Variable Pay — Improving Performance with Variable Pay

• Learn common business strategies and objectives for achieving them.
• See how to align variable pay programs with business strategy.
• Learn the three categories of variable pay: incentive plans, bonus plans, and recognition plans.
• Discover internal and external factors that affect variable pay plans.
• See the steps for designing variable pay compensation strategy, including funding and distributing plan earnings.
• Learn to implement, communicate, and evaluate variable pay compensation and benefits plans.

This course is ideal for the HR professional responsible for designing, assessing, and maintaining variable pay plans.

Learn how to spur your employees to perform at the highest levels, boost organizational profitability and retain talented individuals through well-designed variable pay programs. This course will give you the knowledge and skills to design, implement, and evaluate successful variable pay plans.

Also known as pay-for-performance, variable pay programs incentivize employees to reach specific goals – such as boosting revenue and acquiring new skills. Successfully deploying variable pay is vital for today’s compensation and HR professionals.

• Elements of compensation
• Business strategy
• Business strategy drives business objectives
• Business lifecycle
• Variable pay helps achieve business objectives

• Incentive plans
• Bonus plans
• Recognition plans

Developing a Variable Pay Plan —

Phases 1 and 2

• Phase 1: Pre-design
• Phase 2: Design

Developing a Variable Pay Plan —

Phase 3

• Phase 3: Funding and distribution

• Plan implementation
• Developing the communication plan
• Coordinating plan administration
• Plan Evaluation
• Determining plan effectiveness
• Why plans fail
• Potential evaluation outcomes