Leadership
Explore Global Compensation Data Solutions with Korn Ferry Pay
Enhance your ability to attract, retain, and develop talent with total rewards strategies informed by Korn Ferry Pay’s global compensation database.
Planning Your Pay Compensation Program
A compensation strategy should be a priority for any organization that aims to attract and retain top talent—but that strategy must go well beyond paying top dollar in the market. Leading organizations have comprehensive rewards strategies that satisfy multiple goals, including remaining competitive, enhancing employee satisfaction, and harmonizing with overall business strategy—all of which influence overall business performance and profitability.
However, developing an effective compensation strategy is difficult. Leaders must navigate a constantly changing market and address employees’ diverse needs to attract top talent. They need a deep understanding of local pay practices. They must be transparent with employees to avoid perceptions of bias and unfairness. And, perhaps most of all, they need sound pay data.
Managing all these challenges is why setting and communicating the right compensation strategy is so difficult. According to our 10th annual Global Rewards Pulse Survey, many organizations (61%) believe that most employees don’t understand their current reward strategy. That’s a shortcoming that can lead to employee dissatisfaction and, even worse, turnover.
So how can organizations turn this around? By planning their compensation program with a compensation database.
Here’s how Korn Ferry Pay can help.
Use Compensation Benchmarking to Attract Top Talent
Many companies take a one-size-fits-all approach to compensation. Most organizations responding to our survey (92%) set total cash rewards at the market median or above for all jobs. And 89% said they use the same market competitiveness level for all positions.
However, just because a reward program is effective in one location for one role, doesn’t mean it will work in another. The right compensation formula depends on a variety of factors that will match your workforce, location, and industry.
For example, in high-demand industries and roles, the competition for skilled professionals is fierce. Stiff competition can lead to rapid wage inflation, making it difficult for companies to offer attractive compensation packages without exceeding their financial capabilities.
That’s why it’s so important for organizations to see how their pay structure and headcount compare to their competitors in the market and whether they are spending their reward budget more or less efficiently than the competition. Organizations need a reliable tool that can deliver insights into what employees will find compelling.
How Korn Ferry Pay can help:
We offer up-to-date market data collected from over 30,000 companies covering a wide range of job families, industries, and geographic locations to ensure your compensation strategy is competitive with your peers.
Ensure Fairness and Transparency in Your Compensation Program
Organizations want to know that their pay is not only externally competitive but also internally fair. The goal is to ensure there are no perceived or actual disparities in pay among colleagues performing similar roles or among those with comparable experience and qualifications.
Without transparency in the promotion and pay raise decision-making process, employees may worry about inequitable reward systems that seem to favor certain groups over others. Plus, the consequences of perceived pay inequity extend beyond individual dissatisfaction and turnover to reduced productivity and profitability, as high-performing employees who feel undervalued may seek employment elsewhere, robbing the company of their knowledge and skills.
To avoid perceptions of unfairness, organizations must examine their pay structures. Specifically, they should ensure that their job grading and promotion practices are consistent and transparent. They must also make smarter decisions about talent recruitment, including when it makes the most sense to build talent internally, buy it from the market, or shore up staff with temporary resources. All of this analysis requires access to current, accurate pay data.
How Korn Ferry Pay can help:
Integrate our system with your HRIS, and you’ll be able to expedite pay audits and address any pay disparities to make sure that your compensation practices remain fair and equitable, reducing employee dissatisfaction and turnover.
Improve the Reliability of Your Compensation Database
Making informed compensation decisions requires access to up-to-date data that covers various job families, industries, and locations. It can be costly and time-consuming to obtain the required data, however, given that you need to collect it from different industries, locations, and roles. Plus, even with the right data in hand, interpreting it accurately and applying it to your organization requires sophisticated analytical tools and expertise.
When organizations have unreliable data or don’t know how to apply it accurately, they can benchmark salaries incorrectly. That results in rewards packages that are either too low or too high compared to market standards.
Underpaid employees could feel less loyal to the company, may work less, and are likely to seek opportunities elsewhere. As a result, the company is hurt on two fronts: a loss of valuable skills and experience and the additional costs of recruiting and training new hires.
Conversely, overpaying employees diverts funds from other crucial areas, such as innovation, development, and employee benefits programs. Overcompensation can also create internal equity issues, where certain employees are paid significantly more than their peers for similar roles, leading to resentment among those who feel undervalued.
Accurate pay data can help ensure consistent compensation decisions. When organizations use reliable data to back up compensation adjustments, they avoid the perception that pay adjustments are based on subjective criteria rather than objective metrics and foster trust in management.
How Korn Ferry Pay can help:
Organizations can generate custom reports from compensation data, focusing on specific job roles, locations, and industries to ensure that compensation packages are accurate, up-to-date, and aligned with market trends.
Align Your Compensation Practices with Business Strategy
Compensation practices must align with business strategy to strengthen business performance and growth. Alignment helps allocate financial resources fairly and efficiently, directing funds toward roles and functions that drive core business objectives. For example, if an organization focuses on innovation, it should pay higher salaries to research and development positions than to administrators, so that top talent recognizes how important they are to achieving business goals.
When compensation is aligned with strategy, it reflects employees’ contributions to key business priorities. In turn, employees may feel more engaged and, with that recognition, become more loyal and productive.
How Korn Ferry Pay can help:
Korn Ferry helps to align your compensation and overall business strategy by identifying critical roles that drive business success, so your compensation packages support broader organizational goals.
Enhance the Employee Rewards Experience
Organizations should also put themselves in job seekers’ shoes. Today, compensation isn’t just about base salary. In choosing jobs, candidates consider the entire rewards package, including benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, bonuses, stock options, and non-monetary perks like flexible hours, remote work opportunities, and professional development.
High-performing organizations are moving away from generic reward programs to segmented, personalized rewards that consider multiple stakeholder perspectives. Meeting candidate expectations demands a nuanced understanding of what different segments of the workforce value most—something that’s easy to comprehend with access to local market data and insights from a robust salary database.
How Korn Ferry Pay can help:
The advanced analytics tools in Korn Ferry Pay allow real-time adjustments and scenario modeling, helping you predict market changes and interpret compensation data accurately, and making informed decisions for now and into the future.
Korn Ferry Pay
Make informed pay decisions using the world's most comprehensive compensation and benefits data
Korn Ferry Pay Can Help with Your Total Reward Strategies
Navigating the complexities of employee compensation requires a strategic approach backed by reliable data and advanced tools. Korn Ferry Pay helps organizations navigate the complexities of modern compensation practices, providing a holistic solution to the challenges of developing effective compensation programs. We help organizations ensure competitive, fair, and strategically aligned compensation practices by leveraging comprehensive market data, advanced analytical tools, and user-friendly interfaces.
Download our brochure to learn how Korn Ferry Pay can help you set the right rewards strategy to attract and retain talent, improve productivity, and support business growth.
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