One of the most common integrations for compensation solutions is with human resource information systems (HRISs). All-in-one HRIS solutions can often have gaps in their compensation planning capability, since compensation planning is not their main focus. 

Some of the most common gaps include:

• Lack of granularity in budget allocation and reporting
• Inability to support assignment methodology and layered metrics/proration
• Limits on using data from more than one HRIS for compensation planning
• Lack of flexibility in system configuration, e.g. for multiple pay rates
• An outsourced implementation and support structure

Below, we’ve outlined how adding PeopleFluent Compensation to your existing set of systems can address these five common gaps.

1) Supporting Multiple Budget Allocation Methodologies

If you have multiple business units that allocate budgets differently, they need to be able to separately label different budget pools and calculations, and roll them up into one overall budget. Many all-in-one HRIS solutions provide a select few budget categories but lack the ability to create multiple additional pools with granular separation. If an HRIS only has pools for “Merit,” “Lump Sum,” “Promotion,” and “Additional Adjustments,” for example, you would have no choice but to use the “Additional Adjustments” budget to accommodate all additional budget requirements. When separate pools are merged, with no ability to split out additional budgets and spend, you can miss out on clarity and detail in their results.

For example, if you have a 1% market adjustment budget and a 1.5% special adjustment budget, when they are combined into “Additional Adjustments,” it would merge into a 2.5% budget. This would mean you cannot see in the budget summary how much is truly being spent in each pool, nor how they are or are not adhering to those two budgets.

PeopleFluent’s flexible configurability allows you to track budgets at a more granular level to ensure funds are being used for their intended purposes. Our solution allows for the creation of additional fields not loaded via your HRIS system, meaning you can create additional custom budget buckets and calculations to suit your unique business requirements. Calculations and logic can be used with custom fields based on the specific plan requirements. These fields can be used for reporting, as well as within the system modules.

In our experience, some of the key examples of how PeopleFluent’s custom budget buckets significantly enhance HRIS capabilities include the ability to:

• Create a special market budget allowing additional salary increases for a specific region—for example, if they are being underpaid due to inflation in their area
• Provide certain regions with the ability to grant a slightly higher increase, while consolidating multiple regional pay cycles into one annual cycle
• Split budgets out to show union vs non-union spend
• Split merit and/or bonus budgets by hourly vs salaried, or management vs non-management
• Show different budget/spend values for multiple different bonus programs

RELATED READING | ‘How to Gain a Competitive Edge With Compensation Technology’

2) Complex Assignment Methodology and Layered Metrics or Prorations

HR departments often need to be able to assign bonus plans via logic. However, many HRIS solutions require manual data entry to clarify which plan someone belongs to. This can lead to unnecessary complexity and manual labor.

With PeopleFluent, you can use logic within the system to automatically assign a person their grouping. PeopleFluent allows for multiple proration events that work together within each other. For example, there may be prorations for salary changes, target changes, location changes, and eligible/ineligible short-term leave. We can look at all of these potential changes and calculate accordingly, with multiple metrics where required.

Additionally, PeopleFluent allows you to seamlessly calculate awards when moving between locations or performance groups (the metrics/weights for your bonus calculation). PeopleFluent also can add modifiers, caps, thresholds, and true ups to the metric calculations.

3) Compensation Planning for Employees With Data in a Different HRIS

You might have employees within your organization who are on a different HRIS, depending on their unit or region. For example, if your Asia division does not use the same HRIS as the North American region, you’ll need to be able to load data from two separate systems. Many compensation systems cannot enable employee merit or incentive planning on different HRIS solutions, causing problems for company-wide planning and reporting.

With PeopleFluent, compensation planning can be done using more than one HRIS. You’re able to combine data from multiple systems and see the full impact on budgets, and do full organizational roll-up reporting. PeopleFluent solutions are system agnostic, meaning you can seamlessly integrate employee information into/from our applications on a two-way basis. This allows you to implement our best-in-breed talent management solutions with any other third-party systems you need, without sacrificing one for the other.

READ A CASE STUDY FOR A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE: ‘How Close Brothers Improves Efficiency and Modernizes Award Cycles With PeopleFluent Compensation’

4) Flexibility for Employees With Multiple Pay Rates

Many HRIS solutions do not offer clear visibility of employees with multiple pay rates, meaning you need to create separate cycles for planning on any additional pay rates.

PeopleFluent enables additional pay rates via custom fields or via a file, such as an incentive target file. Custom fields can be utilized to grant increases, not only to the main pay rate, but also to the additional secondary and tertiary rates. There is also the ability to set up additional concurrent employee records for multiple jobs. Both of these methods allow managers to plan for multiple employee rates on the same worksheet.

5) Self-Sufficiency in Implementation and Support

Many HRIS solutions outsource system implementation and support to a third-party partner. This reduces autonomy over your own system, and can lead to delays in solving problems.

PeopleFluent is autonomous in delivering all implementations, technical support, and customer success management. We train you on how to administer the solution, meaning that changes can be made at any time without the need to rely on a third party. PeopleFluent also provides additional support to administrators where needed, giving you complete self-sufficiency.

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