A compensation and benefits manager is responsible for identifying, developing and implementing the employee compensation policies of an entity. He oversees the salary and the compensation policies and ensures that they are attractive to retain the existing faculty and to draw the attention of fresh talents. The role of a compensation and benefits manager in an organisation can be identified on the basis of the tasks performed by him.

The following are some of the tasks that lay before a Compensation and Benefits manager:

• Identify and put into service an attractive pay package which is capable of retaining the existing talent within the entity. The compensation policy must be capable of drawing the attention of potential employees towards the entity.

• Analyse the compensation policies and salary packets provided by the competitors and those in the market to guarantee that the compensation and benefit package offered is equivalent to those existent in the market.

• Researching and scrutinising the general factors like the government policies, change in the tax structure, market conditions, etc to ensure that the compensation package is capable of providing an expected standard of living to the employees. He should safeguard the interests of the employees and bring about the necessary changes into the pay and compensation structure. However, before making the recommendations to the management on the expected changes the manager has to conduct a cost analysis taking into account the impact of the structured change on the company revenue.

• Pains must be taken to make modifications to the existing pay and compensation structure every annum after taking into account the employee performance, company policies, Government regulations, Labour laws, statutory laws like the Income Tax amendments, competitive rates, etc.
• He should modify the pay structure on the basis of the employee performance appraisals to bring a heterogeneous structure as a move to retain key movers and shakers.

• A compensation and benefits manager is responsible for the identification, implementation and modifications to the employee benefit schemes like health and life insurance of the employees and their family members, pension schemes, medical reimbursement programs, etc taking into account the actual cost that might be incurred by the employee. Other compensation measures like bonuses, profit sharing, etc must move in line with the changes in the pay structure and other external and internal factors.

• The manager must conduct surveys to discover the expectations of the employees regarding the various compensation schemes, compare them with the current policies and propose modifications on the basis of the surveys and their impact on the cost to the company.

• He is to provide cost analysis to the management to aid them in bargaining to the proposals put forth by the labour unions.

• The compensation and the benefits manager is to provide the payroll related data after taking into consideration the proposed modifications for budgeting.

• With the number of mergers and acquisitions being on the rise, the integration of the schemes of the two companies into a viable solution supported by the employees of both the companies requires the knowledge and skill of the expert.

All activities which are remotely connected to the compensation and benefits come under the preview of the benefits and compensation manager.