ERC’s compensation consultants price your jobs, identify pay issues, and deliver strategies you can stand behind without the guesswork. We bring data, insights, and practical expertise to help you make confident, equitable pay decisions that attract and retain talent.
ERC’s compensation consultants can help organizations with a range of services from market pricing, salary structure design, and pay analyses to compensation philosophies and retention strategies.
30-Minute Compensation Strategy Consultation
Talk through your compensation challenges and get practical answers and advice from a compensation expert.
ERC’s Compensation Consulting Services
We help you understand where your pay stands today and what to do next. Whether you need to benchmark jobs, address pay equity, or build a sustainable compensation structure, we bring the data, strategy, and expert guidance to get you there.
Total Rewards Strategy
Develop, refine, or articulate your strategy.
ERC can assist with identifying the type and mix of compensation and benefits organizations offer to their employees. An effective total rewards strategy combines monetary compensation and other benefits with opportunities for professional growth and development to motivate employees to stay engaged and productive at work. A successful total rewards strategy supports your organization’s vision, core values, and company culture.
Market Pricing Studies
Determine competitive market pay, identify gaps, and make recommendations.
ERC has access to a wide array of local, regional, and national compensation data to help with benchmarking and evaluation for existing and future positions. We provide market pricing studies for a wide range of industries, allowing you to determine market pay competitiveness based on your industry, geography, and company size.
Salary Structure Design
Design or modify your existing salary structure based on industry best practices.
ERC can help assess your compensation program design to ensure pay is in line with the responsibilities and duties of each role. Salary structure design can also help organizations determine appropriate levels of base pay, bonus pay, and other forms of compensation.
Incumbent Pay Analysis and Recommendations
Assess internal pay equity.
Generally done in conjunction with a market pricing analysis, ERC can conduct a pay analysis for your organization. ERC’s compensation consultants utilize a formal process for reviewing the wages of incumbents in a single job title per a standard set of criteria, such as years of experience, performance rating, and/or education level. The objective is to ensure all employees are paid equitably in relation to one another per the criteria.
Executive and Board Compensation Consulting
Getting executive and board pay right is critical to attracting and keeping top leadership. Our consulting services give you straightforward, data-driven insights on compensation for executives, management, and board positions. We use credible local, regional, and national market data to benchmark and evaluate a wide range of leadership roles so you can make confident, competitive decisions.
Sales Compensation Consulting
Our sales compensation consulting service specializes in market pricing and compensation research for sales roles. Our experts have access to data on base pay, variable pay, and total compensation from thousands of sales professionals across the country. With this data, we tailor compensation strategies that attract and retain top performers, ensuring your sales force is motivated and in alignment with current national and regional compensation trends.
Our Compensation Methodology & Process
1
Compensation Philosophy
We’ll work with you to create a clear, written approach to pay that reflects your mission and values, helps attract and keep great people, and gives your organization confidence in how pay decisions are made.
2
Market Pricing Study
We look at essential functions for each role, find the best match in the market, and customize it to your organization’s size, industry, and geography.
3
Base Pay Structure Design
In this phase, we’ll build a clear organization-wide pay structure with salary ranges that’s fair, competitive, creates internal alignment, and serves as a framework for career progression.
4
Incubment Pay Analysis
We’ll review employees’ current pay, compare it inside and outside the organization based on experience, performance, and tenure, and provide recommendations and cost impacts to ensure pay is fair, competitive, and aligned with your goals.
Compensation One-on-One
Whether someone is new to employee compensation or simply wants to advance their knowledge, Compensation One-on-One covers the critical components HR and finance professionals need to know. This one-on-one session with a credentialed Compensation Consultant helps leaders build the right set of skills and knowledge to implement best practices that will successfully support HR initiatives and drive business outcomes.
This consultative session provides a general overview of the guiding principles that govern sound compensation management.
What You’ll Learn:
You will learn where to start and how to set a foundation for success, how to build a Total Rewards-based employee value proposition, and how to use compensation as an effective tool to attract, reward, and retain employees.
Discussion Topics Include:
- Forming a compensation philosophy and strategy
- Building an employee value proposition
- Market pricing and job grading
- Designing a base salary structure
- Performing an incumbent analysis
- Addressing external and internal equity
- Customizing compensation solutions to your organization
Features of Comp One-on-One
- Get One-on-One Instruction from a Compensation Consultant
- Includes One, 90-Minute Session
- Schedule on Your Time
- Earn 1.5 SHRM Continuing Education Credits
Nicole Doria, Senior Compensation Consultant
Nicole brings over 15 years of extensive compensation experience to ERC. Nicole’s areas of expertise include the development, design, and implementation of base salary administration programs, variable and incentive pay plans, merit pay for performance planning, executive compensation, and equity and stock award administration.
Nicole specializes in assisting our clients with compensation-related needs focused on base and incentive compensation. Nicole uses our local and national market data library as a foundation of her work while also applying the principles of best compensation practices.
Frequently Asked Questions
We typically work with mid-sized organizations (approximately 50-1,000 employees). Our clients typically have an HR leader or team, but don’t have a compensation specialist in their organization.
Organizations typically come to ERC for market pricing, compensation strategy, and structure.
It’s also common for us to work with clients on projects specific to sales compensation, executive compensation, bonus and incentive plans, and pay transparency or equity.
We work with companies with locations and employees across the country, though are consultants are physically located in Northeast Ohio and have deep expertise working with U.S.-based organizations, including the Midwest and Ohio.
A compensation consultant can support a wide variety of projects, from tactical to strategic. ERC’s consultants specialize in market pricing, salary structure design, pay analysis, compensation philosophy, total rewards strategy, and retention strategy.
Whether you’re looking to hire a compensation consultant to audit and assess your organization’s current salary structure or to develop a more in-depth total rewards strategy, the right skills and background are important.
Look for a consultant with a comprehensive understanding of the compensation field and deep knowledge and experience designing and implementing successful compensation programs. In addition, be sure to work with one who is certified through a reputable organization, preferably a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP).
Also, consider industry knowledge. Working with a consultant who has held compensation roles within organizations and across several industries can add a wealth of practical experience and expertise.
Ultimately, you’ll want a compensation consultant who can work with you and your management team to understand your business goals and develop a plan that supports them. ERC’s compensation consultants have a breadth of industry experience, extensive expertise across all areas of compensation strategy and design, and access to the most comprehensive compensation data in Ohio and nationwide.
The right compensation consultant will assess your compensation strategy and implementation through the lens of your business goals. At ERC, our compensation consultants guide organizations to the following outcomes:
- Competitive compensation that positions your organization to attract and retain top talent
- A pay structure that supports sound, data-based decision-making for hiring and promoting
- A foundation and guiding principles for establishing and maintaining internal pay equity
- A philosophy and strategy designed to effectively use compensation as a lever to achieve business and talent goals
Contact Us for More Information
Get pricing for ERC’s Compensation Consulting services. Have questions? Speak with a compensation expert to learn more.
