Comp and Coffee

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**Comp and Coffee**

Comp and Coffee is a podcast by Payscale where we explore the art and science of compensation management. Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us for conversations on pay and performance—packed with insights, practical tips, and strategies to help you stay ahead in a rapidly evolving world of work.

Latest Episodes:

Is pay for performance is breaking under modern expectations? Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

For many years, pay for performance has been a core principle of compensation.

Perform well, earn more.
Contribute more, receive a bigger increase.
Reward the people who create the most value.

Simple enough in theory.

But today’s workplace is making that model harder to defend.

Employees expect more transparency around how pay decisions are made. Leaders are under pressure to retain critical talent. Compensation teams are balancing performance, market movement, internal equity, and increasingly constrained budgets.

So what happens when performance-based pay is expected to solve everything?

In this episode, Ruth Thomas and James Seechurn explore where traditional pay-for-performance models are falling short, what employees and leaders expect from them today, and how organizations can build compensation programs that are more fair, defensible, and aligned with business needs.

Access Payscale’s 11th Annual Salary Budget Survey: https://www.payscale.com/featured-content/salary-budget-survey-sbs

Is compensation always-on? Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

For the longest time, compensation has revolved around an annual rhythm.

One yearly market data refresh. One compensation planning cycle.

But that rhythm no longer matches the pace of today's workforce.

Jobs evolve faster than ever. Skills become outdated in months instead of years. AI is changing work, labor markets shift overnight, and new pay transparency regulations require organizations to make compensation decisions with greater consistency and confidence.

So what happens when the business changes every day, but compensation only changes once a year?

In this episode, we explore why more organizations are rethinking compensation as an ongoing business capability rather than an annual event. We'll discuss what's driving this shift, how technology and AI are changing the role of compensation teams, and what leaders should do now to prepare for a more continuous approach to pay.

Host:

Ruth Thomas – Chief Compensation Strategist, Payscale

Guest:

Matthew Carson – Senior Director, Compensation Strategy & Analytics, UnitedHealth Group

The job is changing faster than the job description Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

For years, organizations could define a role and expect its responsibilities to remain relatively stable.

Today, that assumption no longer holds.

AI is reshaping work. New skills emerge constantly. Responsibilities evolve faster than organizations can update job descriptions, job architectures, or compensation frameworks.

The result? Employees are doing work that doesn't match their job descriptions. Recruiters are hiring for skills that don't fit existing roles. Compensation teams are trying to benchmark jobs that seem to change every quarter.

So what happens when the work changes faster than the systems designed to define it?

In this episode, we explore why organizations need to rethink job architecture for a world of continuous change, how AI is accelerating skills evolution, and what HR leaders can do to build job frameworks that are flexible enough for the future.

Host:

Ruth Thomas – Chief Compensation Strategist, Payscale

Guest:

Katrina Kibben – Founder, Three Ears Media | Recruiting Trainer, Author, and Keynote Speaker

Episode resources:

Aligning talent acquisition and compensation when jobs keep changing Aug 09, 2026

Show notes

Jobs aren't changing once every few years anymore. They're evolving constantly.

Skills are shifting, AI is reshaping roles, and organizations are redefining jobs faster than traditional job architectures can keep up. At the same time, Talent Acquisition and Compensation teams often evaluate talent through different lenses. Recruiters are responding to hiring realities and candidate expectations, while Compensation is balancing market data, internal equity, and long-term pay strategy.

In this episode, we explore how these two functions can stop speaking different languages and start working from the same playbook. We'll discuss what alignment looks like in practice, how organizations can create a shared understanding of talent and market value, and why stronger collaboration leads to better hiring decisions and more sustainable compensation strategies.

Host: Ruth Thomas – Chief Compensation Strategist, Payscale

Guests:

Danielle DuBois – Director of Global Rewards, HR Technology, HR Operations & Talent Acquisition, American Dairy Queen Corporation

Michelle Antonsen – Talent Acquisition Leader, American Dairy Queen Corporation

Join us for our upcoming live events to get your questions answered in real time by compensation experts and earn HRCI and SHRM recertification credits: https://www.payscale.com/events

You don't have to be on a compensation island all by yourself Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

Compensation has never been more visible, more complex, or more

connected to business outcomes.

Yet many HR and compensation teams are expected to manage pay

transparency, market movement, budget planning, manager enablement,

and executive expectations with limited resources and little specialized

support.

In this episode, we explore why compensation expertise has become one of

the most valuable resources organizations can access and how strategic

partnerships can help HR leaders move beyond administration and become

more influential business advisors.

Guests:

• Jenny Walling – Senior Manager, Comp services and benchmarking

• Kim O’Grady – Compensation Supervisor at Designer Brands

Learn more about Payscale Services: https://www.payscale.com/products/services

Why your top performers may be a flight risk Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

Flight risk is rarely loud. Most of the time, it shows up quietly in compensation data long before it shows up in resignation letters.

Across organizations, roles, and levels, the same pattern is emerging: the market is moving faster than internal pay structures. New hires are coming in at higher rates than tenured employees in similar roles. Certain jobs are consistently priced higher externally than they are internally. And top performers are paying attention.

This creates a different kind of retention challenge. Employees don’t need to be disengaged to start looking elsewhere. They just need to recognize that the market value of their role has already lifted off.

Amy Stewart from Payscale and Kelly Voss from Korn Ferry explore what compensation data is revealing about where organizations are most exposed, and how those signals show up before talent leaves.

You will learn:

Where pay gaps between new hires and tenured employees are creating hidden flight risk

Which roles and levels are most exposed to external market pressure

How compensation leaders can spot early warning signals in their own structure

Check out the full report here: https://www.payscale.com/featured-content/flight-risk-report

Compensation in the age of AI: Innovation, governance, and trust Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

Compensation professionals are no longer asking whether AI will change their work—they're asking how, where, and how fast.

Teams are experimenting with tools like Claude, Copilot, and ChatGPT to help analyze data, draft communications, support pay decisions, and streamline compensation processes.

Vendors are rolling out AI features and workflows in their products.

At the same time, leaders are navigating legitimate questions about data privacy, governance, accuracy, and trust.

Some see AI as the next major transformation in compensation management. Others worry we're moving faster than our ability to validate the outputs these tools produce.

The reality is probably somewhere in between.

In this episode of Comp and Coffee, Ruth Thomas is joined by Paul Reiman, Founder and Managing Partner at Novo Insights, and Giac Soliman, Founder of Range and former Head of Compensation, to explore how AI is reshaping compensation—and what leaders should do next.

Resources:

The comp pro’s definitive guide to AI - https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/ai-compensation-management-guide
Connect with Giac on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsman/?skipRedirect=true
Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulreiman/
Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruththomas1/
Email: coffee@payscale.com for listener questions and suggestions

EU pay transparency directive debrief: The deadline has passed. Now what? Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

For the last three years, organizations across Europe have been preparing for the biggest shift in pay transparency and pay equity regulation in a generation. The EU Pay Transparency Directive promised to reshape how employers think about compensation — from pay structures and job architecture to reporting obligations and how employees access pay information.

Now, the transposition deadline has arrived. And the picture is... complicated.

Some countries met the deadline. Many didn't. What's emerged is a patchwork of requirements across member states — some with finalized legislation, others still working through it. Employers are left interpreting new guidance, confronting practical challenges around job evaluation, data governance, and pay reporting, and figuring out how to communicate all of this to their workforce.

So what should employers actually be doing right now?

We've brought together an expert panel today to cut through the noise. In this episode of Comp and Coffee, Ruth Thomas is joined by pay transparency experts Vicky Peakman, Founder of Fair Pay Partners, David Lorimer – Partner, Lewis Silkin, and Tom Heys, Pay Reporting Lead at Lewis Silkin.

Resources:

Pay transparency tracker: https://www.payscale.com/featured-content/pay-transparency-legislation
EU pay transparency directive FAQ's: https://www.payscale.com/compensation-trends/eu-pay-transparency-directive-faqs

What your ELT really wants to know about pay. A CPO and CFO conversation May 22, 2026

Show notes

Compensation is no longer just an HR process. It is a business decision that executive teams are paying close attention to.

In this special podcast episode, adapted from a recent Payscale webinar, Chief Product Officer Lexi Clarke and Chief Financial Officer Philip Watson discuss how organizations can rethink compensation reporting to better align with business goals and executive expectations.

Drawing from insights in Payscale’s 2026 Compensation Best Practices Report, they explore the questions leadership teams are asking after recent merit and pay cycles, including how compensation impacts retention, performance, and financial outcomes. The conversation also covers why traditional HR metrics often fall short and what compensation leaders should bring into strategic business discussions instead.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The compensation questions executive teams are asking right now and why they matter
• Where traditional HR metrics fall short and what to bring into the conversation instead
• How to connect pay decisions to outcomes like retention, performance, and cost

Want the full experience? Watch the webinar recording and access the presentation slides to dive deeper into the discussion: https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/what-your-elt-really-wants-to-know-about-pay

Why skills-based pay is finally within reach May 08, 2026

Show notes

For decades, organizations have talked about paying for skills instead of jobs.

The idea is simple. Reward people based on what they can do, not just the role they hold.

But in practice, it has always been difficult to execute.

Skills are hard to define, harder to measure, and nearly impossible to track consistently across a workforce.

At the same time, the market is shifting fast.

AI-related skills are in high demand, showing up in job postings across industries. But new data shows those skills don’t always translate into higher pay.

So organizations are facing a disconnect.

They know skills matter more than ever. But they don’t yet have the systems or structures to consistently pay for them.

In this episode of Comp and Coffee, Ruth Thomas is joined by Sara Hillenmeyer, VP of AI and Data Science at Payscale, to explore why skills-based pay has remained out of reach and why that may finally be changing.

Together they unpack how AI is reshaping demand for skills, why the market isn’t consistently rewarding them yet, and what needs to happen for skills-based pay to become a reality at scale.

This conversation looks at the data, the technology gap, and the structural shifts required for organizations to move from jobs-based to skills-based compensation.

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