# Make and Communicate a Compensation Decision

Status: draft · v0.1.0 · Compensation System
draft reference — not a fitted standard

Authorize, communicate, implement, and verify an employee compensation decision from one controlled review package.

## Purpose
Turn compensation analysis into an affordable, consistent, explainable, accurately implemented decision without informal promises, retroactive rationale, or payroll drift.

## Steps
1. Accept the decision intake — Confirm that the analysis and authority are ready for decision.
2. Evaluate options and system effects — Compare alternatives using the company’s approved compensation logic and complete consequences.
3. Complete required approvals — Secure every authority required for the exact proposed decision.
4. Authorize and freeze the decision — Create the single source of truth for communication and implementation.
5. Prepare the manager and communication — Make the decision understandable without exposing restricted information or creating new promises.
6. Communicate and acknowledge the decision — Deliver a respectful, accurate decision and controlled response path.
7. Implement, reconcile, and review — Ensure the approved decision becomes the actual system state and feeds governance.

## Connections
- upstream: Review Employee Compensation (/processes/review-employee-compensation) — trigger: The compensation decision owner accepts the review package.
- upstream: Make a Progression or Talent Decision (/processes/make-progression-or-talent-decision) — trigger: An implemented talent decision requires a compensation decision.
- downstream: Operate Pay Structures and Equity Controls (/processes/operate-pay-structures-and-equity-controls) — trigger: The decision is implemented or a material structural signal occurs.
- downstream: Align Role Outcomes and Expectations (/processes/align-role-outcomes) — trigger: A separate role or talent decision becomes effective.

## Measures
- Compensation decision operating effect: Structured review of intended rationale, implemented pay, internal relationships, employee questions, retention context, budget, and structural effects; not causal attribution alone.
- Decision control completeness: Communicated decisions satisfying all required control fields divided by all communicated decisions.
- Decision-to-communication cycle time: Elapsed time from docket acceptance to communication, separated by evaluation, approval, preparation, and scheduling waits.
- Authoritative decision use: Applicable events and system records linked and reconciled to the authoritative version divided by all applicable events and records.
- Compensation decision exception pattern: Exceptions by component, stage, owner, cause, severity, employee impact, and disposition.
- Consistency, equity, privacy, dignity, and promise guardrail: Qualified review of approvals, outcomes, explanations, questions, corrections, access, and patterns; not a causal or legal conclusion.