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Date: 22 March 2023
Two terms that float around concerning recruitment and retention are salary benchmarking and role evaluation. Each of these is important to the top candidates as they will be on the hunt for both competitive salaries and career progression. Therefore, if you wish to recruit top talent, you must put salary benchmarking and role evaluation procedures in place from the get-go.
When a candidate can see that salary benchmarking and role evaluation form part of your company’s reward strategy, this reinforces a commitment to fairness and career progression. As a result, your job offering is painted in an attractive light, encouraging applicants to come forward.
While salary benchmarking and role evaluation share some similarities, they are two separate things. Discover the differences between the two and how they support effective recruitment below.
Firstly, pay benchmarking refers to the process of comparing salaries with other employers, often within your industry sector, allowing you to make informed decisions about your own wage offerings. Salary benchmarking involves analysing the primary features of each role and comparing these to positions and salaries in other businesses. This is one of the most effective ways of ensuring you are offering an appropriate wage to the types of candidates you are after.
There are multiple steps involved when it comes to implementing a salary benchmarking system.
Before anything else, a plan needs to be created, which will serve as a roadmap. This needs to include the required resources, a budget, a timeline, short- and long-term goals, and the purpose.
After this, you need to ensure that every position in the business has a job description. This will help you navigate job titles that are synonymous with one another when it comes to salary comparisons.
Next, you need to source the database from which you will get your information. Thankfully, though, Paydata specialises in providing this information.
Last, but not least, once you have gathered the salary benchmarking data, you need to ensure that the salary you are offering compensates the employee fairly for the work they are providing. In the absence of a competitive salary, worthy candidates are unlikely to be interested in your job opportunity.
For a business to claim it provides a competitive salary, it must offer the industry average or above. This average is determined by what wage is being supplied for similar roles in the same location.
It is important for companies to state the salary they are offering for their vacancies. In fact, as many as 78% of job seekers will not apply for a position if the salary is not shown in the job advert. For accurate and effective recruitment, transparency is key.
Role evaluation is a continual process in which new positions are evaluated, and existing roles are reviewed and adapted. This provides employees with the opportunity to take on additional responsibilities, which results in more experience and better pay. Offering progression opportunities is one of the most effective ways of capturing and maintaining the attention of the top candidates.
It is not solely about attracting candidates, but it is also about assessing whether they are the right fit for your company. This can be achieved via talent assessment tools, wherein candidates are required to complete a task that demonstrates their ability to do the job. Some popular talent assessment tools include the following:
As a leading reward management consultancy, we have our fair share of recruitment experience. One of our specialisms is salary benchmarking, which is a tried and tested process that we have worked to perfect over the last two decades. We can help you determine what information is required and will collect and analyse this for you. Moreover, this is all done ethically and legally, allowing you to obtain the data you need without breaching anyone’s privacy.
Managing Director
Date: 11 March 2026
We are a leading source of UK salary data and provide the expertise, insights and tools to help HR professionals manage their pay and reward practices.
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