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Reward Specialist  ·  Jensten Group  ·  Kieron Power  ·  April 2026

Jensten does not have
a reward problem.
It has a foundations problem.

90
Before the plan

Four things I noticed

01
You have the ingredients but not the recipe yet.
Job evaluation in progress, WTW data landing in September, incentives being redesigned. The work is there. What is missing is someone to connect it into something the business can actually use.
02
Pay decisions are being made without enough to back them up.
Going into leadership conversations without data to back up what you are saying is not a confidence problem. It is an infrastructure problem. The right analysis fixes that.
03
Unclear pay ranges are already costing you in recruitment.
When salary decisions are reactive and ranges do not exist, candidates walk before they even reach interview. Getting structure in place is a reward problem and a pipeline problem.
04
Pay transparency is coming whether Jensten is ready or not.
The acquired entities add complexity but that is a reason to start now, not wait. I am leading EU Pay Transparency work across three countries in my current role today. This is not theory for me.
The plan

90 days. Three phases.

1 to 30
Listen and Learn
  • Stakeholder conversations
  • Job evaluation audit
  • Data and process review
  • WTW framework prep
31 to 60
Build and Structure
  • Own the JE workstream
  • LTIP and incentive design input
  • WTW mapping complete
  • Pay cycle improvement plan
61 to 90
Deliver and Influence
  • First benchmarking analysis
  • Draft salary bands presented
  • Reward dashboard live
  • Reward philosophy draft
September: WTW data lands. The framework is ready, the priority roles are mapped, and the key people already understand what the data means. We act on it straight away.
Phase one

Days 1 to 30

01
Talk to everyone who matters
Lauren, Katrina, Rebecca, Finance, the HRBPs, Payroll, the M&A lead. Real conversations about what is broken, what is urgent, and what people wish someone would just sort out.
02
Get across the job evaluation work
Understand where the consultancy has got to, what is still open, and what it needs to become something the business can actually use.
03
Audit everything that already exists
Pay data, salary ranges, bonus documentation, benefits contracts, LTIP tracking, how the last pay cycle ran. Before I build anything I need to know what I am working with.
04
Prepare for the WTW data before it arrives
September is not far off. I want the analysis framework ready before the data arrives so when it lands we use it straight away.
Still in the first 30 days

The questions I would ask

Who I would meet in the first three weeks
  • Lauren what decisions are hardest right now
  • Katrina what is broken and what is half built
  • Rebecca where reward is affecting candidate attraction
  • Finance how pay decisions get approved and budgeted
  • HRBPs where managers struggle with pay conversations
  • Payroll and Benefits what is manual and what is risky
  • M&A lead what legacy complexity is still unresolved
What I would ask in every conversation
  • Q1What does reward need to do that it is not doing today?
  • Q2Where has a pay decision caused a problem in the last year?
  • Q3What do you know about pay that you cannot yet prove with data?
  • Q4If you could fix one thing in reward by Christmas what would it be?
  • Q5What does a high performer here think of what they are paid?
  • Q6Where are we losing candidates and do we know why?
  • Q7What is the biggest risk in how we handle pay equity right now?
Phase two

Days 31 to 60

Job evaluation: own it
  • Stop the consultancy working in a vacuum. Be in every session.
  • Validate role alignments. Build preliminary salary bandings from the outputs.
  • Get agreement on the internal level structure before moving on.
Sales incentives and LTIPs: get across the design
  • Read all the scheme documentation. Understand what is still being designed.
  • Make sure payroll knows what is coming and LTIP tranches are tracked.
  • Work with Finance and legal to make sure governance is solid.
WTW: build the framework before September
  • Map Jensten roles to WTW job families now. Do not wait for the data.
  • Agree with Lauren which roles are the priority benchmarks.
  • Build the analysis template so the data lands straight into it in September.
Pay cycle, bonuses and market timing: get ahead of it
  • May salary review just paid. June bonus just paid. I arrive in August with both cycles fresh. The right time to fix the process is now, not March when it is already too late.
  • Review how decisions were made and communicated. Where did managers struggle? Where did people push back? That tells me what to improve.
  • Build the May 2027 timeline now. Earlier start, data led budgeting, and clear manager guidance so nobody is winging difficult pay conversations.
  • Agree with Finance how we model salary budgets so the numbers are defensible before they reach leadership.
Phase three

Days 61 to 90

1
First benchmarking analysis and the story that goes with it
Run the WTW data across priority roles. Flag where pay is out of market. Before September I will have briefed Lauren on what the data is, what it can and cannot tell us, and how to talk about it with leadership. The findings land into a room that is already ready for them.
2
First draft salary bands
Translate the job evaluation outputs into a proposed banding structure. Show Lauren the logic so she can brief leadership with confidence.
3
First reward dashboard
Work with Rosie in Power BI. Compa-ratios, pay distribution, gender pay trajectory. Something leadership can act on rather than just look at.
4
First draft reward philosophy
Not a policy document. A clear statement of what Jensten wants reward to do and what it says about the business as an employer. Grounded in the data.
A few things worth saying

Not a list of credentials. Just honest.

I have built from scratch before.
At Marshalls I was the first reward hire and built the function from nothing. At PwC I designed LTIP schemes for FTSE clients. I know what an empty canvas looks like.
I do the strategy and the spreadsheet.
Twelve bonus model scenarios in one spreadsheet for one leadership conversation. I brief the CPO and I build the model. That is not something I have grown out of.
Pay transparency is live work for me right now.
I am leading EU Pay Transparency work across Spain, France and Denmark right now. The pressures Jensten will face are problems I am already working through.
Every recommendation I make comes with the data behind it.
I do not go to a CPO with an opinion. I go with compa-ratio distributions, WTW percentile positions, and cost scenarios. That is what makes pay decisions defensible.
I am not here to tell you what good reward looks like. I am here to build it with you.