How Salary Benchmarking Companies Help Attract Top Talent

To survive in a competitive market, companies rely on top talent. But these employees know their worth. They’re not afraid to negotiate, and if your salaries aren’t published in job descriptions, are too low, or aren’t equitable they probably won’t even bother applying. 

The key to creating the kinds of salaries that make top-tier talent take notice is benchmarking. And effective benchmarking relies on high-quality data—which isn’t always easily available. That’s why more and more organisations are working with salary benchmarking companies to access the data they need to stay competitive and attract the best talent. Here’s what you need to know.  

‍

What is Salary Benchmarking?

‍

Salary benchmarking, or compensation benchmarking, compares your company’s salaries to competitors within the same region or industry. 

This helps ensure your salary bands are competitive. In turn, this helps attract and retain top talent. But for this process to be truly effective, you need accurate, up-to-date data.  

‍

How Salary Benchmarking Services Support Competitive Compensation Strategies

‍

Many companies are in a catch-22. They know they need access to the best benchmarking data, but where can they find it? (By the way… job review sites aren’t the answer).

‍

Salary benchmarking companies are the answer, and here’s how they help:

• Providing access to accurate market salary data: Access to large-scale salary data, updated in real time, makes it easier for companies to create competitive, industry-specific salary bands. 

• Conducting pay equity analysis: By helping identify and address pay gaps, these services help HR teams move toward equitable pay for all employees. 

• Allowing customized industry and role comparisons: Data that are customized to specific roles, regions, experience levels, and industries makes it easier for HR teams to ensure competitive pay. 

• Informing employee retention strategies: Fair pay is a huge driver of employee engagement, satisfaction, and performance. When employees know they’re being paid fairly, they also tend to stay in their roles for longer.

‍

Top Benefits of Using Salary Benchmarking Companies for HR Teams

‍

Working with salary benchmarking companies offers many benefits to HR teams. Here are some of our favourites.

Streamlining the hiring process

Having access to up-to-date, relevant salary data helps HR teams quickly and accurately offer competitive pay and set clear expectations. This helps make the hiring process smoother, easier, and more consistent. 

‍

Enhancing the company’s reputation and brand 

Employees talk — and once a company starts offering competitive, transparent, and equitable salaries, its reputation starts to improve. This makes it easier to attract talent who know they’ll be paid fairly. 

‍

Informing compensation decisions 

Rather than relying on estimates, the accurate and up-to-date data from salary benchmarking companies helps organisations confidently assess their budget and plan compensation decisions — no guesswork required. 

‍

{{cta}}

‍

Services Offered by Salary Benchmarking Companies

If you’re not sure what kinds of services salary benchmarking companies offer, these are some of the most popular:

• Comprehensive salary surveys: A competitive pay analysis helps companies uncover how their salaries compare to competitors.  
• Benchmarking reports by industry and role: Makes it easier to set realistic salaries, tailored to specific industries, roles, or company size.
• Custom compensation solutions: Allows companies to address particular challenges with a tailored approach. 
• Equity and compliance reviews: Ensures a company’s employee compensation strategy complies with equal pay regulations and aligns with equity goals. 

‍

Remember these services will vary from company to company — so it’s important to know what you need, and then check any companies you’re interested in working with offer these services. 

‍

Key Considerations When Choosing a Salary Benchmarking Company

‍

Not all salary benchmarking companies are created equal — so it’s important to do your research and choose the one that best fits your requirements. Things to consider include:

• Industry-specific data: Having access to good quality data is great — but it’s not enough. For the best results, this data needs to be tailored to your company’s region, industry, and size. 

• Customisation options: The best salary benchmarking solutions offer a range of customisation, designed to help meet your organisation’s unique requirements. 

• Data accuracy: These days, the market changes fast. Having access to the latest data means you can maintain financial resiliency and relevance by offering competitive salaries, even during times of change or uncertainty. 

• Cost vs. value: Salary benchmarking does require an initial investment, so it’s important to evaluate different pricing models and ask for details about what kind of return on investment you can expect. Look for companies with extensive case studies, so you can get a better idea of how they’re already helping other businesses. 

‍

{{cta}}

‍

Examples of Leading Salary Benchmarking Companies

‍

If you’re looking for salary benchmarking data, here are some of the top companies to choose from:

• Figures: Europe’s leading compensation management platform, Figures offers a wide range of solutions, including salary benchmarking, backed by its extensive library of real-time salary data. 
• Mercer: Offers global benchmarking data and customized compensation solutions.
• Willis Towers Watson: Provides in-depth salary surveys and benchmarking insights across various industries. 
• Aon Hewitt: Known for industry-specific salary benchmarking and compensation strategy consulting services. 

‍

{{cta}}

‍

How Salary Benchmarking Helped Malt Improve Their Hiring Process

‍

Business marketplace Malt was founded in France in 2013 and quickly experienced rapid growth into new markets across Europe and the US. the company needed to recruit new talent — and fast. 

But without access to reliable, regional benchmarking data, the HR team wasn’t sure if the salary bands they’d chosen were accurate. After trying to rely on review sites like Glassdoor, they knew they needed a better talent attraction strategy.

Malt’s Chief People Officer, Richard Yarsley, heard about Figures and quickly signed up for regional, real-time salary benchmarking data. This allowed the HR team to create salary bands for 11 different job levels.

Now, Malt can access Figure’s leading industry salary benchmarks to set accurate, competitive salaries for new hires. The negotiation process during hiring or performance reviews is also easier because the data to inform these discussions is on hand. 

‍

“When a company is scaling, you need solid foundations in your talent management cycle and that includes everything: how you hire, how you assess performance, how you reward performance, how you pay people. The sooner you've got those foundations, the better. You can scale. I believe that Figures provides a big part in that.” Richard Yarsley, Chief People Officer, Malt.

‍

If you want to achieve similar results at your company, schedule a personalised Figures demo.  

‍

{{cta}}

‍

The Long-Term Benefits of Partnering with a Salary Benchmarking Company

‍

Competitive pay analysis is one of the most important aspects of a company’s approach to compensation. But without access to the right data — the entire process can end up as a waste of time. 

By partnering with a salary benchmarking company, HR teams can level up their talent attraction and retention strategies, making it easier to hire — and keep — the best talent. 

‍