A lot more goes into compensation management than just giving your employees some money and hoping they will stay. A well-thought-out strategy can be the difference between a mass exodus and long-term employee retention.
The concept of "total compensation" is where the real battle is fought for top talent. Your compensation management program will partially determine the strategic goals and objectives your company meets annually. Well-run compensation programs ensure pay equity and equality in benefits throughout the organization. It is important for business owners and HR leaders to know how compensation management works and what employees' expectations are so they can hit the bull's-eye with their compensation program.
What is compensation management?
Compensation management is the practice of planning and distributing the overall pay and benefits package to a company's employees. This program ensures that a company's salaries and bonuses remain competitive within the industry and equitable within the organization. It also involves managing company benefit programs, ensuring the job classifications are up to date, risks are minimized, and the package meets the overall needs of employees and their families.
A company's compensation program is one of the main reasons employees choose to remain with an employer or look for a new one. According to a 2015 study by Jobvite, 71.6% of companies offer benefits designed to attract talent (i.e., they strive to offer more than their competitors do).
Even when employees choose to stay, that does not mean they appreciate or fully understand their compensation package. Employers need to make the effort to help employees learn the true value of their overall compensation package.
What are the main types of compensation?
There are four primary types of direct compensation:
- Hourly
- Salary
- Commission
- Bonuses
There is also indirect compensation, which includes retirement benefits, health insurance and paid time off. Factoring direct and indirect compensation together helps determine total compensation – the total amount of remuneration a company pays to its employees. [Read related article: What Are Fringe Benefits, and Should You Offer Them?]
In addition to employees' salaries, hourly pay, bonuses and commissions, total compensation includes the value of any benefits they receive. Indeed lists these as some of the most common attributes within the total compensation spectrum:
- Paid time off (vacation days, sick days and holidays)
- Profit-sharing distributions
- Insurance (medical, dental, disability and life)
- Tuition assistance
- Child care assistance
- Retirement plans
- Employee assistance programs
- Gym memberships
- Relocation expenses
- Learning and development offerings
- Career-advancement opportunities
- Stock options
- Other non-cash benefits
While these aren't all of the options that can be included in a compensation package, you will likely need to offer at least some of the above perks to keep employees engaged and to remain competitive within your industry.
According to a recent study from Jobvite, the most-wanted employee benefits include flextime and remote work opportunities, corporate recreation centers and gym memberships, free food or catered meals, mentoring and development programs, and casual dress codes. A 2016 Glassdoor report also found that 57% of the surveyed job seekers considered benefits and perks a top priority in their decision of where to work.
Some employers provide employees with a total compensation report that details all of the compensation they receive. Here's an example of a total compensation statement from Genesis HR Solutions:
How is compensation determined?
HR managers typically use a two-part process to assess how to compensate their employees. The first part is done internally. It includes determining not only what the company should pay, but what can it afford to pay.
The second aspect of this process has to do with external factors. For example, what do market surveys tell you? What are your competitors paying? How do regional differences in the cost of living impact total compensation? Are there hiring challenges in certain markets?
These are some of the various factors in rates of compensation:
- Research: Conduct your market research within and outside of your industry to gauge what's normal and on trend.
- Competitive strategy: You should offer enough not just to stay on par, but to attract top talent away from your competitors.
- Collective company salaries: You'll want to consider your company (and each job level within it) as a whole in your salary strategy. As a general philosophy, you may want to target the 25th percentile within each job category.
- Marketplace drivers: At times, employers will pay more to get recruits with hard-to-hire skills on their team.
Why is compensation important to HR?
Workest by Zenefits notes that compensation management plays a significant role in HR, as it directly ties in with employee retention, the hiring and onboarding processes, employee performance, and team engagement throughout the company. Many larger companies not only have HR managers, but also compensation managers to lead this process.
At its heart, compensation is the foundation of all that motivates team members within the workplace. So, as HR assists supervisors with behavioral and performance matters, they can also factor employee performance into compensatory decisions.
What is compensation management software?
Compensation management software is enterprise software (whether a stand-alone solution or part of a larger HR software platform) that helps HR personnel curate, manage, calculate and budgets for employee salaries. This type of software can benefit businesses of all sizes. The best, most comprehensive compensation software platforms are designed to bring teams closer together and to present information quickly, accurately and cleanly.
Alight notes that compensation management systems tend to be managed by HR teams; depending on your permissions and security settings, though, they can be accessible to managers, supervisors or lead workers whenever necessary. Much of the time, compensation management data are accompanied by employee performance data. These combined data sets can help you determine promotions, bonuses and annual increases.
These are some of the more popular HR software platforms with compensation management abilities:
- Workday HCM: Workday's cloud-hosted Human Capital Management software includes compensation and benefits tools that help you plan for the needs of all types of workers.
- Paycom: Paycom is a full HR solution that includes compensation budgeting tools along with payroll software, as well as talent acquisition and talent management capabilities.
- Salary.com: Salary.com features an integrated compensation management solution to help HR staff decide on the right salaries and hourly pay rates. The software can streamline compensation data management and processes like survey participation and management, salary structure modeling, and pay equity reporting.