Beyond the Survey: Cox Media Group’s SVP of Total Rewards on Affordability, Pay Equity, and Vendor-Led HR

Summary

How do you keep pay and benefits fair, affordable, and truly usable when budgets are tight and roles are changing fast?

Lee Mataya, Senior Vice President of Total Rewards at Cox Media Group, oversees compensation, benefits, payroll, HR operations, and HR tech for a nationwide TV and radio business—and he’s candid about what works.

Lee shares why “data isn’t the answer—context is,” and how CMG blends quantitative inputs with qualitative listening to shape programs employees actually value. He unpacks the limits of salary surveys, the data rigor required for pay equity, and why AI can support analysis but won’t fix messy inputs.

Lee also details CMG’s carve-out journey: rebuilding the HR stack on SAP SuccessFactors, outsourcing payroll and benefits, and achieving a 94% satisfaction score with an Ask HR model.

He closes with pragmatic tactics to keep benefits affordable—repurposing dollars through attrition, partnering tightly with vendors, and building multi-year talent plans that anticipate change.

Timestamps

[00:18] – Guest intro: Lee’s role leading Total Rewards at Cox Media Group

[01:25] – Career path to compensation and the mentor who spotted his strengths

[03:29] – Early money lessons: responsibility, work ethic, and practical tradeoffs

[07:59] – Pay and benefits philosophy: affordability, listening, and the limits of market surveys

[11:08] – AI and pay equity: useful insights require strong, consistent data

[15:57] – From carve-out to 94% CSAT: SuccessFactors, outsourcing, and a lean HR model

[18:46] – Holding vendors accountable: pulse surveys, SLAs, and partnership cadences

[23:48] – Making benefits affordable with flat budgets: repurposing dollars and multi-year plans

Takeaways

- Treat salary surveys as one input—pair them with internal equity, role impact, and qualitative feedback before making pay decisions.

- Keep affordability front and center: design benefits people can actually use and avoid forcing tradeoffs between care and basic living costs.

- Use AI to speed analysis, not to decide—pay equity and comp recommendations depend on clean, contextualized data.

- Build a lean, scalable HR backbone: implement a robust HRIS (e.g., SuccessFactors), outsource where specialized, and track satisfaction relentlessly.

- Instrument your operations: send pulse surveys for Ask HR and onboarding, review outcomes regularly, and bring data to vendor conversations.

- Fund priorities creatively: repurpose dollars from attrition, restructure roles, and socialize multi-year talent plans to invest without inflating payroll.

Sponsor

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