The State of the Compensation Practice

Editor's Notes

• #3: Lance Berger is Managing Partner of Lance A. Berger & Associates, Ltd., a management consulting firm he founded in 1991. His firm provides advisory services in the areas of talent management, compensation, and change management. His clients include Fortune 500 Companies, premiere consulting firms, middle market companies, and select nonprofit organizations.   Mr. Berger has written and edited nine books. They include: The sixth edition of The Compensation Handbook (June 2015), The second edition of The Talent Management Handbook, The Change Management Handbook, Deengineering the Corporation: Leading Growth from Within, and Management Wisdom from the New York Yankees’ Dynasty: What Every Manager Can Learn from a Legendary Team’s 80 Year Winning Streak. The latter was selected as one of the top 30 business books by Executive Book Summaries.  
• #4: The first edition of The Compensation Handbook was a snapshot of the compensation practice as it had evolved prior to 1972. Each subsequent edition was a time capsule containing a rich trove of information representing the cumulative successes of its predecessors as well as the best new practices, issues, procedures, and processes that would be useful in the future. This sixth edition extends this evolution of knowledge to the current time. It shows that today’s successful compensation practice has evolved into five blended elements: Expertise Codified methodologies Decision-making tools Databases Monitoring
• #5: Expertise refers to a particular knowledge or skill in specific practices or disciplines. Every organization needs a designated group of people with a sufficient level of expertise in compensation practice to develop and implement or outsource effectively their pay programs. This group could include any combination of compensation professionals, human resources generalists, and line managers. Because most organizations in the United States are small firms, the overwhelming number of people involved in directing compensation programs are line managers. Level of expertise can be classified in many ways, including basic, operational, tactical, and strategic. Basic. Knows the fundamental principles, terminology, concepts, issues, applications, and vendors associated with the compensation discipline. This is the minimal level of expertise expected for a line manager. Operational. Able to implement compensation programs provided by ,and with guidance from, others with higher levels of expertise. This is a realistic level of expertise for most managers, entry-level compensation professionals, and human resources generalists. Tactical. Develops and implements compensation programs with minimal assistance from outsiders. Can coach others in implementing a compensation program. This is the expected level of an experienced compensation professional. Strategic. Creates, implements, provides guidance, troubleshoots, and answers questions related to the compensation discipline. This is a recognized expert in the compensation discipline.
• #6: Codified methodologies are the documented processes, practices, and policies that enable organizations to define, replicate, adapt, and effectively implement compensation programs. Codification emerged from the experience of the successful compensation programs of the organizations themselves; the shared best practices of several organizations, consulting firms, and associations; WorldatWork publications; and materials produced by vendors. Codified methodologies embrace and combine within one place the goals, objectives, programs, processes, databases, and analytical and decision-making tools associated with specific compensation goals, strategies, and outcomes. Since the first edition of The Compensation Handbook, the most codified methodologies include job evaluation, market pricing, and salary administration 1. Compensation Philosophy A compensation philosophy contains a widely publicized set of core principles, values, and mutual expectations that are the foundations of employee pay. It is the basis of an organization’s pay strategy. Organizations align their compensation philosophy with their business and human resources requirements. Most commonly, an organization’s compensation philosophy focuses on delivering pay, based on institutional affordability, in a way that enables the organization to attract, retain, and reward employee performance in an equitable, competitive, and legal way. 2. Compensation Strategy Compensation strategies tell the organization how it will allocate employee pay based on its compensation philosophy. A typical compensation strategy consists of five codified components. They are affordability, pay markets, competitive level, mix of compensation elements, and employee contribution. 3. Salary Administration Salary administration is the packaged set of policies, methods, and procedures that guides professionals and line managers in the implementation of their compensation strategy. Salary administration elements that characteristically have been codified include compensation philosophy (discussed previously), responsibilities of compensation professionals and managers in salary administration, employee communication, and basic components, including Position descriptions Job evaluation Salary surveys Salary structures 5. Performance evaluation6. Meriti increases7. Promotions and promotional increases
• #7: Decision-making tools enable compensation practitioners to determine the kinds of processes that will best help them to develop, implement, and monitor their own compensation philosophy, strategy, and administrative and monitoring programs. Decision-making tools have become integral to selecting appropriate compensation methodologies and to converting information in “big databases” to high-value accurate, quick, and timely decisions. They are also critical to monitoring the actual outcomes of targeted compensation programs.
• #8: Data have been central to the compensation practice since its inception. Data on jobs, employee pay, market pay, and numerous other areas of talent management have now exploded with the advancement of technology and data-collection devices into what we refer to as big data. Big data combines multiple data elements into a cogent process that enables better compensation decisions faster and more accurately. It is now easier to combine business, culture, talent management, and compensation data elements into understandable decision points. All data bases must be high quality, timely, believable by those covered, cost effective, and sufficiently comprehensive to contain all the data necessary to make accurate decisions.
• #9: Monitoring compensation practices means anticipating, creating, and/or responding to change triggers that can affect compensation programs. These change triggers include business, environmental, cultural, and talent-management factors. Monitoring compensation practices is a change-management program. Maintaining the total rewards principles and frequently reviewing their appropriateness, effectiveness, and applicability are suggested preventive measures to avoid having an established total rewards program become disconnected from the internal requirements (both employer and employee) and the external market. When programs are disconnected, they threaten the competitive advantage of the organization that was created initially with the development and implementation of its total rewards strategy.
• #10: The first edition of The Compensation Handbook was a snapshot of the compensation practice as it had evolved prior to 1972. Each subsequent edition was a time capsule containing a rich trove of information representing the cumulative successes of its predecessors as well as the best new practices, issues, procedures, and processes that would be useful in the future. This sixth edition extends this evolution of knowledge to the current time. It shows that today’s successful compensation practice has evolved into five blended elements: Expertise Codified methodologies Decision-making tools Databases Monitoring