Salary Benchmarking UK

What is salary benchmarking?

Paydata’s salary benchmarking services can help you compare salaries and benefits with those of your peer groups, industry sector, and the general marketplace. We will provide you with a clear and concise breakdown of the data available, enabling informed decisions on salary and benefits within your organisation. 

It is important for companies to stay aware of the patterns in their sector and offer reasonable remuneration packages to capture new employees while solidifying current ones effectively. In addition to this, data on industry payment arrangements provides shareholders with peace of mind by ensuring that employees are being paid appropriately. 

Regardless of whether your business is just starting up or has thousands of employees, a fair and reasonable salary is an essential factor for retaining staff. Similarly, benchmarking salaries is the most effective method of ensuring that your approach to pay remains competitive.

Why is salary benchmarking important?mportant?

Salary is often the difference between retaining employees and losing talent to your competitors. Benchmarking salary offers employers invaluable insight into how other companies within the same sector are structuring their pay and benefits packages. When it comes to executives and directors, it can be particularly difficult to quantify the true value of an employee’s pay package due to the variety of benefits included in their contract and the small sample size, making simple salary searches unreliable. 

Salary benchmarks consider and separate the different elements of reward packages, giving organisations a much clearer understanding of what employees and executives are being offered in addition to their standard pay. This information can often be key for increasing employee engagement, reducing staff turnover and attracting high-quality talent. 

How do you start salary benchmarking?

When looking at roles below executive level or more common positions, a salary benchmarking survey can help to highlight the difference between employee pay grades. These surveys vary in approach, usually drawing data from a specific industry or role.

When dealing with more senior positions, the additional benefits offered make simple salary surveys less accurate, so it is best to opt for a specialised executive salary benchmarking service instead, as this will break down every aspect of an individual’s pay and benefits package.

How do you acquire salary benchmarking information in the UK?

Basic salary information can be drawn from job search websites. However, this won’t paint a true picture of actual salaries paid. To access accurate salary data and detailed information, such as company names, industries, and benefit bundles, most companies go to third-party organisations like Paydata. 

We offer surveys that companies can subscribe to by supplying their own pay and benefits data. These surveys are continually updated, with the aggregated salary information shared only between the participating businesses, creating an easily accessible benchmarking database that the subscribed companies can access at any time. This approach ensures that all salary information is obtained legally and with consent. 

How does our salary tool work?

Our salary benchmarking tools use a tried and tested process we have perfected over the last 25 years. In return for their salary information, all the contributors can access the salary data collected, ensuring value for everyone taking part. The salary benchmarking process is both legal and ethical, allowing us to process and report salary data without divulging anyone's personal information.

How does salary benchmarking result in lower staff turnover?

Employee satisfaction is a complicated topic with many facets. There is no formula to ensure your employees are happy, but it can be universally agreed upon that salary plays an important role. Alongside the wider reward package, tangible personal development and ensuring a positive workplace environment, all employees want to feel valued within your organisation. Pay play a crucial part in this – we advocate taking pay off the table as an issue by ensuring you are paying fairly and equitably. If an employee believes they are underpaid for their position, they are more likely to become dissatisfied and look for a role elsewhere. Salary benchmarking gives employers the ability to analyse the pay structure of industry competitors, updating their own approach to ensure employees are being paid fairly and are more satisfied in their positions, therefore reducing staff turnover. This is one of the key benefits of salary benchmarking. 

Why use Paydata salary benchmarking?

At Paydata, we specialise in offering a bespoke and reliable service to each and every one of our clients. We strive to make lives better at work, both for employees and those managing them. We have a real passion for helping employers understand the needs of their employees and create a positive working environment in the process. 

We are one of the leading salary benchmarking companies in the UK, and we offer some of the broadest salary benchmarking consultation options available. We can easily adapt our employee benchmarking salary process to obtain whatever information your business needs, as and when you need it.