Honoring the Memory of HR Leader Sharon Koss
By Staff Writer Last week, the staff at PayScale learned of the passing of a friend and long-time contributor to its education efforts, Sharon Koss, SPHR, CCP. Sharon had helped build up PayScale’s offering of webcasts on topics around strategic compensation, and had just begun contributing to a regular, bi-monthly column here on Compensation Today titled “Strategic Compensation with Sharon Koss.”
Sharon passed on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. Those who knew her here at PayScale remember her fondly for her fun-loving spirit, straightforward communication and vast knowledge on the business of human resources. Her recently published book, Solving the Compensation Puzzle, highlighted not only Sharon’s knowledge of compensation, but also her knack for making tricky topics accessible to others.
Sharon had a long career in human resources in the Seattle area and then, in 1986, she founded Koss Management Consulting. She worked closely with her partner Doug to guide their clients through complex compensation issues like company mergers and CEO pay.
Sharon served on the board of the Society for Human Resource Mangement’s(SHRM) Human Resources Certification Institute from 1992 to 1999. She was also the president of SHRM in 1998 and a charter member of the Lake Washington Human Resources Association. Sharon’s list of accomplishments and contributions to the human resources community is long. She demonstrated a passion for her work that she passed on to her colleagues, students and clients.
Director of customer service and education at PayScale, Stacey Carroll, said this of Sharon, “Sharon will be greatly missed by the HR community and all of those she came into contact with. She had an infectious spirit and a quick wit.”
Carroll continues, “I will remember most Sharon’s passion for all things HR, especially playing a strategic role in the organization, teaching students of all ages about HR and compensation, and her family. Her passing is a great loss for PayScale and the HR community as a whole. She was an avid supporter of PayScale, and we attribute a great amount of our early company success to her referrals and product consulting.”
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