How to Maximize the Value of Your Total Rewards Statements Posted on July 29, 2026 by Stacy Fenner How to Maximize the Value of Your Total Rewards Statements 8-10 min read Your Total Rewards Statement Isn’t the Finish Line. It’s the Starting Point. Every year, HR teams invest countless hours building total rewards statements. Specifically, we gather benefit costs, retirement contributions, employer-paid programs, incentive payouts, and compensation information. In doing so, we try […] Read More… from How to Maximize the Value of Your Total Rewards Statements
8 Compensation Software Features HR Leaders Should Review Posted on July 22, 2026 (July 27, 2026) by Laura Morgan 8 Compensation Software Features HR Leaders Should Review Before You Replace Your Spreadsheets, Know What to Look For If your organization still manages employee compensation through spreadsheets, you’re not alone. In fact, many HR teams rely on manual processes for salary management, merit increases, and compensation planning. However, those processes become increasingly difficult to manage […] Read More… from 8 Compensation Software Features HR Leaders Should Review
Compensation Management Software vs Spreadsheets: The Honest Comparison Posted on July 21, 2026 (July 27, 2026) by Neil Morgan Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Week three of the merit cycle is usually when the truth arrives. A manager sends a file named final_v3_REAL.xlsx. Finance asks why the rollup total moved overnight. Two directors are still working from last quarter’s guideline table, and no one can say which version produced the numbers you already walked […] Read More… from Compensation Management Software vs Spreadsheets: The Honest Comparison
How to Read Economic Signals and Win the CFO Conversation Posted on July 6, 2026 (July 10, 2026) by Laura Morgan Estimated reading time: 8 minutes Every budget season, HR leaders walk into finance with some version of the same question: “What merit increase can we afford this year?” That single question often hands control of the discussion to the CFO before it even begins. A stronger approach starts earlier — by reading the external economic […] Read More… from How to Read Economic Signals and Win the CFO Conversation
Project Management Lessons from Camping Posted on June 25, 2026 (June 24, 2026) by Alex Morgan Estimated reading time: 9 minutes A compensation cycle can fall apart the same way a camping trip does. You think you packed the right gear. Everyone seems to know the plan. Then the weather changes, one key tool fails, and someone looks around, wondering who had the flashlight. That is why camping offers such practical project […] Read More… from Project Management Lessons from Camping
The Peanut Butter Problem: Why Equal Merit Increases Undermine Performance Pay Posted on June 24, 2026 (July 2, 2026) by Michelle Henderson The Peanut Butter Problem: Why Merit Budget Differentiation Is Your Most Important Retention Tool in 2026 8 min read Most organizations say they want to reward performance. Their merit budgets often tell a different story. More than 80% of employers plan to distribute salary increase budgets relatively evenly across the workforce, limiting the distinction between […] Read More… from The Peanut Butter Problem: Why Equal Merit Increases Undermine Performance Pay
What Did Your Summer Job Teach You? Posted on June 5, 2026 by Laura Morgan Before we had polished resumes, career paths, leadership programs, or LinkedIn profiles, many of us had summer jobs. We scooped ice cream. Watched kids at camp. Folded clothes. Made coffee. Cleaned tables. Answered phones. Sat in lifeguard chairs. Worked retail. Bagged groceries. Babysat. Mowed lawns. Took tickets. Filed papers. Delivered food. At the time, those […] Read More… from What Did Your Summer Job Teach You?
Data Slinging in Compensation: Why AI Cannot Rescue Untested Pay Analysis Posted on May 27, 2026 (July 8, 2026) by Laura Morgan Estimated reading time: 15 minutes A friend of mine recently used AI to help her board’s compensation committee appreciate the data she had collected on the nonprofit’s executive pay package. The deck looked sharp. Her talking points landed. Members of the committee felt informed. What she did not bring into that room was IRS Section […] Read More… from Data Slinging in Compensation: Why AI Cannot Rescue Untested Pay Analysis
Your Employees Are Already Using AI Salary Research Tools — Are You Ready? Posted on May 22, 2026 (June 25, 2026) by Alex Morgan Estimated Reading Time: ~7 minutes Every performance review cycle, more employees walk in prepared. They bring compensation ranges pulled from ChatGPT, benchmarks from Glassdoor, and job-level comparisons from LinkedIn — all gathered using AI salary research tools that cost nothing and take minutes to use. The question for HR directors is no longer whether employees […] Read More… from Your Employees Are Already Using AI Salary Research Tools — Are You Ready?
What 27 AI-Tagged Tasks Revealed About AI Productivity Measurement Posted on May 18, 2026 (June 9, 2026) by Laura Morgan Estimated reading time: 6 minutes In this article, we explore AI productivity measurement and its impact in today’s workplace. I pulled the AI productivity measurement data from our Wrike system last week, expecting a clean win story. Twenty-seven AI-tagged tasks across our most recent compensation consulting projects. Planned hours: 150. Actual hours: 183. We ran […] Read More… from What 27 AI-Tagged Tasks Revealed About AI Productivity Measurement