Compensation and Benefits Strategy Masterclass Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Head of Reward, Compensation Director and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CB-029

Before you join: Participants should have substantial experience in HR, compensation, benefits, payroll, finance or workforce planning, with direct exposure to pay decisions, reward data or policy implementation.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Compensation and benefits decisions determine whether an organisation can attract scarce talent, retain critical employees, control employment cost and meet fairness expectations. Senior practitioners must make these decisions with incomplete market data, competing stakeholder priorities, changing legal obligations and close scrutiny from executives, employees, boards and regulators. A reward strategy that lacks clear job architecture, market position, governance and communication can create pay inequities, uncontrolled payroll drift, ineffective incentives and benefit spend that employees do not value.

This masterclass examines how to design and govern an integrated reward strategy. Participants work through reward philosophy, job evaluation, salary structures, market pricing, pay equity analysis, merit budgeting, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, executive remuneration, pensions and employee benefits. The course also addresses global reward principles, international assignments, remuneration committee reporting, reward analytics, pay transparency and implementation governance. Participants gain methods for translating business and workforce priorities into defensible reward policies, financial models and decision papers.

Teaching combines focused briefings with sector-based cases, data interpretation, group analysis, design simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect issues faced by banks, public institutions, multinationals, NGOs and large employers, including scarce-skill premiums, bonus-plan affordability, unequal pay findings and benefits vendor decisions. Participants leave with a tailored reward strategy blueprint, pay governance materials and practical templates that can be adapted for their organisation.

The course is designed for experienced HR and reward professionals who already contribute to compensation, benefits, workforce planning, finance or executive remuneration decisions and now need to shape enterprise-level reward policy.

What you will be able to do

  • Design a reward strategy linking business priorities, workforce segments, cost and risk.
  • Build job architecture and salary structures using evaluation and market-pricing methods.
  • Set pay positioning, range movement and merit-budget policies from workforce data.
  • Conduct pay equity analysis using comparator logic, regression outputs and remediation priorities.
  • Model short-term and long-term incentive plans with affordability and risk controls.
  • Evaluate benefits programmes using employee value, utilisation, cost and vendor performance data.
  • Develop global reward governance, mobility principles and remuneration committee decision papers.
  • Produce an implementation roadmap, reward dashboard and pay communication plan.

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A defensible framework for presenting reward recommendations to executive committees
  • Stronger judgement on pay equity findings, remediation choices and legal exposure
  • Practical methods for redesigning salary ranges and annual pay-review processes
  • Greater confidence testing incentive plans for affordability, risk and behavioural effects
  • A structured basis for progressing into senior reward or total rewards leadership roles

For your organisation

  • Clearer linkage between reward investment, workforce priorities and business performance
  • More consistent pay decisions through defined job architecture and governance controls
  • Earlier identification of unexplained pay gaps and remediation priorities
  • Better control of salary, incentive, pension and benefits expenditure
  • More credible reward communication for managers, employees, boards and regulators

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can translate business and workforce priorities into a measurable reward strategy.

  • Business strategy translated into reward priorities, guardrails and measurable outcomes
  • WorldatWork Total Rewards Model used to test proposition coherence
  • Segmenting employee populations by scarce skills, performance and workforce risk
  • Reward philosophy statements distinguishing market position, pay mix and eligibility
  • Cost, risk and talent scenarios linked through strategic workforce planning
  • Governance roles across board, remuneration committee, executives and HR

Participants can build defensible job architecture and evaluate roles consistently.

  • Job architecture built from job families, levels, career streams and scope
  • Hay Guide Chart-Profile Method factors: know-how, problem solving and accountability
  • Job evaluation governance, calibration protocols and appeal documentation
  • Career level descriptors separating expertise, impact, autonomy and people leadership
  • Broadband, traditional grades and market-reference ranges compared for workforce fit
  • Job documentation standards supporting defensible evaluation and pay decisions

Participants can price jobs, construct pay ranges and maintain market competitiveness.

  • Peer groups selected using industry, size, geography and talent competition
  • Survey ageing, currency conversion and percentile interpretation for market pricing
  • Regression-based market lines fitted by grade, scope or job value
  • Compa-ratio, range penetration and position-in-range diagnosed by employee segment
  • Outlier treatment and data-quality checks before pay-range recommendations
  • Pay range midpoints, spreads and overlaps constructed from market policy
  • Range maintenance rules triggered by inflation, survey movement and budget limits

Participants can assess pay equity risks and develop evidence-based remediation plans.

  • Equal-pay analysis distinguishes like work, work of equal value and comparators
  • Multivariate regression separates explainable pay factors from unexplained pay gaps
  • Pay-gap metrics calculated by gender, ethnicity, grade, function and location
  • Data dictionaries define protected characteristics, job data and compensation elements
  • Remediation options prioritised by materiality, legal exposure, cost and feasibility
  • Audit trails preserve decision rationale, approvals and corrective action records

Participants can design controlled base-pay progression and annual pay-review processes.

  • Base-pay policy links positioning, progression, performance and critical-skill premiums
  • Merit matrices allocate increases using performance ratings and compa-ratios
  • Promotion, adjustment and retention guidelines prevent inconsistent manager decisions
  • Skill-based pay structures recognise verified capabilities and proficiency levels
  • Budget modelling estimates payroll cost, pension effects and salary drift
  • Pay transparency messages explain ranges, progression criteria and manager responsibilities

Participants can design annual incentive plans that align performance, funding and risk.

  • Annual incentive plans align scorecards, thresholds, targets, maximums and funding
  • Balanced Scorecard measures selected for line-of-sight, controllability and strategic relevance
  • Formula design tests payout curves, gates, modifiers and windfall controls
  • Financial metric definitions specify adjustments, accounting sources and certification
  • Individual performance differentiation reconciled with team outcomes and discretion
  • Scenario modelling tests affordability under downside, plan and upside performance

Participants can assess long-term incentive and executive pay structures under governance scrutiny.

  • Long-term incentive vehicles compared: shares, options, restricted stock and cash
  • Performance conditions designed around TSR, EPS, ROIC and strategic milestones
  • Vesting, holding periods, malus and clawback provisions manage conduct risk
  • Executive pay governance addresses dilution, share ownership and shareholder scrutiny
  • Relative TSR calculations use peer groups, ranking methodology and payout schedules
  • Accounting, tax and dilution implications inform award design decisions

Participants can structure benefit portfolios around employee value, cost and workforce needs.

  • Benefits strategy segments needs through life-stage, workforce and location data
  • Benefit valuation compares employer cost, employee value and utilisation
  • Defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid pension risk allocation
  • Health plan design balances coverage, cost sharing, networks and wellbeing
  • Flexible benefits platforms apply eligibility, allowance and tax rules
  • Vendor procurement scorecards assess service levels, data security and renewal terms
  • Absence, leave and wellbeing provisions integrated with total reward policy

Participants can establish global reward principles and control cross-border reward decisions.

  • Global reward principles distinguish non-negotiables, local adaptation and approval rights
  • Purchasing-power parity, exchange rates and inflation inform international pay decisions
  • Mobility packages address home-country, host-country and local-plus approaches
  • Tax equalisation, social security and immigration costs modelled for assignments
  • Works councils and collective agreements incorporated into implementation planning
  • Remuneration committee papers present risk, cost, performance and decision options
  • Control frameworks assign ownership, delegation limits and policy exception records

Participants can implement reward changes with measurable controls and credible communication.

  • Reward dashboards combine cost, competitiveness, equity, participation and retention indicators
  • ISO 30414 human capital disclosures assessed for reward-related reporting needs
  • Manager conversation guides explain pay decisions without false precision
  • Employee communications sequence rationale, personal impact, timing and escalation routes
  • Implementation roadmaps define dependencies, systems changes, governance and change controls
  • Application plan prioritises 90-day actions, sponsors, milestones and measures
  • Post-implementation review tests adoption, unintended effects and policy adjustments

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Reward strategy blueprint template
  2. Job architecture and salary-range design model
  3. Pay equity diagnostic and remediation prioritisation checklist
  4. Annual incentive plan design worksheet
  5. Benefits portfolio assessment scorecard
  6. Ninety-day reward implementation roadmap

Who should attend

  • Head of Reward — to set enterprise reward direction, governance and investment priorities
  • Compensation Director — to redesign pay architecture, incentive plans and market-positioning policy
  • Benefits Director — to assess benefit value, cost, risk and vendor performance
  • HR Director — to connect workforce strategy, reward policy and executive decision-making
  • HR Business Partner — to advise leaders on pay decisions, talent risk and reward trade-offs
  • Finance or Payroll Leader — to model reward cost, controls and reporting requirements

Skills and tools covered

Reward strategy designJob evaluationPay equity analysisIncentive plan designBenefits portfolio managementReward governance

Tools and standards

WorldatWork Total Rewards Model, Hay Guide Chart-Profile Method, Balanced Scorecard, ISO 30414

How the course runs

Training methodology

The programme uses short expert briefings to establish concepts, followed by cases, data-based group work, design simulations and peer review. Participants interpret market survey extracts, test pay-range decisions, review equity-analysis outputs and model incentive outcomes under different business scenarios. Facilitated discussions examine governance choices, remuneration committee questions and communication risks. Each participant develops an application plan using their own reward priorities, while respecting confidentiality requirements. Trainers adapt cases and discussion emphasis to the cohort's sector, geography and operating model.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial experience in HR, compensation, benefits, payroll, finance or workforce planning, with direct exposure to pay decisions, reward data or policy implementation. They should understand common compensation terms such as base pay, bonus, salary range, pension and benefits. Prior experience with spreadsheets and interpreting basic workforce data is expected. The course does not require advanced statistics, specialist actuarial knowledge, legal qualification, coding skills or prior use of a specific job evaluation system. It is not an introductory HR or payroll course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

This is an advanced course for professionals with practical exposure to compensation, benefits, payroll, HR, finance or workforce planning. Participants should already understand core reward terminology and have worked with pay or benefits decisions, data or policies.

Bring a laptop for data interpretation and planning activities. Participants may also bring anonymised examples of salary structures, benefit costs, incentive plans or current reward challenges, subject to their organisation's confidentiality rules.

It is best suited to Heads of Reward, Compensation Directors, Benefits Leaders, senior HR Business Partners, HR Directors and finance leaders with responsibility for employment cost. It also suits succession candidates preparing for a senior total rewards role.

This course focuses on reward strategy, design choices, financial trade-offs, governance and executive decision-making. It does not teach payroll processing, detailed benefits administration or jurisdiction-specific employment law compliance.

Participants leave with reusable templates and a 90-day application plan tied to a current reward priority. Common applications include revising salary ranges, assessing pay gaps, redesigning bonus plans and preparing reward proposals for senior leaders.

The five days provide approximately 32.5 contact hours, organised around ten connected modules. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group exercises, simulations, discussion and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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