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Original poster

Salary benchmarking, what will this mean for me?

18 replies

Hubblebubble · 12/03/2023 10:49

I work for an employer that is brilliant for everything except pay. We've recently been told that HR are in the process of salary benchmarking. I know for a fact we're all paid about 10 to 15k less than the industry average. This means a really high turnover as people stay long enough to get training and experience under their belt, then leave for decent pay. How optimistic should I be about this salary benchmarking leading to a decent payrise?

OP posts:
Original poster
Hubblebubble · 12/03/2023 10:49

And does anyone have personal experiences of salary benchmarking in their jobs?

OP posts:
PotKettel · 12/03/2023 12:11

I’d be optimistic. Especially if they have announced it to the business.

DomesticShortHair · 12/03/2023 12:28

Not salary, but my last workplace has a team that would come around and assess how many people your department should have to do the work it was supposed to. Just like the old time/motion surveys.

One department on our site’s review showed that they needed 3 less people, so 3 were made redundant. Our department had a shortfall of 17, on a headcount of 28. No extra positions were allowed for, or the workload altered.

My cynical view with stuff like this is, either they know what the answer will be beforehand, they’ll make the answer be what they want it to be, or they’ll just ignore it if it’s not what they want.

Hedjwitch · 12/03/2023 12:30

We are undergoing a similar process and I was stunned to get a 4.5K payrise so best of luck!

Rainbowshit · 12/03/2023 12:32

I have benefited a couple of times from salary benchmarking.

At one point I got a circa 20% pay rise which meant that when I went part time down to four days in the month they put the pay rises in place there wasn't a significant change in salary. I was well chuffed particularly as I hadn't been told about the pay rise beforehand.

Nellie90 · 12/03/2023 13:12

We were all benchmarked at my company this year. I went from 25k to 29k for reference so I'd be optimistic!

I think where people weren't happy were the ones who had been in their position for many years and on much more than other people. They benchmarked to the highest paid person on that team. I'm in a very large company so could be different.

Original poster
Hubblebubble · 12/03/2023 13:25

This is really good to hear! I didn't want to get my hopes up, but this is making me feel really optimistic. Apart from the slight redundancy risk

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Shamoo · 12/03/2023 13:42

I’ve run a benchmarking process for a large company. They will still need to decide where within the benchmarking they want to sit - for example do they just want to sit in the middle of the industry, near the top, or are they happy to be below middle (given they are strong in other areas, or perhaps if there is a strong bonus structure etc). So it doesn’t necessarily mean you will go to the average of the industry for the role, but it would be a surprise if they ran this sort of exercise (and told you all about it) and didn’t do some sort of rise.

MissLucyLiu · 12/03/2023 13:43

This can only mean good things for you if you are aware you are underpaid vs industry standard.

FlowersareEverything · 12/03/2023 13:44

I had this happen a few years ago and received a 24% pay increase that year. I hope you get similar.

Lcb123 · 12/03/2023 13:44

Yep I’ve worked at places that did it, and was a positive for me

Margo34 · 12/03/2023 13:46

My DH company did this recently and salaries were bumped up by 15% to align with the market rate for his industry. Good luck!

DoorstoManual · 12/03/2023 13:47

This happened to DH years ago, they were known for their poor pay and a constant brain drain, he had his salary increased by 15% which we then slammed into pension payments. Made all the difference.

Thingamebobwotsit · 12/03/2023 13:47

It sounds all good, as you know you are lower than industry standard. But it doesn't always work that way... I did work somewhere where it went the other way and all new recruits were put on a 10% lower salary band. I suspect it has evened out now but at the time caused a lot of resentment.

Original poster
Hubblebubble · 12/03/2023 13:59

Thank you all for sharing your experienced, I'm feeling very positive! I'll be back to update you when we get told more. Am crossing my fingers for a nice healthy pay rise. I'd been planning on leaving once I'd got 3 years experience for my CV, but if this goes well I'll be happy to stay long term. Its a rare fully remote job, so it really works for me as most jobs in this industry are hybrid London.

OP posts:
Original poster
Hubblebubble · 12/03/2023 14:02

@Thingamebobwotsit if they paid the junior staff much less (all positions which require uni degrees) it would actually be illegal. The lowest paid staff are only paid slightly over NMW.

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JackRosenberg · 12/03/2023 15:34

We had this a few years ago and it was also positive for me. Good luck!

Passthecake30 · 12/03/2023 16:08

When we had this at my workplace, we had some winners, some losers (on pay protection) and many people who came away with no change. I was fortunate to get an additional £2.8k per annum.

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