As compensation professionals, we can get stuck in the “nice to have” features of automating our compensation management process. Sometimes we forget the end user and what is really important to the management population. From a software perspective it is easy to get caught up in custom dashboards, custom reports, and administrative features. Unfortunately, without buy-in from managers, none of these nice to have features can ever be utilized.
What Managers Want to See
- Direct Reports – The very first thing a manager should see when logging in is their entire organization
- Their Budget – The managers budget should be front and center
- Easy Navigation – This process should be pretty simple, when the manager logs in they should know exactly where to go
- Employee Planning Page – At the most basic level the manager is only allocating budgets, the employee planning page should be obvious and the manager should never get lost trying to plan
What Managers Don’t Want To See
- Confusing Drop-Downs
- Other Manager’s Data
- Reporting Dashboards – When the manager first logs in they shouldn’t see reports, after the process it is okay to provide reports
- Performance/Succession Drop-Downs – Many full TM suites have all the modules in one place, when it is time for comp planning that is the only screen the manager should see
When your organization decides to move away from spreadsheets and implement a compensation planning system, don’t forget about the end user. Nice to have features don’t help with user adoption, many times they get in the way of an easy to use system.