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Surveys collecting information about employee compensation, including salary and benefits, are commonly called salary
surveys. Salary surveys are conducted with numerous employers to determine pay levels for specific job categories and
are generally conducted either by region, sector or job classification for the purposes of comparability. In conjunction
with other tools, salary surveys can provide useful information to attract, support and retain employees within the
context of an overall HR and organizational plan. When designed and used properly, salary surveys can provide useful
benchmarking information for comparing salaries and benefits.
Many organizations want to use salary surveys to set the compensation levels for their organizations. Unfortunately, it's
not always as easy as reading a survey and using the information. Below you'll find important information about how to
assess salary surveys and get the most out of the information they present.
In this Section:
What do salary surveys contain?
Assessing salary surveys
Examples of existing salary surveys
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Below you'll find information on what makes a salary survey useful for benchmarking. Salary surveys need to be readily
comparable and scientifically credible to be useful for benchmarking. The following provides a summary of how to assess
a salary survey.
For information to be valid it has to come from a large enough sample size. For example, if you collected just three
salaries for the same position and one salary is high, one is low, and one is in the middle, you wouldn't be able to
conclude much because your sample is too small to provide valid and useful information.
You also want to be sure that the information is reliable. Reliability means that the survey gives consistent results. You
should therefore carefully consider how the information is gathered and decide if it makes sense to you. For example, if
the survey instrument is included in the report, assess if it would be easy for you to give accurate answers to the
questions.
http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/compensation-salary.cfm