Compensation Partner
Compensation Partner
Company: Western Governors University
Job Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Category: Human Resources
Type: Full-Time
Job Type: Full time
Job Number: JR-025096
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Grade: Professional 312 Pay Range: $106,700.00 - $165,400.00
Job Description
The Compensation Partner works across all aspects of global compensation programs and provides strategic analysis to support critical decisions for retaining and attracting talent. This role blends strong technical compensation experience with a business partner's mindset. As a key member of the Total Rewards team, develops and executes effective compensation strategies, conducts strategic analysis, and designs, implements, and manages global compensation solutions. The Comp Partner plays a key role in establishing Total Rewards as a key differentiating factor in the ongoing transformative compensation journey. Partners with colleagues across the organization and with senior leaders to ensure that our compensation strategies remain competitive and aligned with industry standards and our business goals. Administers, recommends, and reviews compensation policies, procedures & programs.
Duties & Responsibilities
- Effectively partners with leaders and stakeholders to manage, consult, and resolve compensation issues (new hire offers, promotions, internal transfers, retention, etc.)
- Designs and implements the compensation philosophy, strategy, policies, and programs which align with and support our organizational goals, ensure market competitiveness, and reward high performance.
- As part of a Global Compensation team, builds and maintains salary ranges for new countries as necessary.
- Establishes, oversees, and maintains job structure standards. Establishes job descriptions and job evaluation systems to ensure fair and equitable pay practices. Establishes, updates, and maintains job description database.
- Maintains job architecture and ensures data integrity of job codes, job leveling, job titles, salary ranges, and other related compensation elements within the Workday HRIS system.
- Conducts competitive benchmarking and analysis to evaluate compensation programs, policies, and processes. Monitors and analyzes external compensation trends and develops innovative solutions. Analyzes and recommends changes to existing salary structures, policies, and procedures.
- Participates in strategic projects such as evolving the job architecture, assessing the compensation of critical talent, reviewing the effectiveness of compensation programs and policies, and analyzing compensation outcomes to draw conclusions and make recommendations for further consideration.
- Plays a key role in the creation, consultation, and review of compensation policies and processes.
- Conducts research and analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of compensation issues including market trends, pay plan designs, and incentive programs.
- Ensures FLSA exemption compliance working with legal and management as needed on assessing and classifying jobs.
- Administers the annual pay for performance compensation process. Provides analytical support in complex aspects in the development of merit budgets, salary structure modifications, and incentive plan data gathering and reporting.
- Provides recommendations and guidance in the analysis of salary surveys, other market analysis, salary planning activities, benchmarking, internal and external equity studies, and job evaluations. Participates in salary surveys and analyzes results to ensure compensation programs remain competitive. Consolidates information and provides overview of market trends and best pay practices.
- Provides advice, guidance, and support to all levels of management on compensation-related issues. Develops and communicates compensation education materials on philosophy, strategy, and applicable programs. Develops and presents compensation-related training programs to managers and staff.
- Provides direction and guidance to more junior compensation staff members.
- Supports other members of the People & Talent team as needed to complete projects and keep others informed.
- Stays current on the latest trends and developments in the field of compensation. This includes keeping pace with the usage of AI in the compensation space.
- Performs other job-related duties as assigned.
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities
- Strong knowledge of compensation, performance, and rewards programs.
- Advanced knowledge and experience in market pricing and survey participation.
- Excellent applied analytical and quantitative skills. You're not just good with numbers or at analysis. You're able to know what to analyze, why, how, and then you can translate that into meaningful business insights or recommendations.
- Skilled in using data to tell a story, and in knowing how to tailor the presentation of data based on the audience.
- Ability to oversee completion of departmental projects and day-to-day work.
- Ability to research and find answers independently, and to remain up to date on compensation surveys, trends, and laws, including Federal and state employment laws, FLSA, ADA, EEO, compensation, etc.).
- Strong written, verbal and presentation skills.
- Expertise in building compensation systems, compensation ranges, working with market data, and scaling processes with company growth.
- Experience working with and applying compensation techniques, job evaluation, salary survey practices and methodologies, salary program development, job documentation, the elements of total rewards, and target setting concepts.
- Well versed in Office 365 applications. Advanced Excel user. You should be comfortable with top Functions and be able to really build in Excel.
- Ability to handle ambiguity and complex, often changing, environments. You must be able to deliver the day-to-day within an existing framework, while simultaneously supporting the build and transition to a new framework.
- Strong believer in the art of compensation. This isn't black and white. This isn't one-size-fits-all. This is art based in science.
- Ability to influence leaders and stakeholders at all levels and areas of the organization.
- Experience working with HRIS systems.
- Ability to travel to and attend summits and other events as needed.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in a science, business, or other related field.
- 8 years of total relevant experience, with 5 of those coming from direct Compensation experience.
- Experience with Compensation tools and systems e.g. Pave, Radford, Towers, Mercer, CUPA-HR, etc.
- Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is the discretion of the hiring manager.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree in a science, business, or other related field.
- Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) Designation
- PMP, Agile, or other project management certification
- Experience with Workday
- Experience in sales, executive, and global compensation
Travel
This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.
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