“Where’s the market data to support your proposal? What are other companies doing?”
“Why do we need to give this benefit? What’s the market prevalence?” 

A part of being a HR professional, particularly in the rewards or compensation functions, involves analysing market data to support any updates or changes to policies, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the company remains “market competitive”. What that means is management always wants to be assured that their compensation and benefits are on par, or better than other companies and ergo, they will be able to retain employees and attract talent.

This practice of market benchmarking is a PITA (pain in the ass), and although it keeps people like me gainfully employed,  I do caution companies about overly relying on it for policy-making. Even when all the data points to you being market competitive, you might actually not be. Here’s why. Continue reading →