Salary isn&rsquo;t everything, but it&rsquo;s hard to be happy in your job when you&rsquo;re earning less than people in similar roles inside or outside your company. Ultimately, job satisfaction isn&rsquo;t just about what you make&mdash;I think we all know that&mdash;but it&rsquo;s definitely related to what you make relative to what&rsquo;s average for your profession within your industry.&nbsp;&nbsp; Every two years Ethanol Producer Magazine conducts <a href="http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/12096/2015-ethanol-industry-salary-and-satisfaction-survey" target="_blank">an industry salary and job satisfaction survey</a>. We do this to give the men and women who manage and work at ethanol plants perspective on industry compensation trends. This year&rsquo;s survey was delivered to more than a thousand ethanol plant employees, from CEOs to plant operators, and about one-fourth of them responded. The data was self-reported and collected without random sampling techniques, but strong participation gives weight to the results. Once again, we see an industry full of well-paid, highly educated people who tend to be extremely satisfied with their jobs and loyal to their employers. EPM Senior Editor Susanne Retka Schill, who spearheaded this year&rsquo;s survey and analyzed its results, reports that 8 out of 10 ethanol plant employees received a raise in 2014, and 9 out of 10 took home a bonus. You&rsquo;ll find more data like that, much of it brought to life in vibrantly-colored graphics, in the story. Our personnel theme continues with &ldquo;Top Of Biofuels Class.&rdquo; In this story, EPM Managing Editor Holly Jessen reports on the important role that technical colleges and training centers play in providing a steady stream of skilled and upward-bound employees to the ethanol industry. After that, Jessen circles back to topic of compensation in her feature about <a href="http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/12095/connecting-compensation-to-performance" target="_blank">linking employee pay to individual and company performance goals</a>. Finally, if you&rsquo;re not already registered for this year&rsquo;s International Fuel Ethanol Workshop &amp; Expo, I urge you to take a look at the agenda today. With four tracks, 25 panels and more than 100 speakers, there is something for every ethanol industry professional at this summer&rsquo;s FEW, taking place June 1-4 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While large corporations are increasingly prevalent in the modern ethanol industry, technology and service providers of all sizes are still finding major opportunities in the space. In <a href="http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/12093/small-companies-big-ideas" target="_blank">&ldquo;Small Companies, Big Ideas,&rdquo;</a> we highlight the offerings of seven business presenting at the industry largest international forum. See you in Minneapolis.
Author: Tom Bryan President &amp; Editor in Chief tbryan@bbiinternational.com

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The May issue of EPM delves into human resources topics, including the magazine's salary survey, biofuels training and linking compensation to employee performance, writes Tom Bryan. There's also a story about the upcoming FEW. 

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