North Texas Compensation Association

The Comp Doctor

How To Stretch Your Salary Survey Budget

Spring is here and your desk is piled high with fresh survey input sheets ready to be tackled -- but who has the time? More importantly, as you look back at your survey budget for 2005, you realize you need to choose this year’s surveys carefully to try and stretch the budget.

During the economic downturn, many companies chose to forego the annual survey submissions and consequently they found that they began trailing the market for critical skills. This year’s merit budget projections are still in the 3.5% - 3.8% range and there’s not much to spare for salary surveys.

Let’s examine some different approaches to use to make sure you get the best bang for your survey buck.

Use surveys that have broad job coverage
Use third-party salary survey providers that give you discounts on early participation
Select providers that offer bundling – not two for the price of one, rather the second survey is discounted by $500 or more.
Choose soft copy results either in Excel format or “pdf” also known as Adobe Reader “portable document format.” Not only do soft copies cost less, but also this will give you more room on your bookshelf and it will be easier to compile survey data for your analysis. Often, providers charge an extra fee for a hard copy such as $300 or more and you may be happier with the soft version and save money, too.

Supplement your Survey Data

Surveys vary widely by their price, based in part by how the survey is conducted and what is available with the survey. Because of budget constraints, everyone is trying to find a way to stretch their survey dollars; here are some helpful hints to supplement your survey data on hand:

Form industry network groups to share trends (historical not prospective)
Participate in ad hoc surveys sponsored by others free to participants
Research articles that reference salaries such as The Wall Street Journal’s www.careerjournal.com and other trade journals.
Check websites of competitors, listing jobs and starting salaries. Many people overlook this valuable resource. Although not all starting salaries are listed, you may be surprised at how easily this data is obtained.
Participate in free salary budget surveys that list trends such as WorldatWork’s Annual Salary Budget Survey.

Also, don’t overlook the entry-level professional data from colleges and universities. Even if you don’t hire graduates, compression and inequities can result if you don’t keep pace with the supply and demand issues for certain professions. The National Association of Colleges and Employers or NACE sponsors a quarterly survey report that is reasonably priced. You can order it through their website at www.naceweb.org. Often they publish excerpts on their related website for students at: www.jobweb.org.

Don’t be afraid to research new survey sources. As a compensation specialist, I am always looking for new surveys for my clients. Once when working for a national retailer with stores in Canada, I looked up the compensation person for their competitor through the WorldatWork directory and found them to be very helpful. They were able to provide me with the name of a good retail survey for Canadian locations. So don’t be afraid to call your competitors and ask them what surveys they use! You may learn about a new survey or coverage of a particular location where survey results are free to participants.

In another example, while researching manufacturing operations in Lubbock, Texas, I was able to obtain a plant survey for this location for free because the sponsoring company provided results to participants in exchange for their survey input. The survey, of course, was conducted by a reliable third-party on behalf of this Fortune 500 manufacturing company. A simple call to this company that also had facilities in Lubbock really paid off.

Salary Survey Matrix - Database

Once a year, conduct a thorough inventory of all your surveys. Develop a matrix listing the jobs covered, cost, participation dates, etc. This will help you evaluate how you are spending your survey dollars. It also will help identify gaps in coverage. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 20% of your jobs covered by at least one or more surveys. Also, review the survey participation list for each survey to ensure there is a cross-section of your competitors included in the specific survey. This can be misleading as some companies alternate which surveys they choose to participate in from year to year.

Monitor the list of survey participants from year to year. Some surveys lose participation over the years. For example, a popular sales compensation survey for consumer products lost so many participants, that the last year it was published the data was useless and the survey was disbanded. Others took its place at a higher price. In some cases many jobs had insufficient matches in the last issue so data was useless.

SAMPLE SURVEY MATRIX (Download Word Document)

Reality Check

Finally, when you are compiling market data from surveys that may be as much as six months to a year old, do “a reality check” of the current market. Ask your company recruiting staff what trends they have observed in attracting talent to your company in key professional, technical, service and unskilled jobcategories. Sometimes markets can shift suddenly in certain geographic areas and for key “hot jobs.” The survey may say an experienced accountant may command annual pay of $50,000, but you may not find any qualified candidates willing to accept the job for less than $55,000. Use good business sense when evaluating survey data and don’t rely solely on reported data without doing a reality check with the local job market.

In summary, completing salary survey submissions can be a bit tedious, but when the results arrive, you’ll be pleased with the broad coverage you’ve obtained to help support your company’s market position for total rewards.