Relatively new to comp here, and this is my second compensation planning cycle. We provide a two week period for management to administer compensation changes, which go into effect beginning of April and bonuses are paid out March/April depending on the country. ~15K employees globally.

How the HELL does it take 6 months to do all this? We start preparing in October and we're still cleaning up messes in April. Is this normal? It's like having 2 full time jobs for half the year even with a fully staffed team.

No amount of trainings, self help guides, or resources seem to stop the flood of questions. HR colleagues want all sorts of reports. Data is never accurate. Manual exceptions are relentless. Our software seems to always have some new issue that made it past several rounds of testing.

If this is normal then I guess I have to accept it, but does anyone else not have to deal with this in comp?