One of the things I really enjoy in my spare time is taking on Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects. A few years back, my family and I purchased a cottage and it has given me the opportunity to try and learn new DIY skills like building a treehouse and renovating the kitchen. If I have learned anything in those projects it is the importance of having the right tools and aligning those tools to the task is critical in achieving great outcomes.

The same true for compensation management. As many of you go through year-end or reflect on the past cycle, you should ask yourself – did our tools enable our process and achieve what we set out to do or did it hinder it? 

Assessing Your Tools: Key Areas to Consider

I find there are three key areas you should assess your tools against – Safety and Soundness, Efficiency, and Quality.

Safety and Soundness

When I made the jump from manual to power tools, I had to be sure that I was comfortable using the tool and it performed properly to eliminate the risk of injury. This should be a base requirement for any compensation tool. Make sure to ask yourself the following:

  • Is the tool reliable? 
  • If you are using the Cloud, are you using a highly secure cloud provider like Microsoft Azure?  
  • Does your compensation tool log all changes in an audit module? 
  • Does it integrate with your active directory? 
  • Does your tool require you to email information that could risk your data?  

Any compensation platform like any tool needs to safe and reliable.

Efficiency

As I started performing more jobs and started putting in a new kitchen, having the right tool saved so much time. When I put in my new sink, I had to cut a hole into the new counter and using the proper jigsaw and blade made it quick and seamless. When I was managing compensation years ago before having access to a platform like CompTrak, I used MS Excel and MS Access to manage the collection and aggregation of information. I was able to manage the compensation plans, but functionality like real-time updates and the chasing of spreadsheets increased the time of the cycle by days and weeks. If a template changed I had to regenerate and resend out the templates also impacting the customer service experience. Having to update multiple spreadsheets, I also was limited in what I could do with reporting and employee statements which leads to my third component – Quality!

Quality

Having the right tools also results in a more enjoyable overall experience. When I am cooking in the new kitchen, everything is functioning and it looks great. The cupboards are level, the plumbing works and the crown moulding provides a nice finishing touch. This is an area that without the right tool, the quality will suffer. For instance, if you use Excel for data collection it is limiting in what it can offer for reporting, real-time aggregation and employee statements. Often, these steps have to be done separately and the functionality of creating a dynamic employee statement is not possible. Do the tools you use create value, add to your internal clients and are they agile enough to accommodate changes? I love my battery-powered tools because it gives me the flexibility I need something critical in managing compensation.

The Right Tool for Compensation Management

At CompTrak, we are compensation professionals who will work with you to find the right tool for the right job. We have helped numerous companies transition off their legacy tools into a cloud-based agile platform, supporting multiple functions. 

Our mission at CompTrak is to solve problems and work with clients who want to improve their bonus, merit, and deferred compensation processes and provide value to employees via online and mobile employee statements. 

We are the friend with all the tools who can help renovate and improve your compensation cycle. Talk to us today for a free consultation!