Picture a candidate (let’s call him Jessica) reviewing her job offer from two competing firms. While Company A offers a higher base salary, Company B's total package includes equity, comprehensive health coverage, and substantial learning benefits—but she's struggling to understand which offer truly provides better value.

This scenario plays out daily across organizations, with 71% of employees feeling their compensation isn't clearly defined. 

Enter total rewards statements—your organization's key to transparently communicating the full value you offer employees. 

In this guide, we'll explore what makes an effective total rewards statement and compare the best tools to help you implement them in 2025.

What are Total Rewards Statements?

Total rewards refer to the full range of compensation and benefits (both monetary and non-monetary) offered by an organization to its employees.

A total rewards statement consolidates all compensation elements to help employees get a package breakdown. 

Typically, a total rewards statement looks like this 👇

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It provides a personalized breakdown, including base salary, bonuses, equity, health benefits, 401(k) contributions, and more.

• For employees, it's a clear window into their complete compensation package.

• For HR teams and managers, it's a powerful tool that streamlines compensation communication and helps demonstrate how each component—from performance bonuses to health benefits—contributes to an employee's overall package.

What Should Total Rewards Statements Include?

When 71% of employees report that they do not fully understand the benefits their employers provide, it signals a significant gap in the system. Some researchers have also suggested that this lack of clarity around compensation and rewards may contribute to fewer than 30% of employees performing at their optimal level.

This data reveals two key insights:

• Employers are not effectively managing total rewards
• Even when total rewards are well managed, they are not communicated clearly to employees.

The primary goal of total rewards statements is to ensure employees understand the benefits provided and recognize that their compensation is competitive and aligned with industry standards.

The key components of total rewards statements include:

• Direct compensation: Financial rewards such as base salary, bonuses, incentives, and equity

• Indirect compensation and perks: Benefits beyond take-home pay, including health insurance, retirement contributions, tuition reimbursements, and other employer-paid perks

• Non-monetary benefits: Non-financial rewards like paid time off, flexible work arrangements, wellness programs, and vacation days

• Intangible benefits: Elements that are difficult to measure but significantly impact employee morale and retention, such as recognition, career development opportunities, and job security

How do you Implement Total Rewards and Generate Total Rewards Statements?

Implementing a total rewards strategy requires more than just data compilation—it's about creating a comprehensive system that accurately reflects your organization's investment in its workforce while ensuring compliance with compensation policies and local regulations. 

The challenge lies in gathering data and presenting it in a way that demonstrates both current value and future growth potential to employees.

Let’s take you through the steps:

Step 1: Collect the necessary TRS data

Organizations usually store compensation and rewards data on their HRIS, benefits management, and payroll systems, which you need to aggregate. Total rewards tools like Compport’s automated data integration capabilities can pull information directly from your existing HR tech stack, ensuring accuracy and saving significant time.

Collaboration with relevant departments, such as payroll, HR, and IT, is essential to ensure all information is captured and integrated correctly.

Step 2: Create clear communication channels 

Employees often focus on base salaries and overlook additional benefits. They are also easily confused by all the different rewards and choices they get. Employers must adequately educate managers and employees on understanding reward statements.

You must launch internal campaigns, conduct Q&As, and provide support guides that break down components of TRS. It is not uncommon for employees to ask questions and talk to each other to understand rewards better. You aim to help your employees understand the benefits of working with you. 

Compport's interactive dashboards make this easier by allowing employees to explore different package components through intuitive visualizations and value simulators. 

Below is a quick sneak peek into how an employee’s TRS dashboard should look like 👇 

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Step 3: Create the template and list down the compensation breakdowns

Total reward statements should have an easy-to-understand format and a breakdown of every benefit. These statements typically include:

• Cash compensation: Includes their base salary, bonuses, commissions, and other immediate financial rewards
• Equity and Long-Term Incentives: Highlights the long-term financial value tied to stock options, grants, or profit-sharing programs
• Health benefits and insurance contributions: Clearly outlines health insurance premiums and related benefits, especially in regions like the USA
• Paid leave: This breaks down paid vacation days, sick leave, and other forms of time off, reflecting your commitment to employee well-being
• Non-tangible benefits: This is tricky, but intangible perks like remote work can be listed if they suit your case. This small part of total rewards is often not highlighted
• Retirement benefits: Displays the total value of retirement contributions, such as contributions to 401(k) plans
• Learning benefits: Tuition reimbursement, professional development stipends, or access to learning platforms are sometimes included in TRS

Here’s a sample TRS template for you with an example:

Note: This TRS is created based on hypothetical data.

Step 4: Validate data accuracy and get feedback

Before sending anything out, it is essential to scrutinize the data for accuracy. Randomly audit some employee reward statements and validate their correctness. Using the right tools can ensure the data is error-free, but it is still advisable to perform manual validation.
Consider sharing mockup statements with a select group of employees to gather their feedback. 

This step helps identify whether the statements are clear and understandable or need adjustments. Addressing potential issues beforehand minimizes confusion and reduces the likelihood of receiving numerous inquiries after issues the statements.

Step 5: Send out the total rewards statements

Once everything is validated, it's time to distribute the statements. If you are using dedicated TRS software (cough! Compport cough!), it will take mere minutes to distribute to employees worldwide. Compport builds TRS at scale by connecting to your existing HRI, pulling the required data, and creating personalized total rewards statements for 1000s of employees. 

It also allows employees to conveniently access and interact with their TRS statements through a web-based platform.

Top 5 Total Rewards Statements Software for 2025

Let's explore the top total rewards solutions shaping compensation transparency in 2025. Before getting to the details, here is a quick sneak peek of each tool: 

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Compport

Compport is an enterprise-grade compensation management platform that transforms complex reward structures into transparent, actionable insights. Beyond basic total rewards statements, it offers interactive dashboards with equity simulators for employees, real-time market salary and internal benchmarking, and historical value trackers. 

The platform seamlessly integrates with existing HRIS systems, automating data aggregation across multiple currencies and regions. Customizable templates, bulk processing capabilities, and configurable access levels empower HR teams to manage everything from merit cycles to long-term incentives.

Top features 

• Interactive dashboards that provide personalized breakdowns of complete compensation packages, including base salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits, with real-time data integration from HRIS systems
• Configurable total rewards hub with custom pages for deep-diving into specific compensation aspects like variable pay and incentives
• Equity value simulator that helps employees visualize and understand the potential future value of their stock options and grants across different growth scenarios
• Historical tracking capabilities that allow employees to monitor their compensation progression over time, including changes in total package value and individual components
• Multi-currency support with automated currency conversion and region-specific benefits handling for global workforces
• Automated reward letter generation with customizable templates that can be bulk processed and distributed based on configurable access levels
• Custom rules engine that enables organizations to set specific compensation policies and automate their implementation across different employee segments
• Value simulators that help employees understand the complete impact of their package, including both immediate compensation and long-term benefits accrual
  

HRSoft 

HRSoft is a compensation management platform that helps organizations align their pay strategies with fair practices, compliance, and employee retention goals. Trusted by businesses in healthcare, financial services, and retail, its TRS module offers an engaging and transparent way for employees to visualize the full value of their compensation package.

Top features 

• A unified compensation dashboard that integrates all rewards data into a single, easily accessible platform
• Mobile-responsive design for convenient access to rewards information across all devices
• An interactive feedback system that enables employees to explore their rewards and provide direct input on compensation

Barley

Barley simplifies workflows for HR and Total Rewards teams by bringing pay band management, compensation reviews, global benchmarking, and total rewards into one unified solution.

Top features 

• Interactive dashboard with seamless navigation between base pay, equity, and benefits components
• Equity projection tool that simulates different scenarios for stock option values
• Built-in pay transparency features for regulatory compliance and trust-building

Pave

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Primarily designed for SMBs, Pave is a compensation management platform that helps businesses use real-time data insights to manage pay bands and total rewards. The company’s Total Reward solution helps businesses visualize different aspects of TRS, including salary, stock, bonuses, and position in the band. 

Top features 

• Dynamic compensation visualization that shows salary, equity, and band position with real-time updates through API integration
• Customizable total rewards experience with built-in support for multiple locations, compensation types, and currencies
• Automated reward letter distribution with branded templates and custom welcome banners for each employee cohort

Beqom

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Beqom is a compensation management platform built for large-scale enterprises. The platform offers end-to-end pay management, equity, transparency, and optimization solutions. The tool is backed by a highly configurable rules engine with integrated compensation modeling and simulations. 

Top features

• Advanced pay equity analytics to identify and address gender and racial compensation gaps
• Highly configurable rules engine with integrated compensation modeling and simulations
• Market-aligned compensation intelligence tools for strategic reward planning

All set to pick a TRS software of your choice? 

Total Rewards Statements are more than just documents—they're strategic tools that can significantly impact employee satisfaction and retention. When choosing your TRS solution:

• Focus on platforms that align with your organization's size and complexity
• Ensure seamless integration capabilities with your existing HR tech stack
• Consider scalability and future growth needs

Compport offers a comprehensive solution that combines powerful analytics with user-friendly interfaces for organizations seeking to elevate their compensation transparency. Our platform's proven success with global enterprises and quick 6-8-week implementation means you can transform your rewards communication without disrupting operations.

Ready to enhance your total rewards strategy? 

See Compport in action!

FAQs 

What is the total rewards statement? 

A consolidated document or dashboard that provides a comprehensive breakdown of an employee's complete compensation package, including salary, benefits, equity, and other perks offered by their organization.

What is TRS in HR? 

TRS (Total Rewards Statement) is a strategic HR tool used to communicate the full value of an employee's compensation package, helping maintain transparency and demonstrate the organization's investment in its workforce.

What are the five pillars of total rewards? 

The five pillars are direct compensation (salary/bonuses), benefits (health/insurance), equity/long-term incentives, work-life balance benefits (PTO/flexibility), and development opportunities (learning/career growth).

What is a total rewards example? 

A typical total rewards package might include $140,000 base salary, $21,000 performance bonus, health benefits worth $24,000, 1,000 RSUs, learning allowances, and work-life benefits like flexible work options.

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