Comp and Coffee

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Comp and Coffee is a podcast by Payscale where we explore the art and science of compensation management. Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us for conversations on pay and performance—packed with insights, practical tips, and strategies to help you stay ahead in a rapidly evolving world of work.

  1. 1d ago

    Is your job architecture keeping up with AI?

    AI is changing how work gets done, which skills organizations need, and how the value of certain jobs may evolve. But are organizations’ job architectures and compensation strategies keeping pace?  Job architecture has traditionally provided the structure organizations use to define roles, establish career paths, and guide compensation decisions. As AI reshapes responsibilities and the skills required to perform them, those structures may become harder to maintain.  Compensation teams must determine which skills are becoming more valuable, how evolving responsibilities affect the value of jobs, and when existing pay structures need to change. At the same time, they need to maintain consistency, internal equity, and a reliable foundation for pay decisions.  In this episode, Ruth Thomas and Sheila Sever explore how AI is changing the nature of work, what that means for job architecture and compensation, and how organizations can keep their frameworks relevant as jobs and skills continue to evolve.    Host: Ruth Thomas, Chief Compensation Strategist at Payscale  Guest: Sheila Sever, Specialist Leader, Total Rewards at Deloitte Consulting LLP  Resources: 2026 Human Capital Trends Report: https://www.deloitte.com/ie/en/services/consulting/research/human-capital-trends.html Job architecture in action: What a stronger job foundation looks like: https://www.payscale.com/compensation-trends/job-architecture-in-action-what-a-stronger-job-foundation-looks-like   Save your seat for our live events: https://www.payscale.com/events

  2. Oct 7

    Is pay for performance breaking under modern expectations?

    For many years, pay for performance has been a core principle of compensation.  Perform well, earn more. Contribute more, receive a bigger increase. Reward the people who create the most value.  Simple enough in theory.  But today’s workplace is making that model harder to defend.  Employees expect more transparency around how pay decisions are made. Leaders are under pressure to retain critical talent. Compensation teams are balancing performance, market movement, internal equity, and increasingly constrained budgets.  So what happens when performance-based pay is expected to solve everything?  In this episode, Ruth Thomas and James Seechurn explore where traditional pay-for-performance models are falling short, what employees and leaders expect from them today, and how organizations can build compensation programs that are more fair, defensible, and aligned with business needs.  Access Payscale’s 11th Annual Salary Budget Survey: https://www.payscale.com/featured-content/salary-budget-survey-sbs

  3. Sep 7

    Is compensation always-on?

    For the longest time, compensation has revolved around an annual rhythm.  One yearly market data refresh. One compensation planning cycle.  But that rhythm no longer matches the pace of today's workforce.  Jobs evolve faster than ever. Skills become outdated in months instead of years. AI is changing work, labor markets shift overnight, and new pay transparency regulations require organizations to make compensation decisions with greater consistency and confidence.  So what happens when the business changes every day, but compensation only changes once a year?  In this episode, we explore why more organizations are rethinking compensation as an ongoing business capability rather than an annual event. We'll discuss what's driving this shift, how technology and AI are changing the role of compensation teams, and what leaders should do now to prepare for a more continuous approach to pay.  Host:   Ruth Thomas – Chief Compensation Strategist, Payscale    Guest: Matthew Carson – Senior Director, Compensation Strategy & Analytics, UnitedHealth Group

  4. Aug 31

    The job is changing faster than the job description 

    For years, organizations could define a role and expect its responsibilities to remain relatively stable. Today, that assumption no longer holds.  AI is reshaping work. New skills emerge constantly. Responsibilities evolve faster than organizations can update job descriptions, job architectures, or compensation frameworks.  The result? Employees are doing work that doesn't match their job descriptions. Recruiters are hiring for skills that don't fit existing roles. Compensation teams are trying to benchmark jobs that seem to change every quarter.  So what happens when the work changes faster than the systems designed to define it?  In this episode, we explore why organizations need to rethink job architecture for a world of continuous change, how AI is accelerating skills evolution, and what HR leaders can do to build job frameworks that are flexible enough for the future.  Host:   Ruth Thomas – Chief Compensation Strategist, Payscale    Guest:   Katrina Kibben – Founder, Three Ears Media | Recruiting Trainer, Author, and Keynote Speaker  Episode resources: Watch recording: How to prevent offer and pay alignment issues that create hiring delays​ Watch recording: The right and wrong way to use AI in job descriptions

  5. Aug 9

    Aligning talent acquisition and compensation when jobs keep changing

    Jobs aren't changing once every few years anymore. They're evolving constantly.  Skills are shifting, AI is reshaping roles, and organizations are redefining jobs faster than traditional job architectures can keep up. At the same time, Talent Acquisition and Compensation teams often evaluate talent through different lenses. Recruiters are responding to hiring realities and candidate expectations, while Compensation is balancing market data, internal equity, and long-term pay strategy.  In this episode, we explore how these two functions can stop speaking different languages and start working from the same playbook. We'll discuss what alignment looks like in practice, how organizations can create a shared understanding of talent and market value, and why stronger collaboration leads to better hiring decisions and more sustainable compensation strategies.     Host:  Ruth Thomas – Chief Compensation Strategist, Payscale     Guests:   Danielle DuBois – Director of Global Rewards, HR Technology, HR Operations & Talent Acquisition, American Dairy Queen Corporation   Michelle Antonsen – Talent Acquisition Leader, American Dairy Queen Corporation   Join us for our upcoming live events to get your questions answered in real time by compensation experts and earn HRCI and SHRM recertification credits: https://www.payscale.com/events

  6. Jul 13

    You don't have to be on a compensation island all by yourself

    Compensation has never been more visible, more complex, or more connected to business outcomes. Yet many HR and compensation teams are expected to manage pay transparency, market movement, budget planning, manager enablement, and executive expectations with limited resources and little specialized support. In this episode, we explore why compensation expertise has become one of the most valuable resources organizations can access and how strategic partnerships can help HR leaders move beyond administration and become more influential business advisors. Guests: • Jenny Walling – Senior Manager, Comp services and benchmarking • Kim O’Grady – Compensation Supervisor at Designer Brands Learn more about Payscale Services: https://www.payscale.com/products/services

  7. Jul 13

    Why your top performers may be a flight risk

    Flight risk is rarely loud. Most of the time, it shows up quietly in compensation data long before it shows up in resignation letters. Across organizations, roles, and levels, the same pattern is emerging: the market is moving faster than internal pay structures. New hires are coming in at higher rates than tenured employees in similar roles. Certain jobs are consistently priced higher externally than they are internally. And top performers are paying attention. This creates a different kind of retention challenge. Employees don’t need to be disengaged to start looking elsewhere. They just need to recognize that the market value of their role has already lifted off. Amy Stewart from Payscale and Kelly Voss from Korn Ferry explore what compensation data is revealing about where organizations are most exposed, and how those signals show up before talent leaves. You will learn: Where pay gaps between new hires and tenured employees are creating hidden flight risk   Which roles and levels are most exposed to external market pressure   How compensation leaders can spot early warning signals in their own structure Check out the full report here: https://www.payscale.com/featured-content/flight-risk-report

  8. Jun 22

    Compensation in the age of AI: Innovation, governance, and trust

    Compensation professionals are no longer asking whether AI will change their work—they're asking how, where, and how fast.  Teams are experimenting with tools like Claude, Copilot, and ChatGPT to help analyze data, draft communications, support pay decisions, and streamline compensation processes.   Vendors are rolling out AI features and workflows in their products.    At the same time, leaders are navigating legitimate questions about data privacy, governance, accuracy, and trust.  Some see AI as the next major transformation in compensation management. Others worry we're moving faster than our ability to validate the outputs these tools produce.  The reality is probably somewhere in between.  In this episode of Comp and Coffee, Ruth Thomas is joined by Paul Reiman, Founder and Managing Partner at Novo Insights, and Giac Soliman, Founder of Range and former Head of Compensation, to explore how AI is reshaping compensation—and what leaders should do next.  Resources: The comp pro’s definitive guide to AI - https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/ai-compensation-management-guide Connect with Giac on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsman/?skipRedirect=true Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulreiman/ Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruththomas1/ Email: coffee@payscale.com for listener questions and suggestions

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About

Comp and Coffee is a podcast by Payscale where we explore the art and science of compensation management. Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us for conversations on pay and performance—packed with insights, practical tips, and strategies to help you stay ahead in a rapidly evolving world of work.

Information

  • Channel
    WRKdefined
  • Creator
    WRKdefined Podcast Network
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    142
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved by WRKdefined
  • Show Website
    Comp and Coffee

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