Companies worldwide have made compensation discussions a top priority, due in part to a rising number of countries enacting regulations addressing pay transparency and inequity. It’s a well-known fact that substantial pay gaps exist that are based on gender and race, with global findings revealing that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar that men make.
In just the past year, new legislation has been introduced in the US that addresses pay transparency laws by state. Employers in New York must now disclose the job description and salary range in any advertisement for a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity. Employers in California must reveal the compensation range of any position to current employees on request and advertise the salary range for all new jobs, including those that can be done remotely from within the state.
This new US legislation joins established laws in the EU and countries such as Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Australia that require companies over a certain number of employees to report on pay gaps and their efforts to maintain gender equality in the workplace.
Non-compliance with these laws can result in steep fines, public shaming, and employee trust issues that can impact retention. Therefore, companies must have access to up-to-date compensation data for reporting purposes and a strategy in place that ensures fair pay without bias.
Paying your people equitably will not only help you stay compliant with pay transparency laws but also help you attract and retain top talent. Research from SHRM found that 65 percent of companies that list a salary range on their job postings say it makes them more competitive in attracting top talent.
Why you should conduct regular compensation reviews
Providing a competitive compensation package, including competitive salaries and benefits that your people want and need, is instrumental in attracting the best talent. And, once your new hires are onboarded and ramped up, you want them to stay with your company and not look elsewhere for other opportunities. That’s why it’s essential that you continuously revisit and review your compensation offering, ensuring that you are compensating your people fairly and staying competitive.
The best way to do this is by conducting a compensation and benefits review. Doing so will help you identify pay gaps and ensure your people are compensated according to their experience, skills, and performance. When done correctly, it eliminates scenarios of inequitable pay across your organization.
Compensation reviews and compliance with local transparency regulations are fundamental to building your compensation strategy, but it doesn’t stop there. You must also determine how transparent you want to be with your people around compensation. Once you set your compensation strategy, you can create a culture of pay equity that your people will value.
With that in mind, let’s look at how to start building a compensation strategy in Bob that will keep you compliant, ensure equitable pay, and help boost retention across your company.
Build your compensation strategy in Bob in three easy steps
Bob includes several features that support you as you build your compensation strategy and help you create a culture of pay transparency and equity for your people.
1. Create a consistent job structure with Bob’s job catalog
As your company grows in headcount and expands to multiple geos, it’s essential that you create a consistent structure for your positions, organizing them according to job function and level. Bob’s job catalog is included in Bob’s Core HR functionality and provides a clear understanding of leveling and responsibilities across your organization.
With Bob’s job catalog, you can see all of the job titles, job levels, the number of employees assigned to each job name, salaries, and job functions at a glance. Having this data at your fingertips helps you make decisions on your company’s current and future state—including areas for expansion and defining the salary range for each position—helping you stay compliant and ensure equitable pay for your current employees and new hires.
2. Stay competitive with Compensation Benchmarking Powered by Mercer
To attract and retain the best talent, you must offer competitive salaries and relevant benefits. Bob’s Compensation Benchmarking Powered by Mercer provides you with trusted, industry-leading benchmarking data directly within Bob. The global compensation data comes from 60+ countries and has been sliced and diced to include only relevant data for our customers regarding job sector and company size.
Compensation Benchmarking Powered by Mercer provides you with the data to price jobs with geo-specific pay ranges and stay competitive in every market. Use the data to compare your company’s compensation against other companies in your industry and adjust your people’s compensation to stay competitive, eliminate pay gaps, and plan your future workforce.
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3. Ensure pay equity across your org with Bob’s new compensation bands
We recently added compensation bands, a much-awaited new feature to our Compensation module. Compensation bands, also known as comp, salary, or pay bands, refer to the minimum, mid, and maximum amount a company will pay someone within a job level and location. Compensation bands help you stay organized, scale efficiently, and pay new hires and current employees equitably.
Using compensation bands, you can transform the Compensation module into the core system for building your compensation structure based on your unique compensation philosophy. Compensation bands create consistency and standardize compensation for every position, eliminate pay gaps, and ensure pay equity.
You can also increase pay transparency company-wide by sharing compensation bands internally or when hiring—complying with local pay transparency laws, increasing trust across your organization, and positively impacting retention.
Bob supports your compensation strategy from start to finish
Whether you’re just starting your compensation strategy and pay transparency journey or ready to take it to the next level, Bob has your back. From creating a consistent job structure using Bob’s job catalog and staying competitive with Compensation Benchmarking powered by Mercer to ensuring equitable pay with compensation bands, Bob has you covered. You can build an equitable company culture where your people feel valued and are compensated fairly for their contributions while staying compliant with local transparency regulations. It’s a win-win for all.
