While there has been an increasing trend in the importance of qualitative factors when it comes to employee satisfaction, money still talks and how you compensate your workforce remains a key driver of worker performance and, therefore, the performance of your company. Determining how much to pay who requires not just an understanding of your organisation, its needs and capacity, it also requires knowledge about the market and what your competitors are paying their employees; these insights can be gathered from salary surveys. On the surface knowing what someone working somewhere else earns may not seem particularly useful, but when you dig deeper into the intricacies of human resource management you will find that there are a number of advantages to incorporating salary survey data into your remuneration strategy.

Your company operates in a competitive environment, both in terms of competing for customers and competing for talent. The salaries you offer will have a direct impact on the quality of employees you attract, and an uncompetitive salary structure could leave you with slim pickings and put you at a disadvantage compared to your rivals. As mentioned above, your employees’ performance will determine your organisation’s performance so if your workers are simply not equipped to do the job effectively then your company will see the results of that in its bottom line.

Now given the less than ideal economic situation in most Sub Saharan countries, especially in the midst of a pandemic, some companies with uncompetitive salaries have still managed to attain excellent talent at bargain costs. Unfortunately, unemployment rates are high so some people have found themselves in situations where they have to accept lower salaries than their qualifications, experience and value addition call for; however, it is important to remember that while you may be able to get these high performing employees through the door you may have a difficult time keeping them. Though other factors can contribute to satisfaction and encourage employees to remain with you even when they are getting paid less than they should, offering compensation that is not comparable to other employers may lead to workers jumping at other opportunities resulting in high turnover rates and the costs associated with that, which we discussed in a previous post. Furthermore, even if employees who are dissatisfied with their salaries choose to stay their discontentment will eventually start to show through their work.