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Article | Beyond Data

Find the value in automating your compensation processes

Leverage the latest technology to make better pay decisions

By Sambhav Rakyan | July 3, 2023

Ready to leave spreadsheets behind? Here’s what you need to look for in a modern compensation software platform.
Compensation Strategy & Design
Beyond Data

HR and compensation professionals are continually challenged to develop pay programs that meet changing talent requirements while staying within their salary budget and supporting business objectives. As with any other complex role, having the right data and tools to get the job done is a must. For compensation professionals, this translates to timely, credible compensation market data delivered in an easily accessible and customizable format.

Today, assembling and analyzing pay data (often from multiple sources) frequently relies on complex, formula-ridden spreadsheets that are manually developed – and carry a level of data-security risk that organizations want to avoid. In an increasingly digital world, forward-thinking organizations are looking toward automated compensation platforms to improve the quality, integrity and security of their pay data.

Software platforms create opportunities for compensation professionals to not only access proprietary market data, but also interact with pay data in a way that supports deeper analyses and provides greater insights. Ultimately, this results in faster strategic reward decisions that are backed by timely, credible data.

Functionality that delivers high value

The best compensation platforms – the ones you should look for – are built by experts who understand the workflow that compensation and HR professionals need to get the job done.

With an understanding that the right compensation platform is built on rewards professionals’ needs, both today and in the future, the list of attributes that the right solution delivers can almost build itself. For example, the best software:

  • Automates repetitive tasks
  • Supports multi-vendor/multi-data source market pricing
  • Provides a space to explore market data to identify optimal match and scope choices
  • Incorporates advanced technologies (e.g., machine learning) to increase benchmarking accuracy
  • Warehouses historical survey data and benchmarks to enable comparative analytics and trending
  • Models the cost impact of key compensation actions through bring-to-target and merit matrix analytics
  • Supports an automatic data exchange with HRIS or other systems

However, it’s also to remember the time that comes before analysis. We all can agree that you need quality data in order to produce quality results. That is, if nothing goes in, then nothing comes out. And that’s another sweet spot where software comes into play.

Assembling and submitting data to salary surveys is inarguably a time-consuming task. However, the amount of time consumed varies based on your approach to survey participation. In this “before” time, the right compensation solution increases the efficiency of data preparation by compiling data in a variety of survey vendors’ preferred formats and job architectures.

Increase efficiency and quality, improve decision making

Having access to relevant, accurate and timely salary data will remain a pivotal part of the compensation survey cycle, primarily because pay data and trends will continue changing. And today, technology is at a point that big data can be efficiently democratized.

Increasing the simplicity of data collection and analysis supports improved collaboration and transparent communication within HR and compensation teams. It also makes decision making faster at all levels in the organization.

It’s easy to see the opportunity that technology provides for organizations to balance effective rewards that align with business objectives, stay within budget and provide the highest level of security possible. It’s up to forward-thinking rewards professionals to seize that opportunity.

Author

Global Business Leader, Rewards Data Intelligence

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