Telecom Leader Sets New Standard as Top Employer with Innovative Pay and Job Structures

It’s imperative for technology and telecommunications companies to be considered cutting-edge in all aspects of their operations. So, with its recent shift from a holding company to an operating company, this global telecommunications firm needed to reimagine the design of its job and pay structure, moving from multiple ways of managing its employee compensation, performance and career development to one unified approach. The client had historically completed ad-hoc market compensation analyses and did not have a formal base pay structure in place. As a result, the company was faced with navigating the impact of changes in compensation and titles for both new and long-tenured employees. The client turned to Protiviti for guidance and recommendations to rationalise job titles and refine job documentation to support its new total compensation architecture.

Establishing objectives

The client faced several significant challenges that prompted the need for this partnership:

• Compensation misalignment: Compensation structures were not aligned with the market, leading to difficulties in attracting and retaining top talent.
• Outdated job architecture: Existing job roles and levels were outdated, which caused inconsistencies in job responsibilities and career progression paths.
• Lack of competitive edge: Without a modernised approach to compensation and job structuring, the company was at risk of losing its competitive edge in attracting innovative minds and skilled workers.

After initial conversations with the client’s human resources leadership, we established project objectives for both a job architecture redesign and the establishment of a base pay framework. The job architecture would need to support consolidating nine business units into just two segments while also creating a unified culture to support future state growth.

To accomplish these objectives, we:

• Cleaned up existing employee census data including job function and job family mapping.
• Assessed and refined the existing base pay structure
• Developed a new job architecture, including levels, job codes, titles, functions and families.
• Calibrated job titles and levels to ensure jobs with the same relative value (internal equity) are leveled similarly across various functions.
• Developed base pay banding by benchmarking more than 250 unique roles across three countries.
• Prepared education and support materials, including written email communications and job guides to drive ownership and accountability.
• Developed communication and change plan to support implementation beginning the change journey with an HR all-hands presentation and discussion on day one of the project.

Crafting a future-proofed architecture

The project team approached the objectives with a clear strategy focused on transparency, collaboration and data-driven insights, which included:

• Benchmarking analyses: Protiviti conducted an extensive compensation benchmarking study analysing current trends across similar industries. This study helped identify where the client's compensation packages stood relative to the industry standards.
• Job architecture redesign: By redesigning the job architecture, Protiviti provided clarity on job roles and created distinct career pathways that supported both professional growth for employees and organisational needs.
• Strategic alignment: We worked closely with the client’s leadership to ensure that the new compensation models aligned strategically with company goals such as innovation leadership and customer satisfaction.

We were able to connect the dots between the current and future state by helping the client prioritise the foundational job architecture and base pay banding work to be done before developing a performance-oriented career and succession programme. We presented a clear pathway to the future state by linking important business strategy and organisational context with desired business outcomes. For example, shifting from 14 ways of doing work to one unified approach that is aligned with the client’s “one company” vision and strategy. This work served to align with the client’s goals to unlock the potential of its people.

In total, the team:

• Successfully created a new job architecture for two business segments that includes job levels, nomenclature, and families
• Benchmarked more than 200 client roles
• Created a geographic-based base pay banding framework aligned to the job architecture
• Created communication and execution plan materials to support cultural change within the organisation
• Created a job architecture guidebook and compensation guidebook
• Developed repeatable benchmarking analyses for the client’s ongoing reference using PowerBI and external market data.

Designed for success

As a result of these efforts, the client has reimagined its approach to compensation and job design by establishing clear role definitions, reducing overlaps and redundancies. This collaboration led to tangible improvements across various dimensions, including enhanced competitive positioning as the client works to become an employer of choice in the telecommunications industry.