Compensation is a complicated puzzle to piece together, even when you are dealing with the most routine of circumstances. But when you are confronted with uncommon pay situations—something that’s becoming all the more common all the time in today’s rapidly shifting compensation ecosystems—it can present a whole new set of challenges.

Trying to work out practical compensation solutions for everything from relocation issues to problems with pay compression can seem insurmountable. And it just gets more complicated when you add discussing pay decisions with employees and managers. But with good technical advice and the right approach, there’s no need to feel overwhelmed.

Join us for an in-depth webinar on July 27 when Margaret O’Hanlon, principal of re:Think Consulting, will provide hands-on tactics on how to approach a wide range of unusual pay situations. You’ll learn how to guide your organization to smart compensation strategies and communicate your decisions candidly, no matter how unique the compensation questions may seem.

As a preview, O’Hanlon has supplied some frequently asked questions—and answers—to this HR topic.

Q—Managers complain that compensation has too many rules, it’s not reality-oriented given the level of competition for talent. Are we too regimented for today’s business climate?

A—Managers are often responding to an awareness that a lot of time and investment has been put into inviting their talent to work for your company.

It takes a bit of that pressure away when they can criticize compensation for limiting their freedom to pay what they feel like (and deal with their budget later). In fact, the systematic methodologies we use in compensation were designed to manage the challenges of today’s volatile talent market with “hot” jobs, shifting strategic priorities and so on.

For example, a standardized approach to pricing jobs and keeping pay levels competitive means that you can truthfully tell employees, “This is the way we do things around here.” Also most companies use these compensation administration practices, so it’s likely that a new hire will be familiar with the way decisions are made.

Q—Compression, red-lining, hybrid jobs – it seems like we’re always putting out fires in compensation. Is there some way we can turn the pressure down?

A—The place to start is to accept that the unusual is the most valuable part of your work. Recognize that your salary structure and increase practices are the fundamentals of a typical compensation department’s work, but your advisory services may be of higher value.

Build time into your schedule and create standardized procedures that turn issues like compression challenges and hybrid job pricing into opportunities to collaborate with your managers. Organizing your work this way will make the compensation department a better business partner.

Q—Employee compensation seems to be in the news a lot recently. What does that mean for compensation practitioners?

A—The new U.S. Department of Labor overtime regulations are a type of cyclical regulatory change that can be expected by HR practitioners to occur every few years. However, broader issues like a living wage and pay transparency are likely to become challenges for the profession as the media educates itself and continues to keep the topics in the public eye.

That means we are likely to have more public scrutiny of our practices and increasingly pointed questions from our employees over time. We should recognize that this is interest on their part, not necessarily confrontation, and build our own listening and communication skills. We’ll need to be ready to make a good case for our decisions, no matter who asks the questions.

Join Margaret O’Hanlon for the in-depth webinar, Mastering Unusual Pay Situations: How to Establish Hybrid Salary Rates, Set Relocation Differentials, and Address Pay Compression, Wednesday, July 27, 2016.