Compensation is evolving. Historically, compensation management has been tied to traditional job  hierarchies, managed with surveys and spreadsheets, and kept secret from employees. In the past, jobs  were less varied. If employees wanted to increase their pay, they needed to negotiate why they deserved  more than their peers or get recommended for a promotion. 

But times have changed. Like so many other areas of  modern life, technology has advanced both what is needed  and what is possible with compensation management.

Many jobs today did not exist in the past, and the skills needed to do those jobs are as diverse and nuanced  as the digital world they support. In addition, people today want and expect more equity and transparency  in how they are paid, with a clear understanding of how performance and contribution will be rewarded. 

In addition, with the advent of the internet, salary data is no longer secret. In fact, salary data is more  available than ever — and employers are using it differently than they used to. Modern compensation  software can collect, aggregate, validate, and increase accessibility for salary data from a variety of  sources for market pricing and analysis, including both employee-reported data submitted through online  channels and salary data from HR databases and surveys. In other words, technology has changed what  compensation data is available and how salary data can be analyzed to adapt to rapid market changes.