5 Great platforms for remuneration data

1. Payscale 

I consider Payscale as one of the best portals for compensation/remuneration/pay data. The data is comprehensive and caters to diverse clients needs regardless of the size of the organisation.  The speed at which you can access data and carry out simple analytics is fantastic. They have the flexibility every executive would want as you look at pay competitiveness. I particularly like their MarketPay platform and the Insight Lab. When you visit the payscale website, do not end there. I have found their articles insightful.  I like that they support most of their articles with research data. On the blog, I particularly like the insights on pay equity, pay transparency, and they also deal with retention issues very well. They do also have free downloads for you. I recommend Payscale for executives who want to make better pay decisions. It is also a good learning platform for students studying Compensation and Remuneration. The articles and free reports are a treasure.

2. Economic research institute 

They come in as my second pick for sites and platforms with top-notch quality data. I like the thoroughness of their reports and the solid insights they share. Their whitepapers and webinars are a goldmine of compensation insights.  Next time when you visit their page, do not forget to try out their demo, especially the ERIs Compensation Analytics Platform.  

3. Mercer 

Mercer produces some of the best salary survey reports. The reports have a solid methodological rigour. Their reports are easy to understand. More importantly, their reports can be customised specifically for you.  They have comprehensive coverage of various geographical markets. You can try their general industry salary surveys and many more.  Before you leave their platform, also explore the reach advisory type content available here for free.

4. Willis Towers Watson 

If you are looking for top-quality compensation data, you better visit their page for more information. They also have top insights to share on general compensation strategies—one of my favourite approaches which they have pioneered in job levelling. As you do your salary surveys, if you ignore how jobs are compared, you end up with misleading information. They do the job levelling process very well. If you care about how much you pay your staff, do not leave their page without visiting their Compensation Surveys and Market data section. To cap it all, they have Willis Towers Watson Compensation software. The capabilities of the software include customised analytics for you.

5. Salary.com 

This portal is good if you want quick information on what the market pays for a target role.  If you want a quick answer to a salary survey query targeted at a particular position, you can start here. They also have a resource page that is free and has significant insights. They also have a machine learning-driven platform for analysing market data.

Conclusion

The strength and validity of compensation data depend largely on how the data is collected and the matching of roles. The matching of job roles is the biggest challenge in salary survey data analysis.  So far, there is no foolproof way to do it. The various platforms use different approaches, all with advantages and disadvantages. All the above-listed platforms have strengths and weaknesses that they have tried to address through multiple strategies. Also, note that some platforms use employer-supplied data while others depend on job seeker-supplied data.

To read more about my articles, visit: The Human Capital Hub

Memory Nguwi is an Occupational Psychologist, Data Scientist, Speaker, & Managing Consultant- Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a management and human resources consulting firm. https://www.linkedin.com/in/memorynguwi/ Phone +263 4 481946-48/481950/2900276/2900966 or cell number +263 77 2356 361 or email: mnguwi@ipcconsultants.com  or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com