Total Rewards Institute

Light breakfast will be provided.

Total Rewards can be a game changer, or it can feel like a confusing patchwork of programs, acronyms, and tradeoffs that are hard to explain and even harder to manage. This session cuts through the noise and delivers a clear, practical Total Rewards 101 crash course with a strong compensation focus, designed specifically for HR professionals.

Participants will walk through the core components of Total Rewards and learn how compensation fits within the broader rewards ecosystem. The session will break down common buzzwords and acronyms, explain concepts like TTC, TDC, allowances, and equity, and provide a high-level overview of compliance, pay equity, and pay transparency.

A well-designed job architecture and consistent job pricing approach help organizations make smarter pay decisions, support career growth, and strengthen pay transparency. In this session, participants will explore how to establish a scalable framework for organizing jobs, evaluating roles, and aligning compensation with market data. Whether creating a new structure or refining an existing one, HR professionals will gain practical guidance on balancing internal equity, external competitiveness, and business needs. The session will also highlight how job architecture supports talent management, workforce planning, compliance, and employee understanding of career opportunities.

Compensation benchmarking doesn't have to feel like navigating rough waters. With more surveys, payroll data, public sources, and specialized reports available than ever, choosing the right market data can be challenging. This panel will compare the strengths and limitations of today's most common compensation data sources, explain how compensation data is calculated, and help you determine when and why to use different types of market data based on your organization's goals, industry, and budget.

Beyond selecting the right data, panelists will discuss how to interpret it, identify meaningful market trends, and translate benchmarking insights into smarter pay decisions. You'll leave with practical guidance for building a more confident, strategic approach to compensation benchmarking—without getting lost in the waves of data.

How low does a merit increase budget need to be before your compensation cycle starts to feel like a long climb at altitude? Many organizations may feel fortunate to land a merit budget in the 3% range, but what happens when you are handed 2% and still expected to reward performance, manage compression, address pay equity, and retain key talent?

Every compensation cycle presents difficult tradeoffs, especially when every dollar matters. This session explores practical strategies for making the most of limited budgets while building a thoughtful, strategic, and defensible compensation process. Through real-world examples and lessons learned across organizations, you'll discover how to prioritize investments, balance performance differentiation with market and equity adjustments, and communicate compensation decisions with confidence.

Enjoy Total Rewards trivia over lunch!

Payroll is more than a transactional function. It is a valuable source of workforce intelligence that can help shape business strategy. This session explores how HR and Total Rewards professionals can elevate payroll's role by defining and measuring strategic impact, using payroll data to influence compensation decisions, workforce planning, and organizational performance. Participants will learn practical ways to transform payroll metrics into meaningful business insights, strengthen collaboration across HR and finance, and position payroll as a trusted strategic partner rather than an administrative function.

Compensation is only one piece of a compliant total rewards strategy. As leave laws, benefits regulations, and reporting requirements continue to evolve, HR professionals must ensure their programs support employees while minimizing organizational risk. This interactive workshop explores the intersection of employee benefits, leave administration, and rewards compliance, covering key federal and state requirements, common compliance pitfalls, and practical strategies for managing complex situations. Participants will leave with greater confidence in administering benefits and leave programs that meet legal obligations while supporting business goals and the employee experience.

Annual renewals are only one piece of managing benefit costs. Organizations that consistently control healthcare spending take a deeper look at plan design, claims trends, network utilization, and employee behavior throughout the year. This session explores practical strategies for identifying unnecessary costs while maintaining a competitive employee experience.

Participants will learn how to evaluate whether employees are using in-network providers, identify common claims trends driving costs, assess opportunities to redesign plan features, benchmark carrier and vendor performance, and determine when it makes sense to shop the market. Panelists will share examples of organizations that uncovered meaningful savings through better data analysis rather than simply shifting costs to employees.

In this interactive simulation, you'll experience the realities of leading Total Rewards in an organization facing constant change. Working in small groups, you'll assess the state of compensation, benefits, leave, recognition, well-being, compliance, technology, and communications before building a practical strategy for the months ahead. Along the way, new developments will continuously reshape the decisions you make, requiring you to adjust your roadmap in real time.

Rather than searching for the "right" answer, participants will practice balancing risk, employee experience, business needs, and limited resources while making thoughtful tradeoffs across the full Total Rewards portfolio. Whether you're building a Total Rewards function from the ground up or modernizing an existing one, you'll leave with practical ideas you can immediately apply in your own organization.

Wrap up the day with an interactive Q&A featuring all of the day's presenters. This open forum gives participants the opportunity to ask follow-up questions and gain additional perspectives on the strategies, challenges, and best practices discussed throughout the institute. Whether you're looking for practical implementation tips or clarification on complex topics, this session offers direct access to a panel of experienced practitioners and thought leaders.

Connect with the Total Rewards Institute community after a packed day of learning. Broaden your network of reliable resources for ideas and questions in the months to come, and enjoy light bites instead of fighting traffic.