Compensation Surveys

Arcus has developed custom salary benchmarking frameworks of compensation surveys for industry sectors, associations and individual companies. The approach has been to define total compensation and benchmark data with a year-over-year comparison data for all components of cash compensation data for the 50 highest-matched positions.

Compensation Surveys and comparisons

Arcus’s reports include comparisons for each position by comparator organizations in one or more sectors with a range of 25th, 50th and 75th percentile to allow good-better-best offers. The data is designed to be user friendly and in a dashboard format to allow quick access to performance related components for each year.

Job Matching is Top Priority

The process of matching jobs to salaries is a core part of our salary surveys. The data is tested frequently for reliability by multiple survey waves to ensure that the data reflects an average of several in market surveys. Our experience has been that employers expect to see some evidence of current in-market salaries to ensure the information isn’t outdated.

Representative Survey samples

The accuracy of the survey sample of employers really defines the accuracy of the salary data. Often consultants compare wide ranges of data and do not drill down to a granular level to identify salaries for positions that are most likely to be comparable to a specific position in the organization. Arcus also validates surveys with HR leaders in 15 sectors to ensure that the data reflects their understanding of the current benchmarks for similar positions. This two-level validation of data provides a vastly more robust and reliable decision support mechanism to give clients added assurance that their decisions are being made on sound information.

Comprehensive Data

Below is a sample of variables that may be included in addition to the base salary. Our surveys indicate a significant shift towards variable salary and benefit components. It has become important to capture as many components of variable allowances and benefits offered to ensure the total compensation benchmarks are accurate. Common variables in compensation include the following:

Base salary
Health insurance, life insurance and other insurance benefits
Short-term incentives
Recreational activities
Cash allowances (e.g., travel, housing, transport)
Meals, cafeteria, beverages
Company products and Services
Subsidized or interest free loans
Various other in-kind benefits
Retirement schemes such as company pensions
National social security schemes and labor law provisions
Family, Vacation and Leave benefits

Please click on the links below for additional information or contact us to schedule a call / meeting or us to discuss how we could leverage our tools to meet your requirements.