This intermediate-level course provides an in-depth discussion of the principles, design, implementation and evaluation of an employee base pay program. Exercises will show how to design a pay program that is fair, competitive and supportive of an organization’s compensation strategy.

• Identify the relationship between an employee total rewards program and an organization’s business strategy.
• Discuss the design of base pay programs and necessary considerations.
• Discover what it takes to implement and deliver base pay.
• Study the key elements in costing base pay and other compensation programs.
• Gain an overview of merit pay systems, including development and utilization.
• Address the effectiveness and efficiency of pay programs with monitoring and evaluation.

Who Should Attend
This course is intended for emerging compensation practitioners with limited experience in developing pay structures. Knowledge of basic mathematical concepts such as mean, median, weighted average, compa-ratio, percentiles and calculating percents is recommended, as well as an understanding of the concept of regression analysis.

What You Will Learn

Role of Base Pay in Total Rewards

• The total rewards model
• The total rewards design process
• Compensation philosophy and strategy
• Introduction to base pay
• Job evaluation methods
• Job worth hierarchy

Designing Base Pay Structures

• Base pay structure
• Building a base pay structure
• Pay structure design considerations
• Pay structure design
• Broadbands

Practical Applications of Base Pay Structure Design

• Exercise 1 — Market pricing approach
• Discussion exercise 2 — Point factor approach
• Discussion exercise 3 — Integrating market data into point factor

Base Pay Implementation and Delivery

• Pay approaches
• Differentials
• Pay actions
• Communicating pay actions
• Setting new hire pay rates

Pay for Performance and Salary Budgeting

• Principles of a sound pay for performance system
• Principles of merit pay programs
• The base pay investment
• Merit increase guidelines
• Creating a salary budget recommendation

Administering and Evaluating Base Pay Programs

• HR’s role in administering and evaluating a base pay program
• Monitoring pay levels
• Compression
• Maintaining pay structures
• Base pay program review and audit

Mergers, Acquisitions and Base Compensation

• HR involvement
• Key priorities
• Compensation plan
• Integrating compensation plans