High-Tech Compensation Guru turns his Attention to Mining

Founded in 1921 and publicly traded since 1925, Newmont is one of the world’s largest gold producers and is the only gold company included in the S&P 500 Index and Fortune 500. Headquartered near Denver, Colorado, the company has over 34,000 employees and contractors worldwide.  With approximately $10 billion revenue Newmont Mining Corporation is primarily a gold producer, with significant assets or operations in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico.

Leading the total rewards and global mobility function for Newmont Mining is David Kristoff.  David grew up in a premier technology firm, Sun Microsystems, but for the last year and a half he has led the total rewards organization for the largest gold producer in the world:  Newmont Mining.   David was nice enough to buy me a Sobe the other day, and he also agreed to talk about his career, his thoughts on the rewards profession, and what he and his team are currently working on at Newmont.  Here are some highlights . . .

David, who would you choose to portray you in a movie about yourself and your work?  Surprisingly David had a quick answer to this one:  Will Farrell .  David feels Will’s quick, and extremely dry wit would best fit his style.  

I asked if it had anything to do with executing “the perfect cheer“, but David maintains  its his style and delivery – its dry, its fast… and you have to think for a few seconds to make sure you are with him.  Additionally, those of us who know David know that he, like Will Farrell, plays a little known musical instrument, which I think the real reason he wants Will Farrell to portray him.  


Q:  David,  Compensation is to benefits as _______ is to ____________      David offered that Compensation is to Benefits as Tires are to Rims (did I mention he is cyclist?).  You see, you need both in the employment proposition in order to be effective – one doesn’t work without the other – you won’t get very far on just one.    

Q:  Tell us a little bit about what led you into the HR/Rewards field – was this something you had always dreamed of growing up?      Like many of us, David got into total rewards completely by chance.  He was really targeting to be an employment attorney – one canceled summer internship lead to an internship in Sun Microsystems’ compensation department.  After the internship he went back to Cornell, and the following summer he started a 13 year career in Compensation at Sun.   Happy that internship with the NLRB got cancelled?  I don’t think the NLRB offered stock options like Sun . . .

Q: In terms of your HR career, have you had a mentor?  What about a nemesis?  What was it about these people who influenced you?  David admits that he has had both; and, feels both are important in the development of a strong rewards professional. He says, “Both challenge you to work better/smarter and to grow in different ways.”

 He declined to go into who the specific nemeses were, but offered that Bill MacGowan has been his career mentor; offering him latitude to  do more things, take risks, push the boundaries and to really put him in “burning platform” situations.  

Q:  What is the difference between “personnel” and “human resources”?   Simply, David sees “Human Resources” as the alignment of how Senior Leadership incorporate talent management into the business plan – like any other resource they might incorporate.  Personnel is the tactical management for that resource/asset.

 

Q:  What about “pay” versus “rewards”?   The way David sees this one is that “Rewards” is the connection to the company’s culture (is it a high performance, high differentiation firm, for example).  Whereas “pay”  is the basic state, the hygiene factor.

Q:  What do you see as the natural evolution of the Rewards function within HR?  Can you predict the future?     David predicts an evolution away from “pay and rewards” and more towards models where we as professionals truly support an integrated Talent Management / Total Rewards approach.  Along these lines, David notes that Communications are the center point to the integration of Talent management and Total Rewards – therefore, technology will play a big role in keeping this simple, effective and efficient.  These communications are of course enablers to managers and employees, but David notes that communications amongst Rewards professionals and industry groups are critical as well – and social media and technology are pushing this to new levels.   Specific to social media, David’s team will be focusing on a Compensation Portal at Newmont with monthly updates to employees and managers and as well as “podcasts” to managers on “how to differentiate pay”, etc.  – that’s good stuff!

 Q:  What’s up at Newmont Mining, and what are some specifics that you and your team are working on?  What is it about your industry or company that creates these Rewards demands?         David has now been in the mining industry about 1.5 years, and his first reaction to this question was that Mining is like the Tech industry in the late 90′s .

  • They are redesigning LTI schemes
  • Moving certain critical and unique positions off of standard corporate bonus schemes
  • Lots of challanges with compression from new hires
  • Mobility – they are a very global firm with a lot of talent movement
  • A general maturation of this industry towards more sophisticated HR/Rewards resources and practices

Just Rewards…

Elliott Avenue and I would like to thank David for his time and candid insights into the rewards profession, and for doing it with a sense of humor. 

Watch for the next installment in this series, and of course please provide me with your feedback and ideas . . . who knows, you, like David, may just earn your “just rewards” too!

  • How do David’s comments fit with your insights or experiences?

  • Are commodity based natural resource firms like the Tech firms of the 90s?

  • Could Will Farrell every play a VP of Total Rewards?

PS.  Will Farrell garners approximately $20,000,000 per motion picture  (David, I could live on that “tire” and forget the”rim”)


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