Conduct your own salary survey

The following outlines the major steps taken when designing, planning and executing your own salary survey.

Step one: Select who you will survey.

• Consider competitors in the job market (those organizations that compete for talent with you).

• Consider competitors with respect to product or service.

• Solicit participation via phone, mail or e-mail.

Step two: Decide which jobs will be benchmark jobs.

Tips for choosing benchmark jobs:

• Survey the individual jobs contained in job families, not just single jobs.

• Survey jobs other organizations are likely to have.

• Survey jobs with a lot of incumbents.

• Survey troublesome jobs where there may be a lot of complaining employees, where you may have recruiting difficulties, or where it is essential to the organization that the salary for a given job is market-driven.

• Try to get a large sample of participants, as it will increase the validity of the data collected.

After you have determined which jobs you will survey, write a brief description of each benchmark job. This will allow participants to match jobs at their organizations to the survey's benchmark jobs and supply data accordingly.

Step three: Design the survey instrument.

Consider asking participants for the following information:

Company scope data:

• Name and contact information of person completing the survey.

• Primary industry of organization.

• Number of employees (exempt, nonexempt, full-time, part-time, temporary, by location, etc.) at the organization.

• Total annual revenue (sales).

• Total assets.

• Union presence.

Benchmark job data:

• The FLSA status of the job (exempt or nonexempt).

• The number of incumbents in each benchmark job.

• The strength of the job match (according to a predetermined scale).

• The average base salary (indicate annual, monthly, etc.) of those holding the job.

• The actual base salary of the highest paid employee holding the job.

• The actual base salary of the lowest paid employee holding the job.

• The upper salary limit (maximum) of the salary grade.

• The lower salary limit (minimum) of the salary grade.

• Eligibility for bonus and the average annual bonus paid.

• Eligibility for commissions and the average annual commissions paid.

• Eligibility for stock options or other long-term incentives.

Caution. To avoid antitrust concerns, ask only what wages, salaries and benefits an organization is currently paying.

Pay program procedures:

• Frequency and average size of step increases or merit increases.

• Frequency and size of across-the-board increases.

• Use of cost-of-living allowances or geographic differentials.

Other compensation:

Check for the use of the following programs:

• Pensions.

• Profit-sharing.

• Incentive bonus.

• Stock purchase.

• Savings plans.

• Vesting provisions.

• Shift differentials.

• Overtime or compensatory time to exempt personnel.

Employee benefits programs:

• Life insurance.

• Health insurance.

• Dental insurance.

• Vacation.

• Long and short term disability insurance.

• Accident insurance.

• Amount of employer-paid benefits as a percentage of payroll.

Time off policies:

• Vacation.

• Sick time.

• Leave time.

Step four: Distribute the survey.

• Include a cover letter.

• Ensure the participant that the supplied information will be kept confidential.

• Promise the participant a copy of the analyzed results.

• Include a specific due date.

• Include contact information, should the participant have any questions.

• Include instructions for completing the survey and define specific terms, like total compensation.

Step five: Follow up.

• If necessary, follow up on any outstanding surveys that aren't returned by the due date.

Step six: Analyze results.

• Calculate medians, averages, weighted averages, 25th percentile, 75th percentile, etc.

• Summarize findings in easy-to-understand charts.

• Use codes so that individual company data cannot be identified.

• Communicate all significant findings.

Step seven: Distribute results.

• Send a copy of the final survey report to participants.

• Make sure information is presented in summary form and no information can be attributed to a single participant.

• Thank respondents for their participation.