Participating in Salary Surveys




Purpose of Process (also see how HRSource can help):

Salary surveys provide critical information to determine the competitiveness of your employees' salaries, relative to the labor market. This is an essential component of attracting and retaining valuable employees.


Recommended Steps in the Process:

  1. Determine an appropriate salary survey to use. There are usually surveys available for your industry or your location, offered by private companies, consulting firms, or industry associations. Most consulting firms charge for participation, although some are free. Contact the Human Resources department of your competitors to determine in which surveys they participate. More information on salary surveys, including a list of web sites that post salary survey results, is listed.

  2. Generally, the more reliable surveys are those in which you participate. When participating in salary survey, first read the instructions carefully.

  3. Match your job descriptions to the descriptions in the salary survey. Only match those which strongly resemble the survey description. Not all positions in your organization will match descriptions in the survey.

  4. Input company data into the survey. The survey will typically request the following information by position:
    • Number of employees
    • Average salary
    • Salary range
    • Actual high and low salary

      Use the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) report writer to generate the needed information.

      In addition, the survey will typically ask questions such as size of current and prior year's merit budget, company size and demographics, and pay policies and practices.


  5. Submit your data to the survey company by the scheduled due date.

The survey company will typically take 8 to 12 weeks to return the consolidated survey results.


Using Survey Results:

  1. Review the survey thoroughly. Note that data is typically reported several different ways, such as:
    • by industry or industry sector
    • by size of company
    • by location
    • by a customized selection of companies

  2. Choose the data most appropriate for your organization (see tips below).

  3. Create a spreadsheet combining survey data with your company data (see sample).

  4. Compare the average pay rates of your company with the average pay rates reported in the salary survey.
    • Some job groups may be significantly below the market average. Check to ensure that your job was matched appropriately to the survey. If so, this may suggest a need for a special adjustment budget (see Establishing a Salary Increase Budget process).
    • The weighted average of the difference between the pay rates of your organization and the pay rates of the market equals your organizations actual market pay position (see sample spreadsheet).
    • This information, along with market range information, forms the basis for establishing salary ranges.


Process Tips:

Although an individual can conduct a salary survey by collecting salary information from other Human Resources departments, it is not advised. The process is very time consuming, some companies may choose not to participate, and it is difficult to validate the results.

The most relevant data is typically from companies in the same industry and similar location. However, this may yield a small survey size, requiring the broadening of the data to be analyzed. Higher paying jobs tend to have a more nation-wide market.

Variable pay can be a big piece of compensation for some positions, and can be difficult to collect from salary surveys. Note any variable pay information reported in the survey.

Observe the effective date of the salary survey. If the survey data is more than four months old, adjust the data at a rate equal to 50% to 75% of the pro-rated survey annual merit budget.

Also see the section entitled A Classic Approach to Compensation.

How HRSource™ Can Help:

HRSource™ can help administer salary surveys and analyze the results:

  • Salary survey data can be exported from HRSource and electronically submitted to the survey.
  • Compare salary survey averages with range midpoints to help determine how to much to move the salary ranges
  • Generate the Survey Analysis worksheet (see sample spreadsheet)
  • Help determine the salary increase budget

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