Tallgrass: Building a Sustainable and Equitable Compensation Framework

The Challenge

Tallgrass, a prominent energy infrastructure company, experienced rapid growth that exposed significant challenges in its compensation practices. Their pay framework had evolved without structured oversight, leading to inconsistent job leveling, unclear compensation philosophy, and minimal governance. These issues created risks around compliance, pay equity, and the ability to attract and retain talent in a competitive market. Tallgrass recognized that to fuel future growth and maintain their industry leadership, a comprehensive and scalable compensation system was essential.

The Solution

Tallgrass sought a partner with deep compensation expertise and selected MorganHR for its proven methodology and industry-specific knowledge. Together, they began by clarifying the compensation philosophy—defining core values, operating rules, and bridge principles to align rewards with business strategy. Through iterative workshops, Tallgrass and MorganHR co-designed job infrastructure options, including both traditional pay-grade and granular pay-level models. These models were stress-tested for progression, governance, and administration to ensure they would support business needs. Rigorous benchmarking of 821 employees across nine geographic zones established clear market alignment, identifying both pay gaps and over-exposure. MorganHR then created a comprehensive Compensation Administration Guide and Governance Audit Matrix, introducing formal decision rights, approval workflows, and documentation standards. A Strategic Change Management Plan was implemented to ensure adoption and transparency. As a Tallgrass executive sponsor noted, “We finally have a compensation system where leaders, HR, and employees can all speak the same language—and trust the process.”

The Results

The partnership delivered significant, measurable outcomes for Tallgrass. With a unified compensation philosophy and validated job structures, the company achieved strong market alignment across its workforce. Pay gaps were identified and prioritized for correction, ensuring consistency and equity across roles and locations. Location-differentiated benchmarks improved budget accuracy and forecasting. The new governance framework reduced cycle times for pay actions, standardized manager communication, and strengthened monitoring through comp-ratio and outlier analysis. Tallgrass now operates from a single source of truth for ranges, zones, and approvals—minimizing rework across HR, Finance, and leadership. As a result, the organization is equipped with a compliant, competitive, and future-ready total rewards system that supports sustainable growth and the attraction of top talent.