Incentive Compensation & Goals Administration
Increase Impact of Incentive Compensation Programs through Effective Administration
Incentive compensation is a key element in directing and motivating the sales force. Poor administration has undermined many otherwise well designed incentive plans, and led to significant performance loss on the part of a distracted and unmotivated sales force. An essential component of any successful program is efficient and accurate administration of incentives and goals. ZS helps companies answer questions such as:
- How can accuracy be maintained throughout the thousands of calculations and dozens of special cases and exceptions required in the administration of incentive compensation plans?
- How can reports be made both clear and motivational, and payouts be consistently delivered on time?
- How can Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance standards be consistently met?
- How can other compensation processes such as goal and objectives setting be effectively managed?
- How can compensation systems and processes be adapted to accommodate frequently evolving business situations such as changing sales models, incentive plans, sales force size and structure, and technology requirements?
ZS has led hundreds of engagements to help customers answer these questions. This experience has given us extensive expertise in building and operating incentive administration systems and processes, focusing on the teams, processes, and tools necessary for successful incentive programs.
The foundation of our compensation administration system is JavelinTM Incentives, an integrated web-based platform that supports effective incentives administration. Some companies choose to license JavelinTM Incentives to administer their incentive programs, while others outsource compensation administration to ZS.
When building incentive administration capabilities for our clients, the ZS approach includes:
- Involving all key stakeholders to meet the varying needs of operations, human resources, sales and marketing management, IT, and finance
- Enhancing the current business processes with business rules rationalization and report enhancements
- Developing the incentive system with JavelinTM Incentives and other supporting technology, focusing on quality control and automation
- Developing and implementing a compliance strategy
- Helping to structure effective teams and processes, with full documentation of roles and responsibilities
When outsourcing incentive administration for our clients, the ZS approach includes:
- Adherence to timelines and uncompromising attention to quality
- Robust change control, issue, and ad-hoc request management processes
- Continued involvement of key stakeholders to ensure that incentive plans and administrative systems are meeting the needs of the business
In both in-house and outsourcing situations, our clients achieve:
- Increased efficiency, with quicker reporting and easier change implementation
- Improved quality control, with automated validation checks
- Insightful tools, reports, and diagnostics that assess the health of the incentive compensation program
- Flexible systems capable of adapting to various incentive plan types, input and report formats, product portfolios, and organizational structures
- Integration of compensation calculations with goal setting, MBO facilitation, reporting, diagnostics, field communications, process management, and ad hoc analyses
- Systems designed to meet Sarbanes-Oxley objectives and other reporting requirements