Create and configure a compensation review in Workleap Compensation. You can define review details, select eligible employees, assign reviewers and approvers, and apply pay guidelines, budgets, and bonuses. This article walks through each step of the setup process to help you prepare your review before launching it.
Note: Only Executives can create, configure, and launch comp reviews.
Add general details
Set a compensation review title
Choose a clear and descriptive title. Participants see the title when invited, so make sure it reflects the purpose of the review.
Select a currency
Select a comp review currency. All pay changes that result from the comp review are converted into the selected currency.
You can select a currency other than your account's default currency.
Comp review currency options
CAD
USD
EUR
Sandbox mode
Turn on sandbox mode to create a comp review for testing or training. You cannot invite reviewers or approvers, and only Executives can access sandbox mode comp reviews.
Important: You cannot convert a sandbox comp review to a live comp review after setting it up.
If you intend to eventually launch the comp review you are creating, leave sandbox mode disabled.
Even after you create a comp review, participants are not notified until you launch the comp review.
Set key dates
Select key dates for the comp review. These include deadlines for reviewers and approvers, and the pay change effective date.
The pay change effective date appears in comp review exports.
Key dates are for reference only. You can change them at any point during the comp review.
Select eligible employees
Use filters as needed to find employees based on different criteria. Then, select the checkbox next to an employee's name to add them to the compensation review.
To select all employees in the filtered list, check the box in the header row. To exclude an employee, uncheck their box.
Reviewers and approvers
Based on the employees you added to the comp review on the previous page, you see a list of managers whom you can add as reviewers or approvers.
Reviewers: recommend pay changes or promotions for their team.
Approvers: confirm the changes that the reviewer recommended.
Each team in a comp review must have a reviewer and one or more approvers.
Select reviewers and approvers
Add reviewers and approvers by checking the box next to their name.
Use the filters to refine the list as needed.
Note: Approval Chains are auto-generated based on your organizational structure. If a reviewer or approver is excluded from the comp review, the approval chain rolls up to the next eligible person (you can review the approval chain on the next page).
Confirm approval chains
Approval chains consist of one reviewer and zero or more approvers per team.
The reviewers and approvers list has the following columns:
Team (shows the team's Direct Manager).
Team Size.
Department.
Reviewer.
Approvers.
Replace a reviewer
To replace a reviewer:
Select the reviewer's name that you want to replace, then select Replace reviewer.
Select a new reviewer from the drop-down.
You can only employees from higher up in the approval chain.
Select Replace reviewer.
Note: All teams that are part of a comp review must have a reviewer.
Add or remove approvers
To add or remove approvers:
Click on an approver's avatar in the Approvers column.
Select an option to add or remove an approver.
If removing an approver, choose to remove them from the selected team's approval chain or all approval chains.
Note: If you remove all approvers from an approval chain, the team's reviewer serves as the approver as well.
Important: You can only set Executives, Collaborators, and Direct Managers with access to the entire team as approvers.
Reset approval chains
If you want to undo a change to an approval chain, select Reset approval chain.
Enable performance ratings
You can display or assign performance ratings during a compensation review to give managers more context when making pay adjustments or promotion decisions.
Note: If you enable performance ratings in a comp review, your merit guideline matrix on the Guidelines page includes performance ratings.
Enable performance rating recommendations
If you enabled performance ratings for a comp review, you can allow participants to assign or recommend performance ratings during a compensation review.
The performance rating scale for the comp review is inherited from your most recent performance rating import. If you have not yet imported any performance rating data, you can do so from the Performance ratings page when setting up a comp review.
Enable compensation letters
Enable comp letters to share compensation changes from a compensation review with employees through customized letters.
Create and configure templates that you can download and share with managers once the compensation review is approved.
Set up pay changes and promotions
Use the toggles to enable the pay change types you want to include in the comp review.
Pay change types include:
Hourly pay.
Base pay.
Variable pay.
Lock % of base (locks variable pay as a percent of the base pay ratio for each employee).
Equity grants.
Promotions.
Base pay (via a promotion or lateral move).
Variable pay (via a promotion or lateral move).
Pay change reasons
Select the pay change reasons participants can choose in the comp review to justify a compensation adjustment.
Check the box next to any pay change reason you want to allow. Merit increase is enabled by default and cannot be removed.
Budget settings
Choose the types of pay changes you want to use to determine your budget.
Set up budget pools
Budget pools let you choose how to divide your budget based on the pay change reasons you selected on the previous page.
For each budget pool you want to create:
Enter a name and select 1 or more pay change reasons to include as part of that budget pool.
You cannot add a pay change reason to multiple budget pools.
Select Add New to add more budget pools.
Note: Not all pay change reasons have to be assigned to a budget pool. However, any costs from pay change reasons not assigned to a budget pool are considered a spend outside of your comp review budget.
Set up guidelines
Set up merit increase guidelines to give managers a framework for roughly how much base pay increase they should recommend for their team in the comp review.
Guideline types
Choose between the following guideline types:
Single Value: A target percent increase (e.g., 5%).
You can set an exception threshold to control deviations.
If a reviewer suggests an increase greater than the exception threshold, it is flagged as an exception for the other members of the approval chain.
Range of Values: A percent range (e.g., 4% to 6%).
If a reviewer suggests an increase greater than or lower than the range, it is flagged as an exception for the other members of the approval chain.
Guideline proration
You can set proration guidelines based on hire date or last pay change.
Proration is calculated based on the following formula: (Proration End Date - Proration Variable Date) / 365 x 100%
Note: Only employees with a date less than 365 days before the chosen proration end date receive prorated guidelines.
Guideline matrix variables
Choose which variable(s) you want to base your merit increase guidelines on:
Compa-ratio only.
Market compa-ratio only.
Range penetration only.
Performance rating only.
Performance rating + Compa-ratio.
Performance rating + Market compa-ratio.
Performance rating + Range penetration.
Multi-variable options let you tailor guidelines based on both performance and pay band placement.
Note: Performance rating–based variables are only available if performance ratings have been imported into Workleap Compensation and were enabled.
Guideline matrix segmentation
You can choose to apply merit increase guidelines differently across employee segments, such as by division, department, or pay zone.
Note: If you separate a segment, Workleap Compensation generates a new guideline matrix for those employees. The default matrix covers all other employees.
Fill out the guideline matrix
Set the parameters of your guidelines by filling out the matrix fields with the base pay increases want to allow for each interval.
Guidelines only affect base pay increases.
The number of employees in each interval is auto-generated in the bottom row of the matrix as you fill out the fields.
If you selected the range guideline type, projected spend is calculated by each range’s midpoint.
If you segmented your guidelines, use the tabs at the top of the matrix to switch between segments.
Set fallback guidelines
You can set fallback guidelines for all employees who do not meet the conditions of your guideline matrix.
The number of employees affected and the projected spend from your fallback guidelines are shown and included in the total projected spend for base pay based on your guidelines at the bottom of the page.
Set up budgets
Use the tables to manage budget distribution across budget pools, departments, and teams. You can allocate your total budget as a percent or a monetary amount.
Your budget data auto-updates across the tabs. That means budget data entered at the most granular level (i.e., teams) is reflected at the broadest level (i.e., budget pools) and vice versa.
Set up bonuses
There are two types of bonuses:
Bonus plan payouts: Defines a recommended bonus amount payout for employees who have a bonus target.
One-time bonuses: A lump sum bonus that falls outside of a formal bonus plan.
Bonus plan payouts
Import payout values for employees with a bonus target.
The bonus plan budget is auto-calculated based on your import.
Choose between:
Non-editable payouts.
Bonus plan payout guidelines.
One-time bonuses
Select eligible employees.
Set the budget using one of the following:
% of base pay.
% of base + variable pay.
Monetary amount.
One-time bonus guidelines
Turn on to set a guideline range for participants to follow when recommending one-time bonuses.
Important: One-time bonus budgets are only visible to Executives.
Manage default columns
Check the boxes to choose which columns participants see by default in the compensation review.
Participants can access all columns regardless of which columns are expanded by default.
Add column notes (optional)
You can add column notes to provide context or instructions. When a participant hovers over a column header, the note will appear as a tooltip.
Review and finalize your setup
The final step is to review your compensation review setup.
Hover over each section to reveal the Edit option if you need to adjust selections.
Once you're ready, click Create Compensation Review.
This will not launch the comp review or trigger any notifications.
Important: After creating a comp review, certain fields like Eligible Employees and Approval Chains are no longer editable.