Evolving Total Rewards for a Shifting Market - 2025 Next Practices Weekly
This week’s Next Practices Weekly welcomed compensation expert & Chair of i4cp’s Total Rewards Leader Board, Pete Manias, for a deep dive into total rewards strategies amid today’s volatile business climate. Drawing on his extensive tenure at Microsoft, Pete shared practical insights into compensation design, pay equity, benefits innovation, and the complex intersection of AI, skills, and job architecture.
Cohosts Mark Walker, Vice President, Member Services and Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst from i4cp, facilitated the conversation, emphasizing the need for HR and total rewards leaders to communicate value effectively, align rewards to measurable business outcomes, and rethink incentive strategies to navigate economic pressures, rising costs, and workforce expectations.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Aligning Total Rewards to Business Strategy: In an era of uncertainty, rewards must reinforce key business outcomes, balance costs with culture, and adapt to evolving performance expectations.
- Talent Architecture & AI: AI is transforming how organizations define roles and assess skills. Pete emphasized the urgency of integrating AI into job evaluation processes and career frameworks.
- Pay for Skills—Still Emerging: While organizations explore skill-based pay, most remain cautious. Comp leaders must align with talent teams to experiment thoughtfully and avoid disruption.
- Modernizing Communication & Personalization: Organizations need to update how they convey the full value of total rewards, tailoring messages to life stages, and empowering managers to lead these conversations.
- Rising Healthcare & Severance Costs: With rising benefits expenses and increasing focus on compassionate offboarding, HR teams need initiative-taking strategies for cost-sharing and global severance equity.
Resources Shared:
- Curious about how AI is transforming HR? Meet Ahri, i4cp’s private member AI platform
- i4cp’s latest insights on Navigating Market Uncertainty.
Be sure to register for future Next Practices Weekly sessions to stay ahead of these transformational trends. To ensure open discussion, Next Practices Weekly is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
