Big Data's impact on exec comp.

• Author: Kristie, James
• Position: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - Reprint

From The Compensation Handbook (Sixth Edition) by Lance A. Berger and Dorothy R. Berger. Copyright [c] 2015 by McGraw-Hill Education. Published by McGraw-Hill Education (www. mhprofessional.com).

Data have been central to the compensation practice since its inception. Data on jobs, employee pay, market pay, and numerous other areas of talent management have now exploded with the advancement of technology and data-collection devices into what we refer to as big data.

Big data combines multiple data elements into a cogent process that enables better compensation decisions faster and more accurately. It is now easier to combine business, culture, talent management, and compensation data elements into understandable decision points. Although big data is becoming an integral part of the business operations for a growing number of organizations, many compensation practitioners and line managers find it to be ambiguous, confusing, and intimidating. It appears to them that big data is an insurmountable barrier. This barrier, however, is not insurmountable, and this edition is...