Compensation and benefits, often shortened to C&B, is the specialist HR discipline responsible for designing how an organisation pays and rewards its people - salary structures, incentive and bonus plans, and benefit programmes like medical aid and retirement funding.
What it means
C&B works closely with payroll but is not payroll itself: C&B designs the structure (pay grades, benefit eligibility rules, incentive formulas), while payroll executes it each period by calculating and paying what the structure says an employee is owed.
Where it fits in
Every pay-grade band, benefit eligibility rule and incentive formula C&B designs eventually becomes an input payroll has to calculate against, so the two functions depend heavily on shared, accurate data about each employee's position and package.
Key rules
- C&B = compensation and benefits, the discipline designing pay and reward structures.
- Designs the structure; payroll executes and calculates against it each period.
- Covers pay grades, incentive plans and benefit programmes.
- Relies on the same employee and position data payroll uses.
