Deirdre Chong Smith

Director, Compensation
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Experience

Deirdre leads projects providing compensation and total rewards solutions in partnership with human resources teams, management and Boards of Directors. Her expertise in reward strategy and integrative practices in compensation design is well known as a practitioner with over 15 years of experience. She was a total rewards trainer for the Human Resources Professional Association (Ontario) and is a frequent speaker at conferences and events (HRPA chapter events & national conference, World at Work).

Her specialties include job analysis, job evaluation, and developing sustainable compensation systems. She develops solutions which are integrated and consider employee engagement, talent strategy and broader organizational strategy. She is well versed in pay equity legislation and supports organizations to develop equitable practices to meet, or exceed, compliance obligations. Her extensive knowledge in this area is leveraged widely on broader gender pay and diversity, equity & inclusion initiatives.

With her expertise in job evaluation, pay equity and her ability to develop practical customized solutions, Deidre has helped organizations through mergers, acquisitions, culture changes and restructuring.  She enjoys bringing reliable data insights, HR strategy, and good compensation governance practices together to meet regulatory needs and sustainable practices for clients.

Areas of Expertise

  • Pay equity
  • Pay Transparency
  • Compensation planning
  • Job evaluation
  • Job descriptions /documentation
  • Incentive plan design
  • Market reviews
  • Diversity, equity & inclusion
  • Total rewards
  • Variable pay
  • Executive compensation
  • Compensation benchmarking
  • Salary administration
  • Pay for performance
  • Employee engagement

Professional Qualifications

Professional Qualifications
  • Bachelor of Business Administration (University of Toronto)
  • Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL)
Professional Activities
  • HRPA (Member, Peel Chapter & CHRL)
  • GTA Rewards Association (Member)
  • World at Work (Member)

Personal

I run a local “pay it forward” group that helps families save money, and also be more environmental/sustainable – with the added bonus of building neighbourhood connections.

I enjoy managing a small backyard garden which yields the best tomatoes, herbs, rhubarb, beans and cucumbers in the summer time and manage a number of lovely houseplants which I refused to officially count and am always propagating.

At work I’m often working with precise data – but in the kitchen I measure with my heart and there’s no such thing as too much garlic!