If your employees can’t explain how their pay is determined, you have a trust problem. Conner Shaw, Senior Vice President of HR Business Partners and Total Rewards at LiveView Technologies (LVT), shares how his team rebuilt compensation to scale—moving from a centralized, opaque process to manager-led decisions within clear ranges and guardrails.

Drawing on his own money story and a career across tech and heavy industry, Conner explains why transparency, defined job levels, and visible paths unlock engagement, not risk. He details what changed when leaders got budgets, comp range access, and training on compa-ratio; why eNPS scores and comments surged; and how LVT is layering in performance rigor and sophisticated pay equity analysis next.

Conner also tackles a bigger shift: as work becomes more transactional, benefits must be judged by utility over gimmicks. He closes with two 30-day experiments—one for HR to audit pay understanding, and one for individuals to track spending—that translate policy into practical wellbeing.

Timestamps

- [00:45] – Meet Conner Shaw and LVT: mobile security units, career path from oil & gas to tech

- [02:42] – Early money mindset: value-maximizing kid to disciplined saver and what it taught him

- [05:14] – First jobs and frugality: drum lessons, cement crew, and respecting hard-earned pay

- [08:05] – How his money story shapes his HR philosophy: responsibility, freedom, and career paths

- [09:52] – Where comp breaks down: the cost of secrecy and why paths, levels, and ranges matter

- [11:11] – What changed at LVT: manager budgets, comp ranges, compa-ratio—and eNPS jumps

- [12:52] – Next phase: tie pay to performance and install deeper pay equity analytics

- [14:20] – The transactional workforce: utility over perks and rethinking benefits that truly help

- [18:01] – Mindset shift for leaders: transparency as a trust engine (without posting everyone’s pay)

- [20:01] – Tools and measures: guardrails for leaders, surveys, and scalable pay equity models

- [21:40] – 30-day experiments for HR and individuals to boost clarity and financial wellness

Takeaways

- Build pay transparency around clear structures—job levels, ranges, processes, and decision rights.

- Equip managers to decide: give budgets, share ranges, teach compa-ratio, and set guardrails.

- Measure impact beyond dollars: track eNPS and comments for signs of clarity, trust, and pathing.

- Judge benefits by utility, not gimmicks; align offerings to real employee needs and usage.

- Tie compensation to performance and impact, then audit with robust pay equity analysis.

- Run a 30-day “pay clarity” audit: ask employees how pay is determined and fix the gaps fast.

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