CECP Questions and Answers

Investors and Finance want to see money spent wisely. Legal must ensure compliance, and HR and operating departments want to see their needs taken into account to attract, retain and motivate a high quality workforce.

Operating departments and HR understand the company must live within its means and Finance cannot allocate funds to a budget if it is likely that profitability will be adversely affected.

Investors want to maximize gains and want to see compensation tightly controlled and Legal needs to ensure that compensation plans do not attract undue scrutiny.

Operating departments view compensation as it applies to them, HR must balance available resources to attract, retain and motivate employees and Finance knows the value of a motivated workforce and will provide the budget necessary to achieve it.

Ensuring support from all internal and external stakeholders

Estimating results based on historical data

Using statistical methods to predict outcomes

Determining, sourcing and collecting appropriate data

Mission

Vision

Values

Strategy

They are based on a predetermined performance and reward schedule.

They are offered to motivate employee performance.

They are intended to align the interests of the employee with those of the organization.

They tend to make up the larger portion of an employee's total compensation.   

They aren’t. Managers are concerned about their compensation also.

They are also responsible for merit increases, incentives and hiring so they have greater information needs.

They tend to have more influence, so it is important to resolve any concerns they have quickly and efficiently.

They have more duties and responsibilities and are less likely to have the time to discuss compensation issues.

Fixed pay and variable pay

Base pay and annual incentives

Direct and indirect compensation

Salary and hourly rate   

The previous quarter

The budget

The same quarter in the previous year, plus the current six-month or nine-month cumulative comparables

The aggregate performance of the same quarter in the previous three years

Operational excellence

Product/service leadership

Customer intimacy

Brand loyalty

A varying mix depending on employee influence on goals to provide the necessary incentive to maximize profits

100% variable pay to motivate all employees to maximize productivity and sales

90/10 for the majority of employees (base/variable) to share in the company’s success with increased variable pay for management/executives to motivate employees to seek higher positions

High base pay and low variable pay to ensure predictability of total compensation expense

The change in working capital over a specific period of time, typically one year

A company’s efficiency in converting short-term capital into cash

A company’s mean capital expenditure per employee

The amount of cash needed to meet the company’s short-term obligations