized compensation package. The mix between base salary and other compensation is based on consultation with the organization and the CEO. Recommendations for bonuses or incentives are tied to organizational strategy and performance objectives.

Staff Compensation
Designing and updating organization-wide compensation systems is a cornerstone of our practice. We craft compensation structures customized to each client’s organizational culture and strategic objectives.

Our approach starts with understanding what the client wants to achieve through its compensation system. We first work with the client to develop a clear compensation philosophy, and then carefully analyze the market, working with the client to understand the appropriate market comparators, the nature of the organization’s work, and the role of each position in the organization.

Based on this analysis we then develop clear and comprehensible compensation structures consistent with best practice, both in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.

Our compensation systems are dynamic and adaptable.

IS Analysis
Quatt Associates regularly prepares intermediate sanctions analyses of executive pay in order to protect our clients—and their Boards—from IRS penalties. We carefully compare compensation to the appropriate marketplace in order to ensure that executive compensation is consistent with IRS and other legal standards. We then provide not-for-profit Boards with the detailed compensation comparison they need in order to take advantage of the IRS regulations’ rebuttable presumption of reasonableness, which provides a partial safe harbor for Board members from IRS penalties.

Performance Management Programs

Performance Management Programs
Quatt Associates helps its clients develop organization-wide performance management systems that are tied to their organizational goals and consistent with their cultures. Our services are tailored to address every aspect of the company—organizational, departmental, and individual. We create appropriate performance measures for all levels of the organization, and work closely with the client to implement the performance management process. All systems need to be revised in the light of actual experience, and we help clients to monitor and improve their systems as they are tested in practice.

Performance Metrics
We develop long-term and annual performance measures that are used to monitor progress towards achieving the objectives of the strategic plan. We work closely with our clients to develop performance measures, ensuring that they represent a balanced set of achievable but appropriately ambitious goals that support the client’s key strategic objectives.

Leadership and Management Assessments
Quatt Associates regularly conducts leadership assessments for its clients in order to provide individual executives and leadership teams with the most complete and accurate information as to how their management performance is perceived within their organization. Based on discussions with the client regarding the organization’s performance metrics and strategic objectives, Quatt develops an assessment instrument that will enable respondents to provide vital feedback on leadership performance, emphasizing the performance areas that are most critical to the organization’s success. Leadership assessments may be “360”, in that they seek feedback from peers at the executive level, staff members, and Board members, or directed at specific groups of respondents.

Employment Surveys and Organizational Assessments
We conduct employee opinion surveys, focus groups, and other organization needs analyses to support organizational change. We have extensive experience in developing survey instruments, collecting data, and presenting the data to staff and management. We can conduct opinion surveys conducted online, reducing consultant costs and making survey participation faster and easier.

Strategy and Planning

Strategic Planning and Implementation
Strategic planning and an organization’s long-term objectives are at the core of every project we undertake—even those that are not in and of themselves strategic planning studies. Whether we are designing a new compensation system, analyzing an organization’s structure, or implementing a new performance management system, we begin by working with our client to understand its strategic objectives. Those strategic objectives then guide our work with the client. For many clients, we specifically develop and conduct stand-alone strategic planning processes. We insist that the strategic planning process emphasize both the development of multi-year strategic plans and the careful implementation of those plans.

Organizational Structure & Process
Quatt Associates works with organizations to develop the processes, structures, and systems that allow them to achieve their strategic objectives.

The firm has been retained to assist with the restructuring of entire organizations as well as to work with individual groups or departments to determine the causes of lagging performance. We have also worked with Boards of Directors to improve their performance. As is true in all the services we provide to our clients, we ensure that each solution will meet the needs and culture of the organization.