Rethinking Pay: Why Your Top Talent Might Be Eyeing the Exit

If you think pay is just about numbers, think again. In today’s talent-short market, the way you compensate your people could be the reason they leave—or why they stay and thrive. In this episode, Trudy MacDonald, award-winning business leader and Managing Director of TalentCode HR, pulls back the curtain on remuneration. She explains why most businesses are getting it wrong and what you can do to build a pay strategy that actually works.

Whether you're struggling with attracting top talent, keeping your best people, or motivating your team to hit new levels of performance, this conversation is your wake-up call. Trudy shares real-world insights and practical steps that will help you stop the guesswork and start building a smarter, fairer, and more effective approach to pay.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why traditional pay models are failing in today’s workforce—and what’s replacing them
• The biggest mistakes leaders make when designing salary and bonus structures
• How to create a pay framework that motivates performance without damaging culture
• What it means to move from “paying for presence” to “paying for value”
• Why market benchmarking might be misleading—and how to use it the right way
• How to talk about money openly with employees and build trust in your remuneration process
• Trudy’s go-to framework for strategic remuneration design in small and medium businesses

Pay isn’t just a cost—it’s one of your most powerful business levers. Done right, it drives retention, performance, and loyalty. Done wrong, it quietly erodes your culture and profitability. Trudy MacDonald offers a fresh, human-centric take on how business owners and leaders can rethink pay to fuel growth and keep their top talent engaged. If you want your team to work like they own the place—start by paying them like it matters.

Check out Trudy's previous episode here: Ep 152 - From Burnout to Brilliance: Transforming Workplace Culture

Trudy MacDonald has worked extensively with Boards, leaders and leadership teams over the past 20 years and is a sought-after coach to leaders across industries. 

She is an experienced CEO, an established business leader and thought leader in the areas of strategy, people, and culture. She specialises in empowering organisations to become great by maximising the performance and productivity of their people. 

She is a multi-award-winning speaker having been honoured as “Speaker of the Year” by the world’s largest CEO network – The Executive Connection (TEC). Trudy is a regular speaker to Leaders and Boards and regularly presents on the topics of strategy, high performance organisations and leadership at Industry Associations, Conferences and Corporate Events. Her career is founded on an education in Organisational Psychology and spans Australia, New Zealand, the USA and parts of Asia.

www.talentcodehr.com.au
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