How to Become a Compensation and Benefits Specialist

How To Become a Compensation and Benefits Specialist

Compensation and Benefits (C&B) specialists are the great unsung heroes of human resources, and often they are the secret ingredient in creating a great work culture, a well-supported landscape of workers, and an industry-leading staff retention plan.

Photo by Olivier Collet on Unsplash

But the road to becoming one can be meandering, and the skills required to be a good one develop across multiple fields.

The primary consideration for candidates looking into the C&B world is that opportunities are niche, and the skills required to be a good one are highly regarded. C&B experts are typically found in large operations, but every operation, no matter their size, needs a variety of skills contained in your typical C&B professional, such as industry pay banding knowledge, an awareness of benefits packages, and experience with generalist C&B/rewards methodology.

C&B experts need hyper-detailed insight into workforce management best practices and what remuneration models fit the needs of an enterprise’s people, culture and future staff.

They need to be super communicative – C&B experts must have hands-on experience working with internal and external stakeholders during C&B engagements and recruitment, staff review programmes, and reporting to senior management. They will be counted on to give context and expert justification for significant internal expenditures on employee perks and benefits plans linked to recruitment and retention strategies.

Please visit our job description page to find out more about the day-to-day responsibilities of a Compensation and Benefits Specialist.

Step 1 – Get the Right Base Experience

C&B professionals need to be masters of all trades, not simply HR jacks who are floating in a sea of compensatory packages.

C&B experts must have experience in Rewards/HR, ideally for a company that can display clear lines of C&B impact upon recruitment, staff morale and happiness, organisational psychology, performance metrics and team retention.

Experience in people analytics, SAP-like tools, labour rules and regulations and HR management methodology is a must.

Step 2 – Certifications

C&B experts ideally must have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources or Finance (or equivalent). Professional certifications such as CIPD, SHRM or equivalent are highly desirable.

Step 3 – Communicate Your Business Power

Central to C&B professionals’ success is how well they embed themselves into company HR frameworks. Whilst many of the skills that make a great C&B expert rely on industry know-how, qualitative research, and strong leadership skills, communication is central to all of it.

So to make the step up from HR to C&B, our advice is to lean on your communication powers as the reason you’re effective at your work. As a central pivot point between staff, finance, leadership and recruitment, you must be able to deftly and consistently communicate compensatory methodology and HR analysis to multiple stakeholders with clarity and confidence.

Your employees depend on you to develop pay structures that fairly compensate them for their labour, are decided upon objectively, are sustainable, and are competitive. As such, you must also be wise and honest.

Step 4 – Network!

As with any HR, finance or senior business management role, referrals and networking are great door openers for C&B professionals looking for new opportunities.

Luckily, every large company needs a C&B expert to bolster its recruitment and retention efforts.

Learn more about Compensation and Benefits Specialist careers.

The following articles cover Job Description & Profile, Salary & Pay, Qualifications, Skills & Requirements and CV.

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