Theo Yilmaz· Director of Benefits, Silverline Media
Posted in New Member Welcome ·
I work for a housing association in the north of England, about 1,100 staff, and until last month I was one of four HR business partners. When our reward adviser left, I put my hand up, partly because I was always the one who enjoyed the pay review and partly because nobody else did.
So far I have inherited a grading structure from 2017, a benchmarking spreadsheet with tabs I do not understand, and a pay review due in April. I am comfortable with people and policy. I am much less comfortable with the numbers side.
I would like to learn how to benchmark properly rather than copy last year's method. If anyone made the same move, what did you get wrong early on?
1 agree · 4 replies · 14 views · 2 following
Victor PereiraCBS, GRS
Sales Compensation Manager, Qasr Holdings
Same move, nine years ago, from a generalist role at a hospice. What I got wrong was assuming last year's method was a method. It was one person's habits.
Before April, write down in plain words how each benchmark job was matched and which data cut was used. You will find half of it cannot be explained, and that tells you where to start.
Senior Compensation Analyst, Cardinal Insurance
Welcome. Your generalist years are worth more than you think: you already know which managers will argue and why. The numbers are learnable in a few months. Knowing how a pay decision lands with a team takes much longer, and you have that.
Director, Total Rewards, Northwind Logistics
I would gently push back on leaving the numbers until later. With a 2017 structure, check how many people now sit above the top of their grade or below the bottom. If it is more than about 5 per cent either way, the structure needs attention before the review, not after.
The Compensation space has a few good threads on ageing structures.
Director of Benefits, Silverline Media
Thank you all. I spent Friday doing the count suggested above: 9 per cent of staff are above their grade maximum, nearly all in maintenance trades. That is now the first page of my note to the HR director, and I have started documenting the matches.
