Searching executive compensation on page 61

Workspan Magazine, December 2025-January 2026 In this issue: TR pros’ evolving career paths; pay fairness, compensation risk assessments; health benefits scrutiny, executive compensation strategy; and more.

The most innovative companies are looking at post-COVID times as a chance to review in-depth and upgrade their different rewards programs — leveling, market surveys, salary design, short-term variable pay, long-term compensation and executive remuneration, benefits, work-life harmony (which is very important in Europe), recognition, talent development and the like, to make them more modern, fit-for-purpose and constitutive of a powerful employee value proposition.

Among the biggest obstacles preventing executives from changing roles were: ;Confidentiality restrictions (25%);; ;Golden handcuffs (24%); and,; ;Clawback clauses (20%).; These barriers all contribute to long job search timelines for executives: 31% of survey respondents believed it would take three to six months to secure a new role, while 9% expected the process to take more than a year.

For WorldatWork Members How to Reward Top Performers When Pay Raises Aren’t Possible , Workspan Daily Plus+ article;If Workers Feel Squeezed, Reinforce the Sum Total of Your Rewards , Workspan Dily Plus+ article;Perspective: Competitive Pay-to-Stay Wins Over Pay-for-Performance , Journal of Total Rewards article;Navigating Living Wages in Total Rewards , Workspan Magazine article;Compensation Philosophy Guide , tool;Leveraging Job Descriptions for Effective Compensation , tool; For Everyone Report Results Smack of ‘Peanut Butter’ Pay Raise Approach for 2026 , Workspan Daily article;The ‘Salary Squeeze’: How the Workforce Is Weighing Compensation , Workspan Daily article;Merit Reveal Season Is Here.

It can offer TR pros the ability to quickly sift and sort data and streamline compensation and TR tasks.

Workspan Daily article;Biopharma Compensation Leader Has Put AI Under the Microscope , Workspan Daily article;Take the Plunge Responsibly: AI Considerations for Compensation , on-demand webinar;AI in Action: Implementing AI in Compensation , on-demand webinar; Your employees — and the candidates you’re hoping to hire — are likely turning to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to ask what you should be paying them.

BDO data found about half of the organizations it surveyed recently increased salary budgets, with those compensation budgets averaging 5.1% overall and 5.4% among for-profit.

Responses need to be: ;Consistent;; ;Understandable to non-experts;; ;Efficient to produce; and,; ;Legally and analytically defensible.; A standardized template helps ensure: ;Employees receive clear, comparable information; and,; ;The organization isn’t reinventing the wheel with every request.; Where Compensation Technology Can Actually Help This is one of those moments where compensation technology can move from “nice to have” to strategically necessary.

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