Is Your Employee Compensation Plan Competitive?

By Jeanette Coleman, SPHR & SHRM-SCP on May 08, 2023
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Question: Is My Small Business' Employee Compensation Plan Competitive?

I want to be sure my small company is paying employees as competitively as possible. How do I know whether my employee compensation structure is achieving that goal?  

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How Axcet Determines Whether Your Organization is Competitive or Not

Knowing for sure that you’re compensating employees competitively is a common challenge for small business owners. Besides cash compensation, you need to consider how to value your employee benefits package. Without spending a lot of time researching pay scales and benefits in your geographic marketplace, industry and individual positions, it’s almost impossible to create an on-target compensation structure on your own. 

In the ongoing contest for talent, it’s an especially good time to review your company’s pay rates, your compensation philosophy and what the marketplace is indicating. 

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Assess the Internal Landscape

Axcet helps small business owners by first assessing the company’s internal landscape to understand how each person is currently compensated (including benefits). As part of this process, we also conduct a pay equity audit to ensure that people in similar positions with similar experience levels are being paid equitably.  

Conduct Market Research

We then can conduct geography-specific and nationwide market research by company size, industry, revenue and position to determine how your employees’ compensation compares. 

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Consider Nuances

We consider any nuances that could affect your compensation rate decisions, as well. For example, for our clients who are in niche markets that require them to compete for talent not only against companies of their own size but also against very large companies, we investigate those relevant pay scales, too. 

Project Job Role Growth

Our research also can provide projections on how a certain job role is expected to grow or decline year over year and what the supply of and demand for available talent is for that position. 

The resulting data helps you understand whether your organization is lagging, consistent with or exceeding comparative compensation in the market. 

Finally, we can help you consider the marketplace data and your budget to design a strategic compensation structure that fits your employee recruiting and retention goals.  

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Why Competitive Compensation Plans Matter

To attract qualified candidates to your company – and keep them – compensation is crucial. A significant part of what helps your company become a competitive employer is having an accurate assessment of the marketplace data and responding as best you can with the base pay, incentives and benefits you offer your employees. 

Because of our work with smaller businesses, Axcet understands that your company may not have much financial leeway but wants to pay people as close to market value as possible.

Armed with accurate and thorough marketplace data, we can help you balance direct cash compensation with other perks or benefits that would be attractive to employees, like increasing vacation time, providing development opportunities or offering work schedule flexibility. With Axcet’s help, you can use your compensation structure to position your company as an employer of choice. 

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