Future-proofing the compensation structure at Kitt

The Challenge

Co-founder Lucy Minton set up Kitt with colleague Steve Coulson in 2018 when they saw a gap in the market for seamless office design and management. Currently operating in London, the Kitt team secured investment of around $12m to fuel its growth. Fresh from helping to build a successful company at JustPark, Lucy and Steve knew they needed a strong team to power their new venture.

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While they formed a plan and attracted specialists, managing expectations proved time-consuming.

“Not having a salary overview made negotiating with candidates really difficult,” says Talent Acquisition Lead, Lizzie McFaull.  “We didn’t know where they were getting their data from, and we didn’t have a clear data point. We were using another platform, quite expensive and didn’t have data relevant to us because it’s all quite big-company oriented.”

The Objectives

Lucy saw that Figures was recommended in her Slack group of start-up founders, and thought it could provide solutions to some of their salary issues.

There were a few objectives:

First, establishing the right salaries for new recruits. “We would go on Glassdoor and places like that, but it was a bit of a minefield,” explains Lucy. “Very difficult to trust, and the stakes were too high. The cost of doing this badly is so high.”

Second, levelling the salaries of existing staff. “From my perspective, using Figures was a bit more reactive because we wanted to go through the levelling process internally,” adds Lucy.

Finally, Lizzie knew that they needed a transparent salary structure to future-proof the company. “In a couple of years’ time we’ll be big enough to start reporting, and it’s not going to be a problem because we have dealt with that first – it probably wouldn't have been at the forefront of my mind if we hadn’t started using Figures.”

The Strategy

Lucy and Lizzie signed up for a free trial with Figures, and now use it for the majority of their benchmarking – for both new and existing salaries.

“We’ve been using it for two months so far,” explains Lizzie. “It’s just the people team at the moment, but managers are regularly asking for data, which I can send over to them so easily. As long as we can keep it confidential, I don't see why we wouldn’t be able to give them access in the future as well.”

The Results

The hiring process is improved: new recruits and existing staff have benefited.  

“The conversation around pay is one of the most important you’re going to have,” emphasises Lucy. “Without benchmarking you can end up paying the wrong salary and having someone who’s had a negative experience, just because you haven't managed that conversation properly.”

The potential pay gap has been closed.

“I think for a small company like ours, you don't really think too much about your pay gap until you’re scaling; it’s not the first thing on your mind. Once we start reporting, it’s not going to be a problem, because now we have Figures.”

Lizzie recommends Figures for benchmarking new jobs.

“I have already sent it to all of my close contacts who are in people operations – I just think it’s such an easy and trustworthy source, whether you're hiring in the UK or even looking at levelling promotions.”

“The conversation around pay is the most important conversation you'll have with your employees. Making sure you do it in the right way is so important: that’s why for us, this information from Figures was so valuable.” Lucy Minton, COO, Kitt