I launched The Compversation newsletter with one goal in mind: uniting the compensation and benefits community around the big challenges we’ll face in the coming years.
Because I’ve always believed that we’ll only succeed in the shift towards pay transparency if we work together.
Across large enterprises and small start-ups alike, there are exceptional compensation and benefits leaders constantly innovating to build fairer workplaces.
They’re implementing processes and structures to accurately assess the value of each employee, all while making life easier for managers.
It’s crucial that we listen to these voices because there's a lot we can learn from their processes and the practices they’ve refined.
One such expert is Saïm Bensaada. With over 20 years of experience behind him, Saïm has worked in high level compensation and benefits roles at numerous companies including VEON, Kyriba, and Dataiku.
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Saïm about our profession and how it’s changing. Our conversation brought forth lots of great insights, but what stood out to me the most about Saïm’s vision was the importance he places on employee and manager education.
Going beyond compliance
When I asked Saïm how businesses can prepare for pay transparency, he highlighted two key areas of focus:
- Compliance
- Education
The compliance side of things is fairly straightforward: a new law concerning pay transparency is about to take effect in Europe, and employers will need to comply — whether they like it or not.
But when we move past this simple legal obligation, things get a bit more complicated — and more interesting, too.
For Saïm, pay transparency education is above all about managing the anxiety that both managers and employees may be feeling as we transition to the new norm.
It’s about helping them avoid unnecessary stress or confusion as they adjust to new ways of working.
After all, we all understand how uncertainty can shake up a workplace and take a toll on everyone’s well-being. And let’s not forget the time lost to hypotheses and speculation, which could have been spent on something more constructive.
Saïm's advice to businesses (and I completely agree) is to establish clarity as quickly as possible so they can move forward.
‘Companies have to demonstrate that they have a structured, regulated and data-driven approach to compensation. But it’s not just about the numbers: at the heart of every decision lies a genuine strategic business choice.’
What matters most is showing that pay decisions aren’t arbitrary, but grounded in a fair and transparent logic — one that can be shared and understood across the organisation.
Education about transparency sounds great in theory. But how does it work in practice? This is what Saïm’s experience can help us to understand.
Managers: bridging the gap between HR and employees
The first step in this education process is always the same: start with managers. For Saïm, this is for one simple reason: pay conversations are part of their job.
And the clearer the guidelines we provide to managers, the better they’re able to play the role that’s expected of them.
But… what is the role of a manager? I couldn’t resist asking Saïm, since this is one of the most hotly debated topics in the world of compensation & benefits at the moment.
He responded with a neat sports metaphor:
‘I think that HR’s role is to define the playing field, drawing the white lines on the ground and positioning different players — and giving managers strategies they can use when needed. Managers are the ones actually playing the game.’
In practical terms, the work starts with standardising salary bands and clearly explaining the difference between managers and individual contributors, as well as the principles of merit-based differentiation.
Here too, the company’s strategy needs to take a clear stance to help managers make the right calls:
‘Personally, I’m a strong advocate for differentiation — otherwise, you end up spreading rewards too thinly, and no one’s happy.’
For managers to act on these principles, they need to have all the right tools at their disposal.
That’s why it’s important to put together a deck with sample data that managers can see and work with, helping them visualise the concepts in concrete terms. This visual element makes a real difference.
The end goal should be to systematise all of this and embed it in a manager training programme.
At the same time, companies need practical measures to tackle problems related to pay equity head-on.
Saïm offers one example: a central, ring‑fenced budget expressly set aside to close pay gaps. Managers may decide not to spend it if they have a performance‑related reason, but they can’t re-allocate it elsewhere.
These are temporary measures designed to get things moving, which can be rolled out with leadership’s support.
Training or informing?
After listening to Saïm talk about his experience, I’m tempted to sum up the playbook for the age of pay transparency as follows:
- Convince leadership
- Train HR teams and VPs
- Train managers
- Inform employees
On this last point, Saïm makes a crucial distinction: when it comes to individual contributors (and not managers), it’s more about informing than training.
In short, the stakes of the game are different: while managers need the right tools to make decisions, for employees, it’s more about explaining the rules so they don’t feel shortchanged or punished.
But here’s the thing: simply sharing salary bands isn’t enough.
Companies also have to put in place clear career development paths that show employees how they can move from one pay grade to another.
That’s the key difference between a bare statement that breeds frustration and an approach that highlights opportunities for advancement.
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