{"id":5125,"date":"2026-07-14T11:27:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whitecrowresearch.com\/resources\/?p=5125"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:32:48","slug":"how-to-think-about-compensation-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whitecrowresearch.com\/resources\/2026\/07\/14\/how-to-think-about-compensation-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"How to think about\u2026 Compensation Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Money, as Pink Floyd once said, is a gas. It certainly is if you’re a talent manager trying to attract candidates in a competitive market.<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frequent studies (including a few from Armstrong Craven) have shown that most job seekers still put salary at the top of their priorities when they\u2019re sizing up an offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how much is enough? What combination of base, bonus and incentives will secure your coveted candidate without breaking the team budget? Anyone who has grappled with that question will understand the value of a comprehensive, up-to-date compensation study. But they may also have discovered that most studies are anything but.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Armstrong Craven, we think about Compensation Studies differently. Here\u2019s how you should think about them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Do your own research<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first stop for most talent managers will be an off-the-shelf online study. Often these are provided by very reputable companies and we\u2019re not saying the data in these studies are wrong. But they\u2019re unlikely to address your own specific needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, the study may be out-of-date. Next, you have to ask how many companies it\u2019s based on. Let\u2019s imagine you\u2019re BlackRock and you\u2019re looking at a study which provides \u2018market levels\u2019 gleaned from, say, 100 asset managers. Well, most of these will be quite small and that will inevitably bring the averages down. What you need therefore is a study based simply on your top six or seven peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s taxonomy. How do you know the job titles in the study equate with those in your company? Take a term like \u2018business development\u2019. What does that actually mean? Sales? Marketing? Account management? Unless you understand the terminology the provider is using, you\u2019re just comparing apples with pears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Don’t just do surveys… Talk to people!!<\/mark><\/strong>

Okay, so you\u2019ve decided to do your own research. Realizing it needs to be based on a critical sample size, you decide the quickest way to reach the highest number of people is via a survey. And you\u2019re not wrong. At Armstrong Craven, we run plenty of surveys, with carefully crafted questions which drive simple, easy comparable answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t forget the human element. By adding a layer of primary research to your study, you can access invaluable market intelligence. In a recent study for a UK bank, we discovered one of their key competitors had recently changed its bonus structure and the new system wasn\u2019t at all popular. That meant we were able to point our client to this bank as a prime headhunting target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Don’t get hung up on too much detail<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get us wrong, we love detail. We think detail can sometimes be the difference between mere data and actionable intelligence. But only sometimes. Other times, it\u2019s a distraction. We\u2019ve had clients ask us to find out every jot and tittle of a candidate\u2019s package right down to the value of luncheon vouchers and gym membership. Getting this level of detail is time-consuming, expensive and, well, not that useful anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact is, nobody moves jobs (or chooses not to move jobs) because of luncheon vouchers. Base salary and bonus are the two numbers you really need. In individual cases, it might make sense to find out about shares and pension contributions but at the talent cohort level, the focus should be getting the most salient information as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alternative is to spend months getting reams of data which \u2013 because you took so long to get it \u2013 will probably be out-of-date on arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Remember, what people are being paid and what they want to be paid are two different things<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could have mentioned this under 1, but it\u2019s so important, it needs its own section. Incredibly, it\u2019s also the point that almost every compensation study overlooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps you\u2019ve established that a certain type of individual is likely earning between \u00a3100,000 and \u00a3120,000. So what? How does that help you make them a compelling offer? The bit you\u2019re missing is what percentage increase they would want to make a move. Of course, everyone will have a slightly different answer but across a specific talent pool there will definitely be a broad consensus. This can be hugely valuable if you\u2019re combining a compensation study with some location analysis. If, for example, software engineers in Budapest typically want a 10% increase but those in Bangalore are looking for 20%, that\u2019s crucial information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, you can filter your results and work out which competitors are likely to be challenging targets and which present as more susceptible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Rinse and Repeat…<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some salary levels increase rapidly. Others don\u2019t. So how often should you be making decisions on the basis of any particular study? Clearly, it\u2019s not practical to be commissioning a compensation study every few weeks, but if you leave it too long, there\u2019s a chance you\u2019ll be referring to out-of-date information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think once a year is best. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, most people only get an annual pay rise. True, you also need to factor in the pay of new hires and this is where you see pay inflation during the year; but this is very difficult to track because new hires are the least likely people to engage with you \u2013 they\u2019ve just moved roles so why would they speak to a recruiter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which leads us to our second reason. It\u2019s good to build up a bank of reliable sources for your compensation studies. When we engage with people, we always check to see if they\u2019d be open to answering the same questions a year down the line. The answer is almost always yes. If we ask their indulgence any more often, we find the response rate drops significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Money, as Pink Floyd once said, is a gas. It certainly is if you’re a talent manager trying to attract candidates in a competitive market. Frequent studies (including a few from Armstrong Craven) have shown that most job seekers still put salary at the top of their priorities when they\u2019re sizing up an offer. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,30],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to think about\u2026 Compensation Studies - WhiteCrow Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitecrowresearch.com\/resources\/2026\/07\/14\/how-to-think-about-compensation-studies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to think about\u2026 Compensation Studies - WhiteCrow Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Money, as Pink Floyd once said, is a gas. It certainly is if you’re a talent manager trying to attract candidates in a competitive market. 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