Importance of Head of Compensation and Benefits Officer | Required Skills

The head of Compensation and Benefits officer coordinates, harmonizes guides, adjusts the company’s remuneration policy and advises operational staff in its application.  Head of compensation and benefits officers’ also known as responsible compensation & benefits, Responsible comp and ben, Reward manager, Compensation management officer, Wage and salary analyst and Compensation consultant, etc

Why Head of Compensation and Benefits Officer is Important for Business

Analysis and monitoring of compensation systems

• Monitor the compensation paid for comparable businesses, the economic environment of the same type and a given geographical area.
• To carry out and coordinate qualitative and quantitative studies, called compensation surveys on all populations or specific (including expatriates, impetrates).
• Compare the amount and structure of remuneration in the company with market data.
• Analyze discrepancies by type of trades, geographical area or region, classification level (remuneration audit).
• Propose adjustments to the management committee according to the company’s strategy.
• Conduct simulations on changes in payroll (base salary, bonuses, and bonuses).
• Achieving decision support matrices for managers and HR.

Proposal for a wage policy

• To be a force to propose to the DG and to shed light on the general evolution of the packages, that is to say the remuneration envelopes and their structures: fixed, individual and collective variable, deferred compensation (profit-sharing, Shareholding and employee savings schemes: PEE, PERCO), fringe benefits, retirement benefits, health benefits, benefits in kind (car, telephone, laptop, meal vouchers, transportation allowance, housing assistance …).
• To propose and validate an innovative remuneration policy by the DG and the HRD in order to retain staff, under budget constraints, to attract new talent and to optimize the remuneration components.

Consulting, implementation and monitoring of wage policy

• Support and advice managers and operational staff as part of their remuneration decisions (recruitment, promotion, expatriation conditions (the latter can be managed by another department).
• Implement and monitor the application of new compensation systems.

Possible activities of Head Compensation and Benefits Officer

• The person responsible for remuneration and benefits may, in undertakings subject to French law, be involved in the annual mandatory negotiations (NAO); in this context, it presents the documents intended for the representative bodies of the staff.
• It may have under its authority a team of researchers or pay and benefits analysts. They identify gaps in relation to competition, carry out quantitative studies, comparative analyzes by trades and projections.
• In addition to his remuneration-oriented responsibilities, he may hold other specialist positions (such as managerial mobility, managing potential, managing expatriate and / or impetrated populations).
• The person in charge of remuneration and social benefits can work in small structures as an HRM for a given population, with responsibility for international mobility.

Variability of Activities

The trade can be exercised within several structures.

In company

• At headquarters: it ensures the harmonization of all remunerations. Its missions are mainly strategic; it dialogues at high level with the general management and HRD. He coordinates or supervises the HR executives responsible for implementing the wage policy at the local level.
• By country or large geographical area: it applies the wage policy, carries out local studies, the implementation of the arrangements decided at group level. It can participate in the definition of policies and ensure their applicability in its geographical area. It may have room for maneuver to put in place country-specific arrangements.
• More rarely, its responsibilities can cover a family of trades for all geographical locations.

The salary / benefits analyst assists his / her manager. Its main task is to investigate and identify the differences in remuneration with respect to competition. It carries out quantitative studies, comparative analyzes by business families and projections of foreseeable trends in premiums.

In the council

The function is generally of a more technical nature than in enterprises. At HRD, consultants analyze and advocate appropriate solutions on all aspects of wage policy. Most often, these experts are mandated by their counterparts in companies to carry out specific quantitative and sometimes qualitative studies (benchmark of competition, simulations, etc.).

Required Skills for Head of Compensation and Benefits Officer

Technical Skills

• Mastery of the computer tool: spreadsheets (advanced functions, formulas, macros), modeling systems, payroll and query software.
• Fluency in English (the function almost always includes an international dimension).
• Good general HR knowledge and very good knowledge of the company’s trades.
• Knowledge of law and taxation for various remuneration arrangements and benefits (compensation packages).

Personal qualities 

• Qualities of analysis and synthesis to propose a wage strategy in line with the commercial stakes.
• Rigor and synthesis to exploit compensation surveys give them meaning and make recommendations.
• Ability to interact with management committees.
• Relational skills to work with internal contacts (DG, HRD, operational directorates) and external (consulting firms).
• Tact, diplomacy and discretion because the subject is sensitive in the company.

Professional Evolution

• Director or responsible for compensation and benefits world or Europe
• Director or head of activity compensation and benefits within a firm
• HR Development Manager
• Human resources manager

Factors in the Evolution of the Profession of Pay and Benefits

• The crisis, fiscal restraint and competition (notably the “Talent War”) have changed corporate remuneration policies.
• The remuneration and benefits manager is subject to the control and reduction of salary costs. It must seek new forms of performance reward, more advantageous fiscal and allowing reducing the payroll while preserving the motivation of the staff.
• For example, the head of remuneration and benefits pays attention to the individualization of wages, the variable portion and benefits in kind that are low or not taxable.
• It will adapt its proposals to the culture and taxation of the country, with a concern for permanent innovation, reinforced by the globalization of markets.
• With the implementation of mandatory annual bargaining (NAO), its role within HRD and IORPs has been strengthened. It is responsible for providing the necessary data for the conduct of negotiations. It brings them the elements of wage policy.