Make and Communicate a Compensation Decision

Flow · 7 controlled steps

1. 01

   Accept the decision intake

   Confirm that the analysis and authority are ready for decision.

   • — Verify employee, role and mapping versions, review-record version, options, recommendation, cost, effective date, budget, conditions, risks, and unresolved questions.
   • — Confirm decision, finance, payroll, equity, benefits, board, employment, labor, tax, and specialist authorities as applicable.
   • — Check that no employee promise or implementation has preceded approval.
   • — Return specific evidence gaps to review rather than recreating analysis informally.

   Responsible

   Compensation-process owner

   Output

   Authorized Decision Docket

   Decision

   Is the exact package complete and authorized for decision?

2. 02

   Evaluate options and system effects

   Compare alternatives using the company’s approved compensation logic and complete consequences.

   • — Compare no-change and action options against philosophy, structure, legitimate factors, internal relationships, market evidence, prior commitments, and review limitations.
   • — Test immediate and forward cost, budget, compression, inversion, precedent, range integrity, retention, career relationships, and workforce effects.
   • — Review component-specific uncertainty and conditions without converting equity, incentive, benefits, or premiums into guaranteed cash equivalents.
   • — Document material tradeoffs and what additional information could change the decision.

   Responsible

   Compensation decision owner

   Output

   Compensation Option Decision Analysis

   Decision

   Which options remain coherent, affordable, authorized, and acceptable in risk?

3. 03

   Complete required approvals

   Secure every authority required for the exact proposed decision.

   • — Route the exact component, amount or method, effective date, funding, conditions, and record to required approvers.
   • — Obtain finance, compensation, executive, board, equity, payroll, benefits, employment, labor, tax, or other specialist approval where applicable.
   • — Document conditions, expirations, dissent, and any required implementation controls.
   • — If an approver changes a material term, return the revised version through appropriate analysis before approval.

   Responsible

   Compensation-process owner

   Output

   Approved Compensation Authority Record

   Decision

   Has the exact decision version received every required approval?

4. 04

   Authorize and freeze the decision

   Create the single source of truth for communication and implementation.

   • — Record change or no-change outcome, each affected component, amount or method, effective date, rationale category, conditions, funding, authority, and limitations.
   • — Separate employee-facing explanation from restricted analysis while preserving consistency.
   • — Define correction, amendment, expiration, and exception authority.
   • — Freeze the authoritative version and prohibit downstream re-interpretation.

   Responsible

   Compensation decision owner

   Output

   Authorized Compensation Decision

   Decision

   Is this exact outcome ready to become the authoritative compensation decision?

5. 05

   Prepare the manager and communication

   Make the decision understandable without exposing restricted information or creating new promises.

   • — Prepare employee-facing content covering the decision, affected components, effective date, relevant rationale, conditions, next steps, and approved resources.
   • — Train or brief the manager on accurate explanation, component distinctions, questions, confidentiality, and escalation.
   • — Ensure letters, statements, portals, and verbal guidance use the same version and definitions.
   • — Plan communication timing relative to payroll, market disclosure, teams, managers, and other affected populations.

   Responsible

   Compensation-process owner

   Output

   Approved Compensation Communication Package · Ready Communicator Record

   Decision

   Can the assigned communicator explain the decision accurately and answer only within authority?

6. 06

   Communicate and acknowledge the decision

   Deliver a respectful, accurate decision and controlled response path.

   • — Communicate the exact outcome, affected components, effective date, conditions, approved rationale, and next steps.
   • — Distinguish salary, incentive, equity, benefits, premiums, and other components and avoid unsupported total-value claims.
   • — Invite questions and factual correction and route matters beyond communicator authority.
   • — Record delivery, acknowledgement, questions, corrections, disagreement, and follow-up without requiring agreement.

   Responsible

   Manager or authorized communicator

   Output

   Compensation Communication Record · Employee Questions and Response Record

   Decision

   Does new information require factual correction, amendment review, or specialist escalation?

7. 07

   Implement, reconcile, and review

   Ensure the approved decision becomes the actual system state and feeds governance.

   • — Transmit the exact decision to payroll, HRIS, equity, incentive, benefits, finance, reporting, and other affected owners using minimum necessary data.
   • — Validate effective dates, amounts, components, approvals, employee statements, downstream calculations, and accounting treatment as applicable.
   • — Reconcile each system and first affected output to the authorized version and correct defects through controlled change.
   • — Review communication, implementation, exceptions, employee questions, internal effects, and structural signals for improvement.

   Responsible

   Compensation-process owner

   Output

   Compensation Implementation Record · Reconciliation and Governance Feedback

   Decision

   Has the exact authorized decision been implemented and reconciled everywhere required?

Connections

Seams · 12 hops within 2 steps

Upstream and downstream neighbourhood over public reference processes only. Each hop shows the trigger, carried objects, and what the receiving process loses if the producing step is skipped.

Roles

Systems + Data

Measures

Evidence + judgment

Draft reference standard. Requires qualified compensation, finance, employment, labor, pay-equity, discrimination, payroll, benefits, equity, securities, tax, accounting, privacy, board, regulatory, and jurisdiction-specific review before deployment.