How do you approach compensation-related challenges as a successful Compensation Manager?

How to Answer
Answer Example

Tackling compensation challenges on a regular basis is the bread and butter part of the job of a Compensation Manager. Your interviewer will be looking to really dig into how you approach compensation issues and challenges to get a feel for how you will handle this job with their organization. Prior to your interview, think of a compensation challenge you have faced in your career the clearly demonstrates using your problem solving abilities to create a positive outcome. Make sure you use a specific example and provide the interviewer with insight into how you would solve problems in this role.

"Three years ago, my organization was going through a period where a large portion of our sales force was turning over and the lack of retention and consistency was having a major impact on our customers and overall sales. After I obtained information from employee exit interviews, it turns out that most of our salesforce was leaving to take jobs with a more consistent and larger salary based pay structure. For many years prior, our sales staff were compensated on a full incentive and commission base. I assured my HR Director and CEO that I would begin a compensation study right away and I quickly found out that most of our competitors paid about 50-75% of total compensation on a base salary and the remaining percentage on commission and pay for performance. Knowing that our sales staff were always in the $60-$80k range for annual compensation, I worked with our sales director to build a new compensation package that involved 50% base salary, 40% commission and 10% monthly pay for performance. Moving forward, we were able to recruit back a couple of strong sales team members that had previously left and keep our great team together to this day."

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How to Answer: How do you approach compensation-related challenges as a successful Compensation Manager?

Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Compensation Manager job interview.

4. How do you approach compensation-related challenges as a successful Compensation Manager?

How to Answer

Tackling compensation challenges on a regular basis is the bread and butter part of the job of a Compensation Manager. Your interviewer will be looking to really dig into how you approach compensation issues and challenges to get a feel for how you will handle this job with their organization. Prior to your interview, think of a compensation challenge you have faced in your career the clearly demonstrates using your problem solving abilities to create a positive outcome. Make sure you use a specific example and provide the interviewer with insight into how you would solve problems in this role.

Written by Amy Hagan on September 13th, 2021

Answer Example

"Three years ago, my organization was going through a period where a large portion of our sales force was turning over and the lack of retention and consistency was having a major impact on our customers and overall sales. After I obtained information from employee exit interviews, it turns out that most of our salesforce was leaving to take jobs with a more consistent and larger salary based pay structure. For many years prior, our sales staff were compensated on a full incentive and commission base. I assured my HR Director and CEO that I would begin a compensation study right away and I quickly found out that most of our competitors paid about 50-75% of total compensation on a base salary and the remaining percentage on commission and pay for performance. Knowing that our sales staff were always in the $60-$80k range for annual compensation, I worked with our sales director to build a new compensation package that involved 50% base salary, 40% commission and 10% monthly pay for performance. Moving forward, we were able to recruit back a couple of strong sales team members that had previously left and keep our great team together to this day."

Written by Amy Hagan on September 13th, 2021

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