Meet Our People Insights Team: Thomas Carnahan, Ph.D

Introducing
Thomas Carnahan, Ph.D.
Senior Manager,
People Insights

What’s your background? 

I achieved a Ph.D in Industrial Organizational Psychology in 2007. Career-wise, I have worked for the US Army Research Institute studying future combat systems and novice vs. expert performance as it relates to technology command and control systems. I have also worked for local government, private, and public companies doing job analysis, test development, and validation efforts. I have experience teaching at the university level in both business, psychology, and statistics departments. Approximately 10 years ago, I started applying my I/O background and skills to learning how compensation analyses could be done using the ethics and principles related to being a member of the American Psychological Association and Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology. For the last 7 years I have focused solely on helping organizations proactively review their systems and mount appropriate responses and defenses towards allegations made by regulatory agencies.  

Why did you take on pay equity as your specialty? 

On a personal level, I always enjoyed doing job analysis and selection work because helping the right person get the right job (especially when I worked with/for public safety organizations) meant that I might have a small hand in helping make sure the right person was in the right place at the right time. Doing proactive pay equity and the other compensation work we do at Berkshire also gives me personal satisfaction because I can help ensure practices are in place that provide workers a fair wage and allow organizations to retain the top talent needed for a successful enterprise.  

What’s one thing people should know about pay equity – but don’t? 

For me, the most important thing I’d explain to a company is that the pay equity journey is yours. You’ll get legal advice, you’ll get expert advice, but ultimately how you want this very iterative and important process to go is based on your philosophy of how you want your compensation system to work. Proactive pay equity is forward-looking, and it can be an important tool to setting up an ideal compensation system.