For the most part, pay transparency laws like California’s are going to affect individual businesses across all departments with a few variations. One area of business that will have to get creative is sales. When your employees’ roles are largely defined by competing for pay, the pay transparency can seem like a major obstacle. However, there may be opportunities within this particular challenge.

Here are some considerations for sales departments and organizations affected by California’s pay transparency laws.

[In case you missed it, part 1 of my series on pay transparency talks specifically about the inside of California’s new law. Part 2 is about how to prepare for the changes ahead. Part 3 is about the overall pros and cons of pay transparency. And to stay current on changes in pay laws and other compensation matters, be sure to sign up for my newsletter.]

You Still Need a Pay Structure

Sales employers are still required to submit documentation of pay ranges and structure as well as pursue consistency and reduce inequity. However, while your base salary structure is subject to the reporting requirements of California’s pay transparency law, there is little guidance given in terms of variable pay programs such as bonuses and commissions. While fairness is key, you will still be able to motivate your salespeople with variable pay in order to keep your sales program competitive.

Take the Opportunity to Differentiate Your Organization

Creative variable pay programs are a great way to differentiate your organization from others in the event that salary structures begin to become homogenized. With a goal-based bonus or commission program, you can attract motivated, enthusiastic salespeople who are driven by their innate competitive nature and desire to win. If possible, avoid caps on achievement, and even better, create accelerators for above and beyond performance—if it makes fiscal sense to do so. Make the effort to produce a program that is unique to your organization.

Make Sure Sales Program is Consistent and Fair

It can be trickier than you think to achieve equity in a variable pay program. Your initial rules may disproportionately favor some people over others. The language you use to describe your program can be coded with unconscious bias. And don’t forget to consider the territory perspective: do you create the same quotas and performance periods for a sales group in Wyoming as you do for a group in New York City? Would that be fair considering the difference in population? Fairness comes from equitable treatment in the territory assignment, quota allocation, and in the governance and exception process. Be sure to account for fairness in your processes.

Leverage Culture

Communicate aspects of your mission statement, core values, and purpose statement in the job description and in the incentive plan document. Highlighting the path to meaningful work for employees is core to gaining alignment for improved outcomes for the organization. Be sure to utilize transparency of the organization’s purpose and mission early and often so that there is engagement and support. The sales person carries this with them to the customer. Make sure how you treat them illustrates the desired reflection of your organization’s culture.

Regularly Assess Your Program and Results

Not only do you want to make sure your variable pay program is producing the sales results you want, you also need to operate within the spirit of the pay transparency law. That means periodically looking at a sample pay or performance period, documenting everyone’s pay, and analyzing the pay according to sex, age, ethnicity, and race. Analysis is a little trickier when it comes to variable pay because people perform at different levels and intensities regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, and race. Your task is to keep your finger on the pulse, watch for trends, and if you spot inequities or areas where one group of people is at an unfair disadvantage, correct those inequities. You will want to be sure to answer the question, did the inputs of performance equitably translate into the outputs of pay delivered? If not, take the time to fix that funnel.

Keep Your Variable Pay Program As Simple As Possible

The devil is in the details, so try and have as few details as possible. Make your variable pay strategy clear and easy to describe. Watch out for the language you use to describe it. Make sure every salesperson has a clear understanding of how it works.

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to the short- and long-term effects of California’s pay transparency law and future regulation. The best employers can do is prepare, understand the objective of the law, and be proactive about creatively differentiating themselves from other organizations. For sales in particular, the challenge is in continuing to motivate salespeople while removing inequities in both the language and nature of the variable pay program.