CECP Certified Executive Compensation Professional Questions and Answers

The industry it operates in

The bottom line

The organizational headcount

The risk tolerance of compensation leaders

Operational excellence

Product/service leadership

Customer intimacy

Brand loyalty

Production worker

Account executive

IT contractor

HR Director

Ensuring they are appropriately selected, developed, appraised and rewarded

Monitoring individual employee career paths and succession planning

Communicating regularly with line management on performance management

Ensuring that all regulatory and voluntary payroll deductions are properly administered

By using cash from other segments of the business

By using its high credit rating from prior years to receive a line of credit until the strategy begins to work

By selling its products and services at a loss until revenue increases and slowly raising prices until it begins to break even

By identifying and duplicating the strategy used by its main competitor.

Earnings

Shares

Market capitalization

Increased market value and reinvested dividends paid

Ask them to review or provide feedback, especially on something you have done for them

Talk to the individuals they report to in advance and gain their support so the stakeholders realize upper management already supports your position

Schedule a meeting of all stakeholders and make a strong case that overcomes all of their objections

Explain in precise terms to each stakeholder how your position is the most realistic approach to the issue or concern

Focus on negative issues first, such as compensation costs exceeding budget, to get their attention

Provide a wide range of facts and figures. With their high level of responsibility, executives must have all the data before they can make informed decisions.

Assume they have little knowledge of the issue and make a detailed presentation leading up to the purpose of the meeting.

Recommend a solution that will solve the issue and explain why it is the best solution available.

Mission

Vision

Values

Strategy

The change in working capital over a specific period of time, typically one year

A company’s efficiency in converting short-term capital into cash

A company’s mean capital expenditure per employee

The amount of cash needed to meet the company’s short-term obligations

It isn't. The performance review should not be related to pay decisions.

It is related to the extent that it affects variable pay awards. Base pay is based solely on tenure, prior experience and job skills.

It helps managers meet salary budgets by allowing them to adjust review results to align with available salary increase funds.

It provides managers a measure that can be used along with salary planning guidelines to determine appropriate rewards or consequences.   

To identify a compensation range in which to group multiple jobs with similar value

To meet legal and regulatory requirements for classifying jobs according to market value

To provide documentation that supports termination decisions

To justify paying some employees less than market based on internal administrative limitations   

Additional quantitative analysis to determine whether pay rates are truly competitive or existing data are unreliable

Qualitative data collection to talk to key stakeholders and employees and determine whether the exit interviews accurately reflect their concerns

Qualitative data collection in the form of an employee survey with questions about employee satisfaction with pay levels

No additional data analysis is needed. Delta should increase pay rates based on the existing data to decrease turnover.

Being firm and uncompromising in your decision-making

Representing your view with data and relating it to business results

Finding a compromise that may not appease all stakeholders but does not give any one group or person everything they are seeking

Giving priority to perspectives based on the job or influence level of the stakeholders

The most senior leader with the highest level of authority

No one person. Identify your stakeholders and work to achieve consensus among the majority.

Influencers and decision-makers who have the respect of employees and are both proponents and opponents of your objectives

Individuals with power in the organization who have the authority to overrule the concerns of opponents

They tend to be fairly consistent because the elements of pay may differ, but the concerns are universal.

They generally require a greater degree of detail for lower level employees who have less of an understanding of pay plan design.

They usually require more detail for senior employees regarding plan details and performance and the needs from one employee group to another can vary greatly.

They should be kept to a minimum for employees at all levels to maximize efficiency and efforts can be focused only on those who have questions.

A list of what is owned, what is owed and the equity of an entity

The revenues and expenses incurred by an entity over a period of time

The change during the reporting period in cash and cash equivalents

The profitability of the company as of a specific date

They typically have the greatest effect on net income and operating results of any organizational expense or program

Their success or failure is closely tied to the success or failure of organizationwide goals and objectives

They have very little effect as long as they are managed effectively and efficiently

They affect the organization’s overall financial status and impact multiple stakeholders across most, if not all, business units

Because you will be more informed when differences of opinion occur, lending more credibility to your position

Because you can demonstrate your understanding of issues from multiple perspectives

Because you will be able to explain the negative consequences of opposing your position

Because stakeholders with diverse opinions tend to compromise when they are aware that others know their weaknesses

Fixed costs must be kept to a minimum, but variable costs can fluctuate since they tend to correlate with revenue.

Variable costs often have a heavier focus than fixed costs, which applies to all areas, including compensation.

Fixed costs and variable costs are equally important and both should be kept to a minimum.

Fixed costs are not a concern because they cannot be changed, so the focus is primarily on variable costs.

Reduce compensation expense

Improve program efficacy

Select the best vendors

Compensate employees competitively

Intrinsic

Extrinsic   

Start-up

Growth

Mature

Decline

Business forecasting

Business analytics

Predictive modeling

Statistical analysis

Compensation budgets only because staffing cannot exceed the funds available

A combination of organizational goals and budget realities

The consensus of HR management and line management estimates

The opinions of senior leaders in the organization

What direction will we take?

How do we work?

Why are we in business?

How will we achieve our objectives?

Demonstrate how it is aligned to the rewards philosophy, principles and organizational business strategy

Provide details on the plan design and measures and how they will be administered to employees at different levels

Make the case that a self-funded plan poses no risk to the organization while creating the potential for significant gains

Identify in advance the priorities of the various stakeholders and design your presentation to address any objections or perceptions they may have