Salary Benchmarking 2.0: leveraging data to define compensation and benefits

When it comes to attracting top talent, it is essential to offer an attractive compensation and benefits package. A fair and competitive salary not only positions you as an employer of choice but also strengthens your negotiation power during the recruitment process. However, determining what constitutes a fair salary depends on various factors. This is where salary benchmarking comes into play, involving the analysis of both internal (salary structure) and external factors. Traditionally, organisations rely on publicly available data from job boards and the expertise of compensation and HR professionals for external benchmarking. What if you could tap into accurate labor market data to define a truly competitive compensation and benefits package?

Harnessing the power of data

With a wealth of software and tools available, external benchmarking has become much easier. Every year, Robert Walters publishes its Salary Survey, which provides a comprehensive overview of salaries across hundreds of positions in over 30 countries. This survey not only offers current salary indications but also forecasts emerging recruitment trends across different sectors.

But companies want more. In a tight labour market where candidates have taken the reins, salary has become an increasingly important factor in attracting talent. So, building on the insights from our Salary Survey, we have taken salary benchmarking to the next level. Our market intelligence team combines our own recruitment data with job board data and other external data sources to produce even more detailed Salary Benchmark reports. These reports provide comprehensive compensation analyses, offering salary and contract rate analysis for specific roles within different industries.

Benchmarking in practice

To illustrate how salary benchmarking reports can help organisations shape their compensation strategies, let's take the example of a local fund manager. In order to position themselves in a new market, they wanted to understand month-on-month salary inflation. The Market Intelligence team exported data from our systems, based on placements made across all disciplines that month. After removing outliers, they measured the low to high bands, working from the 25th to 75th percentile, and tailored this data to the fund manager's own format. At the beginning of each month, the team shares this bespoke report with the fund manager to help them benchmark their salaries against others in their industry and fine-tune their offering.

Another example of how comprehensive salary benchmarking can help attract talent in a new market, is the case of a large Asian pharmaceutical company setting up in Germany. New to this market, they wanted to recruit for two roles in the pharma industry, but due to the specificity of the roles, they struggled to benchmark their compensation and benefits packages against German market standards. Our Market Intelligence team conducted an analysis based on over 1 million individual records from our salary database. This analysis was translated into a detailed report, including not only compensation based on experience but also company pension scheme, company car allowance, bonus schemes etc. Armed with this information, the company was able to tailor its compensation and benefits to the local market and attract the right talent.

Request a free sample report

If you're looking to diversify your workforce, expand your team, acquire in-demand skills, or even relocate a business function, our data-led approach can help drive your hiring strategy forward. Curious about how our recruitment market intelligence can empower you to make better-informed decisions? Request a sample market intelligence report today.

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