Ben Haddad· Compensation Consultant, Tidewater Utilities
Posted in New Member Welcome ·
I spent six years at a reward consultancy in Copenhagen, mostly on job evaluation and executive pay benchmarking for Nordic clients. Last month I joined a wind energy company as reward lead, about 2,800 employees in eleven countries.
As a consultant I delivered a recommendation and left. Now I am the one who has to make it work with the payroll system, the works councils and a finance team that has its own view. I have learned more about implementation in four weeks than in the previous six years.
I am here to meet in-house people and listen. If anyone made the same switch, I would like to know what you had to unlearn.
10 helpful · 4 insightful · 5 replies · 212 views · 2 following
Compensation Consultant, Cardinal Insurance
Welcome. I made the switch in 2018. What I had to unlearn was the 40-slide deck. In-house, a one-page recommendation that the payroll manager has already seen beats a perfect analysis nobody was consulted on. I now spend about half my time on a proposal before it is written, talking to the people who will have to run it.
Elif MensahWWP, GRS
Global Mobility Manager, Calibre Software
Second that, and add patience. As a consultant your project had an end date. In-house, the grading change you propose this year you will still be explaining in three years. I design much simpler things now because I am the one who maintains them.
Compensation Analyst, Orchard & Vine
From the other side: I have always been in-house and have hired consultants for fifteen years. The best ones who came over kept one habit, which was writing down the reasoning behind a decision at the time. Most in-house teams are bad at it. Please do not unlearn that.
Noor MensahGRS, CBS
Global Mobility Manager, Halcyon Financial Group
Eleven countries with a Nordic head office is a particular challenge. Colleagues in Copenhagen will assume that openness about pay is the norm everywhere, and it is not. The Global Rewards & Mobility space has several people in the same position.
Compensation Consultant, Tidewater Utilities
Thank you. The point about consulting the payroll manager first arrived a week too late for one proposal, but in time for the next. I have joined the Global Rewards & Mobility space as suggested.
