Renegotiating Salaries with Current Employees: A Recipe for Retention

April 7, 2025 in Food & Beverage Industry Information, HR Best Practices

 

Laurie Hyllberg

Laurie champions Kinsa Group’s position as the top food and beverage recruiting firm in the nation and its presence in the global FMCG marketplace. To her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Business Management, and Marketing she adds over 20 years of executive search experience in the food and beverage industry at Kinsa. Building a network of executives and professionals through membership in the Women’s Foodservice Forum, Institute of Food Technologists, FaB Wisconsin, Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network, and maintaining professional expertise in recruiting as an Executive Board Member for the Recruiters Of Wisconsin association, Laurie is able to connect top talent in the food industry with food and beverage processors and foodservice providers growing their teams at the C-Suite, VP, Director, and Management level. Connect with Laurie today!

 

Compensation conversations can be delicate but are essential for retaining motivated talent in the competitive food and beverage industry. From large food manufacturing companies to small beverage startups, fair pay is about more than numbers—it’s about recognizing achievements, preventing turnover, and fostering growth. Whether you oversee cheese making or lead a pet food marketing team, reevaluating current salaries is key to maintaining employee commitment and engagement.

Here are a few tips from Kinsa Group’s experienced recruiters on the subject of compensation:

 

1. Establish Objective Criteria for Pay Discussions

Anchoring salary reviews in defined and measurable KPI data provides a reliable baseline for decision-making. In food processing or meat production, quantifiable indicators often include improvements in output rates or yield, successful reduction of production line waste, or enhanced employee health and safety demonstrated by fewer safety incidents. By gathering tangible metrics—like the percentage decrease in waste over a given quarter or the sustained adoption of new safety protocols—chief operating officers can guide compensation discussions with objective evidence. This approach also alleviates guesswork, ensuring employees understand how their contributions factor into salary adjustments. For instance, a regional plant devoted to frozen vegetable packaging might chart a specific reduction in defective packaging incidents, and then directly tie that achievement to potential pay raises. By making expectations clear through well-documented standards, everyone involved sees that the process is driven by merit rather than arbitrary decisions.

 

2. Foster Empathy in the Dialogue

While performance benchmarks guide the conversation, empathy is the glue that holds these discussions together. The food sector is highly dynamic, with unexpected challenges like seasonal spikes in demand or fluctuating ingredient costs. A packaging supervisor handling a surge in orders during holiday seasons may experience increased stress levels and longer work shifts. Rather than focusing solely on performance statistics, leaders should acknowledge these extra demands and invite personal perspectives on how work pressures affect employees’ well-being. By exploring how someone’s current responsibilities have shifted—perhaps they’ve taken on additional work hours or weekend work with the addition of a new production line—employers can propose raises or incentives that reflect these expanded roles. Showing genuine curiosity about an individual’s daily challenges demonstrates that management cares about their professional growth as well as their personal balance, ultimately creating an environment founded on trust. In turn, team members become more willing to share honest feedback and collaborative solutions.

 

3. Align Compensation with Industry Realities

Salary expectations can differ significantly based on factors like location, job complexity, and the size of the operation. Understanding what constitutes competitive pay starts with researching credible industry data.  This is especially important for specialized roles—such as flavor chemists or food safety experts—who often command higher salaries due to their niche expertise, education, and industry certifications. By reviewing industry-specific reports or partnering with organizations that track market trends, you gain insight into current market rates for key positions. Even smaller producers, like family-owned dairies, can structure pay creatively through profit-sharing plans or flexible scheduling, offering meaningful alternatives to traditional salary models. These options often appeal to employees who value autonomy, unique benefits, or influence in the company’s direction. Ultimately, aligning your compensation strategy with market benchmarks—and clearly communicating those insights—helps promote transparency, fairness, and a stronger sense of trust within your workforce.

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4. Create a Structured Compensation Framework

Once you’ve gathered performance metrics and industry data, it’s essential to create a transparent framework that clarifies how and when salary reviews occur. Instead of allowing pay discussions to happen on an ad-hoc basis, consider setting up quarterly or biannual checkpoints that examine performance against predetermined criteria. A mid-sized manufacturing enterprise might implement a structured plan where staff members earn incremental raises for introducing process improvements, guiding product development, or surpassing efficiency milestones. This open, tiered system clarifies the road to higher compensation and demonstrates that management rewards forward-thinking efforts. It also aids in budgeting—if leadership knows a production technician could earn a certain raise at six months, they can allocate resources in advance. By laying out a roadmap, you set clear expectations that minimize misunderstandings and keep the focus on achievements and future growth potential.

 

5. Balance Rewards with Future Advantages

Salary renegotiation goes beyond base pay—it’s about crafting a well-rounded compensation package. In food manufacturing and distribution, where seasonal peaks create pressure, offering perks like performance bonuses during high-demand periods can boost morale and retention. A bakery, for example, might experience a surge in orders during holidays, making it essential to reward staff loyalty during those busy times. Long-term benefits such as education reimbursement, retirement contributions, or industry memberships support ongoing professional growth and show employees you’re invested in their future. Even small gestures—like sponsoring certifications or sending dedicated employees to overnight workshops—can reinforce that commitment. Employees today often seek more than just a paycheck; they want a meaningful career path. By combining short-term incentives, such as overtime pay, with lasting benefits like health insurance and career development opportunities, you create a compensation approach that addresses both immediate motivation and long-term career satisfaction.

 

6. Implement a Structured Review Process

A formal salary review process adds value if it’s consistently followed. In the fast-paced food and beverage industry—where timelines often hinge on production cycles or harvest seasons—salary discussions can easily fall by the wayside. Scheduling regular evaluations, such as after the holiday rush or before launching a new sales campaign, signals that compensation remains a priority. For example, a protein processing plant might use late winter—once holiday shipments are complete—to assess performance metrics and determine raises. These moments also allow for timely recognition of exceptional work. If a supply chain manager negotiates better shipping rates or secures a new vendor contract, a prompt review can reward that success. Regular, strategic evaluations not only align with business rhythms but also reinforce trust—showing employees that leadership is committed to acknowledging achievements fairly and without delay. Consistency in this process builds loyalty and supports long-term engagement.

 

7. Utilize Professional Expertise in Niche Areas

When specialized roles demand cutting-edge skill sets—say, a regulatory compliance manager well-versed in stringent USDA regulations or a marketing director who excels at launching branded snack lines—hiring managers may benefit from outside guidance. Salaries in these situations can become intricate, shaped by factors such as higher education, specialized certifications, or a demonstrated ability to expand a product line across multiple regions. Consulting agencies, like Kinsa Group, bring updated salary data that highlights pay disparities across different locales, ensuring your company remains competitive without overshooting the budget. Such experts also offer an external vantage point, verifying whether specific credentials warrant a higher rate. This impartial perspective can put employees at ease. Instead of blindly asserting salary limits, you can demonstrate that your compensation approach is validated by external analyses. The result is a process that feels evenhanded, mitigating friction and encouraging a sense of integrity within your organization.

 

8. Blend Salary Renegotiations into Your Retention Recipe

While fair compensation is a cornerstone of employee satisfaction, it’s only one ingredient in the retention recipe. To hold onto your top performers, integrate salary renegotiations into a broader strategy that includes career path planning, mentorship programs, and recognition initiatives. Publicly celebrating notable milestones—like successful new product rollouts or surpassing quarterly sales goals—amplifies the sense that accomplishments are valued. At the same time, creating spaces where employees can voice concerns, be it through open forums or anonymous surveys, gives leadership a clearer view of underlying morale. Restoring fairness in pay cannot solve every issue, but it can remove a significant barrier that might otherwise push individuals to explore external opportunities. Consistent communication, where dialogues about progress and compensation become normal rather than rare, fosters mutual respect. This approach leads to higher employee continuity and retention for the organization, which is vital in this industry where expertise, efficiency, and established relationships often translate to operational success.

By weaving these principles together—objective criteria, empathy, market awareness, systematic frameworks, a blend of near-term and future rewards, thoughtful follow-ups, expert guidance, and a holistic retention view—employers can transform salary renegotiations into a positive, forward-looking endeavor. Recognizing how each employee fits into the bigger picture of driving innovation, meeting quality standards, and growing profitability can help you tailor strategies that boost morale and professional growth.

Partner with Kinsa

At Kinsa Group, we encourage organizations in the food and beverage sector to adopt these best practices of balanced, transparent discussions about compensation. By emphasizing open communication, thorough research, and shared objectives, companies can create an environment where fair pay is a clear sign of respect and appreciation. It’s a practice that lifts not only individual performers but the entire organization, nurturing a culture of excellence felt at every level.

For more than four decades, Kinsa Group has provided specialized guidance to businesses across the food manufacturing spectrum, working to ensure that both employers and job candidates join forces in a manner that drives shared progress. Helping organizations cultivate teams that remain committed, productive, and enthusiastic about forging the next era of innovation in our food supply.

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