4 Best Practices for Automating Complex Compensation

Editor's Notes

• #3: Monthly series of educational webinars and podcast interviews Want to focus on trends, best practices and strategies for HR and talent management. Goal is to TAKEAWAY 1 good idea Always looking for topic suggestions and speakers so let us know!
• #4: Sponsored by HRsoft. Leading provider of High Impact Talent Management software. Suite of cloud based solutions designed to drive line manager efficiency and employee engagement.
• #7: Layer on years of old, inefficient processes and technology and we have a real problem In many cases we have added additional complexity that does not support the original mission
• #8: Automation doesn’t have to be software, content today applies to online and offline. Sometimes we create extra complexity that don't support that mission Today we are going to help you get back to basics Build a system around the original simple, strategic approach – no matter how complex your process is. Share 4 best practices for automating your comp planning process
• #9: - Kind of the hard part. Requires a different set of lenses. Look at your processes & analyze what’s working, what’s not and what is really necessary Automating a poor process is a bad idea!
• #10: Look at your process Analyze what is really necessary and trim it down as far as you can (example: zero based budget) Challenge anything not working If you automate the same process and automate it. You won't see great results Automating a better process that is more strategic
• #11: Sign of an inefficient process or technology are workarounds You don't have to have workarounds for every workflow Best place to start is strip down the process to it’s essentials Automation is about building systems to support your workflow, not workarounds to fix your systems!
• #12: Need approval chain that is linear - Build approval heirarchy off the existing chain in your organization (example: 2 week process that turns into a 2 month process) (example: Austin working for 2 managers, the one he works for more should do the comp planning. Keep it simple) Trust your managers and reviewers (automation will identify those issues if you don't trust them) Automation provides real-time reports allows you to check for issues
• #13: Very common challenge. Looking for way to leverage the efforts of the tools and people around you. (colleagues, software, 3rd parties, managers) Automation can empower your managers and reduce your workload Fewer handoffs, fewer mistakes, more decision support = a simpler workflow Goal: simplify process so easier for managers to use the process and HR can focus on core mission. We don’t want managers to have to figure out how to create the comp planning strategy, just how to execute it. 80/20 rule focus on managers
• #14: Introduce performance based guidelines (and/or market data based). Introduce it simple. (example: click on award and get the info) Analyze the organization: Identify critical parts of the organization: are you doing a 1 size fits all approach or do you have a strategic approach to help support that? (department, certain groups of employees). Can you help your managers identify those people.
• #15: Most associate systems with automation. Automation can do much more than improve efficiency. With the right systems, it can improve effectiveness. Busted budgets, spreadsheet errors, last minute changes, missed deadlines, etc. Leveraging automation can provide much needed checks & balances, auditability, and scalability
• #16: Auditability - make sure all user actions are auditable. Expectations that you can track all decisions, overrides, etc. Not in most automation tools. Make sure you can get that data you need. Who made all recommendations, etc. Helps protect you legally as well. Scalability - most of you are going to need to change processes for some reason. Make sure whatever you build is flexible. Can handle the expected and unexpected changes. Applies to the strategy and technology. Example: building out a status report so you know who to focus on during comp planning. Budget variance reports - proactively update management and identify potential issues. Example: Eric’s spreadsheet hack (Brian)
• #17: Automation ultimately gives you the time and data allowing you to get back to the strategic planning Identifying and rewarding the right talent (improve productivity, retention) Return on Employment (ROE) In other words, putting the comp budget where it can help most. Before automation, it was too time consuming but not any more!
• #18: - Place value on support roles and revenue roles - help you retain the top performers throughout the organization. The most obvious is that the comp process is recognizing high performers. Implement a fair way of valuing roles in the organizations. (resource: Offline tools & DB Squared). Example: like household budget, allocating for things that matter most   Analyze the organization: Identify critical parts of the organization: are you doing a 1 size fits all approach or do you have a strategic approach to help support that? (department, certain groups of employees). Make sure budget gets to the right places Things are going to be more transparent with new rules coming out. It’s a conversation
• #20: Can be overwhelming to figure out where to start Whether you are currently using offline manual processes or software that is not a fit for your workflow, automation can be a challenge. Our COMPview solution solves that problem. From controlled chaos to automated comp planning.
• #21: If you are looking for a faster, easier and smarter comp planning software Save time, money and eliminate costly spreadsheet errors Enable strategic comp planning like we discussed today