When is the best time to assess or reassess your compensation processes? Now.
Who on this planet has the luxury of time to step back and look at what we do in our various organizations from a process perspective? In today’s 24-7 work environments, it’s hard to rationalize. Recently I’ve been helping organizations do this, however, as they get ready to implement new comp planning systems. Here are the steps we take (and you can take) and some of the benefits that result.
Get the Right People in the Room
Invite the stakeholders who are invested in your processes and engage a process facilitator who has a working knowledge of the processes or types of processes that you want to assess. They probably won’t be an expert in your current processes, but they should be able to grasp the key concepts and understand them in sufficient detail to help you map your way to a better future state. Be sure that your stakeholders are there at the same time. Trust me, you will not want to go through this again privately with an absentee stakeholder—the group effort really does work here because you’ll incorporate different and sometimes disparate views. To a good end.
Where to Begin?
Start by brainstorming a list of your current processes, recognizing that your goal is to move beyond your current world to a new way of operating.
Next step? Describe each process your current state, but recognize that you do not need to dwell inordinately on each one. The value will come in the creation of your future state processes. The analysis of your current state can include a summary description, dates and durations, participants, data inputs and outputs, pain points and identification of exceptions and outliers. As a result, you’ll know what you’ll continue to do, what you’ll do differently, or what you’ll stop doing.
Now you’re ready to think about your future state processes.
The Future’s So Bright You’ll have to Wear Shades
Well, before that happens you’ll have to put a few things in order, such as an inventory of the future.
After you’ve established your inventory of new processes, the hard work starts. This is where a facilitator can really help, particularly if he or she has experience with the new processes or systems you’re moving toward. That facilitator will help you describe and map each one of your future state processes so that in the end you’ll have a narrative description and flow diagram of each of your future state processes. Taken together, you’ll have a concise representation of your new processes and you’ll have sound criteria on which you can build your requirements for your system implementation. More on that in a moment.
Managing Change
Before you start handing out sunglasses to everyone, you will need to engage in some thoughtful change management. If you take the time to analyze the delta between your current and future processes, you’ll understand what needs to be done. If Old Comp Planning was a fairly prescriptive process facilitated heavily by HR and New Comp Planning will be in the hands of line managers for the first time, what will you need to do to equip both constituencies to be successful performing planning within the new system and with new levels of responsibility? Whatever shape it takes: well-planned communications, training/system orientation, quick reference guides, help desks, etc.—it’s critical to plan these initiatives early on so they are integrated into the rollout of your new processes. It’s been proven over and over that no one wants to feel incompetent, put upon, or minimized. New processes are successful when the recipients feel competent in their new roles, are helped by the new system, and are valued as a result. Include change management elements in your future state rollouts to achieve this.
Why this Approach Works
You’ll find that by convening the right players, describing your current state, mapping your future state and taking the time to introduce this change appropriately into your organization, a number of benefits shake out:
- Getting the right people in the room will percolate great ideas and will reduce the number of iterations you’ll need to go through to socialize the plan later on.
- At a minimum, your current state analysis will identify a list of pain points that drag you down today. You will probably be able to design them out of your future process.
- Mapping out your future state processes will clarify what must be accomplished, and to a good extent how it will be accomplished. If you are implementing an automated system, you can test your desire for certain features against your actual required process. Even if the features don’t work exactly the way you want them to or the way your old system worked, you have good criteria for what needs to be in your new process, and you can test the available features against that.
- Well executed change management efforts enable your new processes to actually start up. A misunderstood great idea (or great new process) will rarely get off the ground let alone inspire enthusiasm. A great idea or process properly introduced will succeed.
Go get your sunglasses.