'Compensation and Benefits Advisor': a wealth of easily accessed data - software program by Research Institute of America Group - Software Review - Evaluation

HR Magazine, May, 1998 by David Shair

HR and compensation professionals are facing massive changes: dramatic shifts from downsizing to increased hiring, a tightened labor market, severe shortfalls in technologically trained workers, worldwide competitive pressures and expanding workforce diversity. Traditional approaches to pay programs no longer seem to suffice, challenging employers to devise flexible structures that will entice and retain key employees.

All these changes can bring information overload. To help HR professionals keep up with a quickly changing information base, Research Institute of America Group (RIA Group) developed the Compensation & Benefits Advisor - part of its HR Advisor product line.

WHAT IT DOES

The C&B Advisor is a multifaceted package - updated for Windows 95 - providing quick access to information, analysis and policy suggestions on current practices and new trends. Analytical components include health care benefits, welfare and fringe benefits, pensions and qualified plans, executive compensation, international compensation, and benefits and compensation of nonexecutive employees.

The program features six main databases, called "Infobases." These contain broad categories of information stored and organized in increasingly detailed layers. Depending on your needs, you may need to search through one or more submenus.

Each Infobase is introduced by a lengthy, alphabetized Table of Contents. A search for information or answer to a query can be initiated in several ways: Click on a topic, a state or a statute; insert a key word or component, policy, form or checklist. Search results are cascaded on the screen. Pick and choose. Go back and forth. Mark a document or law section for easy retrieval at a later time. Because the Infobases are linked, you can search one at a time or all, on command.

The CD-ROM format allows users to search various databases covering nearly every facet of compensation, including applicable federal and state statutes, regulations, and key court decisions. Packaged with the program is The Best Manager Edition of Employee Appraiser by Austin-Hayne Corp., which focuses on developing, writing and communicating performance appraisals.

One tool supplied with C&B Advisor is the COBRA Administration Manager. It digs deeply into the employer's responsibilities under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, identifies (in tabular form) qualifying events and time frames, provides sample notification letters for each step, plus billing and tracking reports.

WHAT I LIKE

A monthly CD-ROM update, accompanied every other month by a newsletter, is a fine tool. It certainly beats fumbling with paper inserts in ring binders. Installation of C&B Advisor is fast and uncomplicated. The screens are exceptionally well designed, featuring easily understood instructions and prompts for moving from screen to screen or returning to the Main Menu. You will soon learn what you can accomplish, as well as the most convenient and effective way to reach your goal.

Help is available from an online tutorial. You can also refer to the manual or call technical services 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. You even can make an appointment for 45 to 60 minutes of telephone training.

C&B Advisor uses the standard menu bar (File, Edit, Tools) but adds a supplemental Tool Belt with buttons for accessing frequently used commands.

The program's summaries and commentaries obviously were prepared by a knowledgeable, HR-oriented staff. Scroll through the section on comp program design for discussions on topics such as recruitment and retention, intrinsic/extrinsic rewards, and traditional vs. alternative pay. Current hot topics, such as broadbanding, competency modeling, gain sharing and team-based pay, are reviewed extensively.

One interesting feature helps you fill in and print out many government forms. Also available are summaries of multiple compensation surveys, arranged topically.

The user manuals are clear, easy to read, copiously illustrated screen by screen and well indexed.

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

Not much. Users reported satisfactory results. Care must be taken in searches, especially with the "advanced techniques." Unless you are quite specific, you may find yourself trying to navigate through a hundred or more "hits."

A major concern of most managers involved in drafting performance reviews and goals/objectives is the treatment of employees who are in dead-end jobs or locked into the same job year after year. What can be done to motivate these folks? What goals are meaningful? This is overlooked in an otherwise thought-provoking section.

I was surprised to note occasional lapses in proofing and editing the text. For example, several errors on the order of "Improve you's ability to anticipate" made me wonder how many similar errors lurk behind this program's sophisticated exterior.

SUMMARY

There is value here for the HR generalist as well as the compensation specialist. You may not always agree with the comments or advice, but they are skillfully presented and will help you to rethink some long-held, conventional approaches. Background discussions and analyses are comprehensive, not merely one-paragraph "bites."