Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Pay Transparency Is Coming Whether You're Ready or Not: Silicon Labs' Total Rewards Leader on Education, Equity, and What Managers Must Learn
Transcript
- Kelsey Willock (00:25) Welcome Nick Oliveri, Senior Director of Total Rewards at Silicon Labs. We are so excited to have you on this Friday morning. Kelsey Willock (00:50) To kick us off, I'd love for you to introduce yourself to our audience, a little bit about where you're calling in from. ⁓ I know that you're in the process of moving, so thank you so much for joining us in this busy time. A bit about your career and background and your current role today. Nick Oliveri (01:04) Yeah, yeah. So I'm calling from Austin, Texas. I've been here on and off for about 10 years now, originally from upstate New York. ⁓ And I kind of fell into total rewards. ⁓ It's one of those that I thought I was going to be a finance person on Wall Street. ⁓ And I kind of just fell into it when the economy kind of collapsed in 08, 09. And ⁓ was really lucky that I fell into it. And I really enjoy what I do and Right now I work at Silicon Labs where I lead both total rewards and payroll. And it's about an 1800 person semiconductor. And really internationally we have 18 locations all across the globe and it's really diverse. So I'm really enjoying my role there. Kelsey Willock (01:48) Well, I'm so excited to learn a little bit more about what you've done there and some of the endeavors that you are pursuing in this ever-changing world. But before we get to all those questions, I want to get to know you personally a little bit better. So if you'll indulge me, can you let me know what was your first memory of money? Nick Oliveri (02:07) man, I think I go back to when I was a kid. ⁓ realized seeing my parents work kind of long hours and my dad had two jobs for most of his career. I kind of realized it's more about earning and then it represents kind of someone's time and effort, right? And how much time you put in is kind of what you get out. ⁓ And I think that really still shapes the way I think about compensation now. think every dollar represents someone's effort, right? And how much They put in is hopefully what they get out of it and that doesn't get lost on me. Kelsey Willock (02:41) What was your first job and do you remember what you did with your first paycheck? Nick Oliveri (02:45) Yeah, my first job was, I think I was 12 years old, I used to get up at 5am on the weekends to do the New York Times. I used to have to put that together with like three or four different inserts. So that was the first job for me. I did it for a few years and I also was, it was at a deli. So you were, I was also the ability to make egg sandwiches, which is something that's big in the Northeast. Something I'd deeply miss here in Austin, but yeah, that was my first job. I think I was making $5 an hour. Of course it was off the books, cash only. So I didn't really like see a lot of the paycheck until probably 18 and 18 was my first internship and it was in an accounting company and I was making whopping $10 an hour. And I thought that, you know, I didn't think it was much then cause I made more on some of these side cash jobs. And then when you get your paycheck and you see the taxes taken out, and I remember like, what is FICA? Like I knew federal would take some money and the state would, but then I was like, oh man, it's like, it really dwindled down fast. So that was kind of my first lesson on paycheck and how complicated like getting paid is at a corporate job and getting a W-2. So yeah, but that was probably the first paycheck I'm remembering. Kelsey Willock (04:03) You kind of already started to talk a little bit about it, but can you elaborate on how you think that has affected how you show up for your people, how you make total rewards and compensation decisions? I imagine it's a lot more human because you have those direct memories yourself. Nick Oliveri (04:19) Yeah, and I think it goes back to even with my earliest remembrance of money with my parents. It's like, you know, you got to treat everyone with respect because I think they're they're putting a lot into it, right? When they come to work every day and you know, you have to really show them what's in it for them, right? What what do what do they get out of it? And I think that's kind of why I like being in a leadership position the most. I think it's just being able to portray that to people ⁓ so they can get the most out of it. Kelsey Willock (04:50) So kind of transitioning a little bit more into today's challenges, you're already alluding to people are trusting you with their livelihood. And livelihoods are changing. We're dealing with this massive influx of AI. Health care costs changes. Where are you seeing the majority of breakdowns in compensation and benefits today? Nick Oliveri (05:11) Yeah, I think it's probably education. ⁓ I think we often index the most on offers, shiny offer letters, flashy ones, but ignore kind of career progression, pay transparency, and then manager enablement. And I think that's the probably last one, the biggest one is like, we need to help educate managers better to have those conversations with employees, right? Kelsey Willock (05:32) Bye. ⁓ Nick Oliveri (05:40) ⁓ I think we make things super complicated sometimes with how we develop our comp ranges and our salary bands and then even our benefits, right? They're super complex sometimes and people just don't understand. And I think we got to do a better job simplifying and then educating managers. Kelsey Willock (05:59) Has there been anything interesting that you've tried where you've seen move the needle in terms of how you educate folks, whether it's a tool or a change the company's enacted? Nick Oliveri (06:07) Yeah, we have an enterprise chat GPT program here at Silicon Labs. So we were able to create kind of custom GPTs that employees can talk to directly to help with benefit decisions and things of that nature. And then I think they can feel safer to ask maybe what some might think is a bad question or a dumb question. And it's a safe spot for them to ask that. So we still have good utilization this last year. Kelsey Willock (06:35) How has AI adoption been within the company? It sounds so far relative. Nick Oliveri (06:39) It seems pretty good. It's actually pretty good. think it's a company that's been around for a long time. So it's one of those that it's a, I think it does seem to be an early adopter. ⁓ It's interesting to see all the different companies and how they're adopting AI, but Silicon lab seems to be on the forefront there. Kelsey Willock (07:00) So in terms of the people that are feeling empowered versus those are being, some feeling more stuck at work, where do you see the difference? Is it that those people have stronger levels of understanding of their benefits? Are they more engaged? What does that look like? Nick Oliveri (07:18) I think it could be multiple different options, right? It could be people, their managers just being able to communicate very well to them so they understand it, ⁓ or they have a strong leader that's pushing down that philosophy, right? And I think that's one thing you hope for. It's like you educate the company as best you can, but you hope the leaders kind of drive ⁓ whatever philosophy that's internally, right? If that's pay for performance or pay equity or pay transparency, just being able to have that. be consistent message across the company. Kelsey Willock (07:50) And what guardrails do you have in place to ensure those leaders and managers know how important it is to keep pay fair, empowering, and also to more effectively use the tools that it sounds like you're working so hard to communicate down. Nick Oliveri (08:03) Yeah, I think it's, you know, giving them real live data. We have dashboards in our HR system. have, you know, reports that we provide them. Um, and then we, we do have like safeguards in our comp planning tool, right? Where we have, we try to come up with everything as automated as possible. have like merit matrices, equity matrices. based on performance and where they are in the range, it should drive a little different behavior. Um, and I'm actually hoping that with more and more tools that come out. I think there's a real sudden change in what I'll call calm technology in the last few years, which is a real great surprise because it hasn't been that way in a long time. So it's one of those things I'm actually looking forward to in the next few years to see what can we do more of and faster and more like up to date than in the past where everything's kind of been lagged a little bit or stale the data. Kelsey Willock (08:58) What's your preference, build or buy? Nick Oliveri (09:01) Who, build or buy, that's a good question. Man, I would probably say buy ⁓ just because you don't have to think about the upkeep. Kelsey Willock (09:10) Mm. Mm. Nick Oliveri (09:19) That's probably where I'll leave. But I think it could go both ways. Kelsey Willock (09:21) I love that answer because it's so, you I asked that question to some folks and I think immediately we want to say build, right? We have all these amazing AI tools. We can build things faster, but we forget upkeep is actually one of the most time consuming things. So I imagine that actually, although it can seem ⁓ cheaper upfront, there can be long-term impact if the folks the organization don't really want. Nick Oliveri (09:38) Yep. Yeah. Kelsey Willock (09:50) or can have the capacity to upkeep it. ⁓ So this is one of my favorite questions. It's kind of talking about some of the things that you have brought to companies or the changes you've seen. So ⁓ are there any vendors, any ⁓ initiatives that you have seen specifically benefits where you've seen move from just attracting talent to really transforming the lives of your employees? Nick Oliveri (10:17) I think it definitely hits me is parental leave. I think we've seen a great enhancement there for both birthing and non-birthing parents. I think a lot of companies initially designed it to attract talent, to compete with talent. But I think when I rolled it out at a few different places, you see the impact it has on people's lives. It reduces stress significantly. And you can see it stabilizes, especially for When I was at younger companies in terms of startups, the demographic is younger, right? It's first time parents and you could see like the relief it took off them from having flexibility and when they could take off, taking off longer times, changing with their, the, the spouse or either vice versa. Right. And I think even one company I had, it was, I worked at, was really great because they had flexible return so that you could have a flex schedule. They even gave you some. reimbursement money on takeout food or food delivery and then ⁓ house cleaning services. It really eased the burden on those first time parents that are not used to it or might not have family around. So was one of those that I could clearly see we're helping somebody. ⁓ And I think that was really impactful. Kelsey Willock (11:38) And so when you're thinking about why these programs are so important, obviously transforming the lives of people can be so amazing and impactful, especially when you're in conversation with them. Is there measurable impact that you're looking for, particularly when you are communicating up the chain of why parental leave matters so much, for example? Is it because it boosts retention at the company? Is it because it... you know, improves employee satisfaction. What are the kind of metrics that you're looking for to say this was a successful program? Nick Oliveri (12:11) Yeah, I think most companies try to run some kind of survey if that's once or twice a year to get a pulse, right? Like of what things are important, what things are doing well. You kind of can get some tidbits there. I think, you know, Glassdoor is another one where you can see real-time feedback. I know there's a lot of other ones that are, you know, more anonymous, like blind. ⁓ But I think there are areas where you can kind of see what people value and what they don't or if things are working or not. ⁓ I think sometimes when things are going really well, though it's quiet too, so that's another sign. ⁓ But I think there's a few avenues that I've seen companies take. I also think, you know, from the benefit side, I would love to hear what people want, right? What kind of benefits they're looking for. Now you might not be able to get those, you know, done at the company with financial constraints, but you at least know what people value. And then you can kind of work toward that. Kelsey Willock (13:03) And if you know what they value, that also allows you to think about what are the other things that you can do to satisfy them. When I think about parental leave, I then think about what are the other benefits that come from there. It's healthcare is an obvious. ⁓ How do you decide what changes get made? Nick Oliveri (13:07) ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, definitely, definitely, yeah. man, I think it's the most interesting part of the role that I'm in. It's like you straddle for the employee, for the company and market competitive. Like you're really straddling off various things to see what's right, to do what's right. And I think it's, you know, things that are check all those boxes, right? You try to do that as fairly as possible. And I think it gets challenging when you're at a global company too, because you've tried to do that fairly across the globe. And I think that's probably the, you know, the checks and balances you go through, right? With the leadership team and what they value and what the company values. And I think that's pretty much the way I've kind of gone about it. And it's been pretty successful that way, but you definitely get, you know, I remember changing one benefit at a company and the backlash that I got from it. And it was one of those that I just, you, didn't think anything of it. was changing pet insurance vendors. ⁓ And I didn't think twice because it was a similar benefit, but you didn't hear how much people loved the first benefit. Because again, it was one of those things that's quiet, right? When things are going well, people enjoy it and people really find value. You don't hear them praise it, but you sure heard the noise when you changed it and it affected. affected employees. So it's one of those now that I am probably more gun shy making decisions like that in terms of really trying to figure out ⁓ if it has an impact on people and how can we best navigate any change like that. Kelsey Willock (15:09) Yeah, you don't really know what you have until it's gone. I imagine that's really tough because people even think about Yelp reviews. You look at restaurant reviews. It's always the bad. People don't love to report the good. And I imagine that makes your job even more complicated because you want to keep people satisfied. But if you don't hear what is making them happy, then it can be a little bit of trial and error. Nick Oliveri (15:12) That's it, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, exactly. Kelsey Willock (15:38) How important is financial well-being to your organization right now? Nick Oliveri (15:43) man, I think it's, it's even more than ever, right? With the economic conditions we're in, we're hearing about layoffs every day. think, you know, we need to be able to give employees access to financial professionals, more access to education. I think financial stress is real. I think it's as real as it's ever been. think ⁓ it's not something that probably comes up in your one on ones or your performance reviews, but it shows up elsewhere, right? It shows up on the individual every day. And it might not be that easy to notice, right? So it's one of those things I think education for financial wellness is so important. think ⁓ there are a lot of cool tools out there now that seem to be kind of not that expensive to the employer. And I think even, you know, the, what I'll say, like the older legacy. financial wellness providers, they're doing a more, a better job with, you know, things that people can log into and bring in all their financials to kind of help them budget or prepare for, ⁓ you know, a rainy day fund, emergency fund, ⁓ and then just maximize what the employer offers, right? 401k match, ESPP. ⁓ I think a lot of companies, you're seeing higher rates in those things now, and I think it's just because of better education. Kelsey Willock (16:58) Right. and better tools. Nick Oliveri (17:08) Yep, definitely. Kelsey Willock (17:10) What benefits trends do you think are going to shape the employee experience most over the next year? Nick Oliveri (17:16) I think the one that first comes up is pay transparency. I think that's going to be table stakes in the future. ⁓ I think employees are always talking about competition. They're looking at comp data from either friends, colleagues, or data sources that they find on the internet. ⁓ Then there's regulatory pressure internationally. So I think it's no longer like a compliance exercise. It's going to be a trust strategy with the company they're working for. So I think that'll be something that will be more more common. In my 15 to 20 years of experience, I've only been at one company that was really transparent with pay, and it was 12 years ago. So it was one of those that's, crazy to see. And it's something that, you you're constantly pushing for. There's just a lot of factors that kind of make that a lot harder to do in reality. Kelsey Willock (18:17) However, you know, with regulatory changes, it's almost like you don't have a choice. You have to come up speed with it. Nick Oliveri (18:22) Yep. Yeah. And I think for me, and the thing that I harp on is I think, you know, base pay ranges, I think will start to get narrower and narrower. And it'll be kind of like it is table stakes for somebody to join the company at that level of that location. And then you really need to leverage both short term and long term incentives with a bonus or equity grants to really drive performance. Right. And I think that's something Kelsey Willock (18:34) Mm. Nick Oliveri (18:51) that's probably not been as drastic in terms of like earning potential there. But I think to motivate people, it's one of those that will have to probably get a little bit more aggressive, meaning, you know, earning potential could be three, four, five X in those areas based on performance. Kelsey Willock (19:10) Are there any interesting tools that you're using to help improve that pay equity? You talked about lot of the internal GBTs that you're using. Have there been any interesting vendors that you've worked with that you think have done it really well? Nick Oliveri (19:18) Yeah. ⁓ Yeah, I think one that sticks out for me is PAVE. I was an early adopter at PAVE. I don't remember how many years ago it's been, but they really had a full suite. ⁓ So they did something cool where, you know, that you had a virtual offer letter and people, you could really see what the cost to the employer was for that employee. So not only doing their comp, but their benefits and any other perks that they might have and seeing what the real value is of your role. ⁓ And then two is with a comp planning, right? Like you have real fast moving, you know, live data that's pulling from systems, right? Your HR system, your pay equity, your equity administration system. So I really think they're doing a good job there. They're getting better and better tool that tool. So I'm excited to see what's next for them. Kelsey Willock (20:16) Well, thank you so, much for your time today. I've learned so much from this conversation and really appreciate you lending 25 minutes with us on a Friday afternoon. Some of the key takeaways I took from our conversation is, you know, when we think about breakdowns, education is really at the top of that list. And where we really need to do better is not just providing the tools and resources to get educated, but making sure their managers can communicate effectively directly to them. I loved how you also had talked about how impactful parental leave can be. And it can also really significantly reduce stress for employees. So there's so much trickle-down effect in terms of them being more satisfied and really ultimately transforming their lives as employees. And kind of lastly, it's really important to remember pay transparency is the future. coming, it's not just coming from employee pressure, it's coming regulatory-wise and it's truly table stakes. So thanks so much for the recommendation on PAVE for anyone that hasn't checked it out. It's a really excellent tool. and can better help your people understand their pay and what it means comparatively across the market. ⁓ Where can our listeners connect with you beyond this conversation? Nick Oliveri (21:25) Always available on LinkedIn. ⁓ So easy to find, try to connect with as many people as I can, especially in my field and always open to a conversation. Kelsey Willock (21:37) Well, thank you so much, Nick. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a great weekend and look forward to hopefully many conversations to come. Nick Oliveri (21:45) Thank you so much. Take care.