How can salary surveys help you attract and retain the best talent?

Many studies show that charity and public pay rises have traditionally lagged behind those in the private sector and so the search for talent at an affordable, yet competitive salary can be challenging. Over time, we have seen many voluntary organisations turning to non-pay benefits to encourage prospective employees to join them by offering generous annual leave entitlements and a relaxed approach to working hours. These benefits will undoubtedly help to create and maintain a supportive and inclusive culture, but the extent of their impact may be limiting when faced with escalating living costs and bills.

When the ability to offer a competitive salary is often constrained by budget and occasionally through internal pay structures that set a clear and definitive cap, we expect that some companies may not be in position to consider raising salaries or be in a place where they can embark upon a recruitment campaign that offers an attractive salary to their next new hire. So what can be done to address this?

Understand salary trends in your sector.

Firstly it’s important to get a better understanding of what exactly is happening to salaries in your sector. Don’t lose all hope after seeing a single advert that sets an alarmingly new high bar, this could be the exception, rather than the norm. Instead carry out some benchmarking to help evidence what the pay trends are and how your salaries compare.

We understand this can be a daunting exercise, which is why we offer salary surveys that provide you with a comprehensive pay benchmarking report that gives you all the data you need to help you make those important pay decisions.

Consider what other benefits are important.

You can also reconsider those non-pay benefits and push these even further. Reducing the number of hours in the full-time working week without reducing pay can reposition your existing salary offer and present this in a whole new light. There continues to be positive outcomes following the 4-day working week trial, and these findings give food for thought when considering how to attract and retain talented employees looking for flexibility.

Our salary surveys include insight on non-pay benefits as standard, so you can be armed with information on new reward trends and ways of working via our reports.

Get flexible.

Taking a flexible approach to remote working may also help to give you an advantage. The cost of commuting can be significant – not to mention the time involved in making regular journeys to the office.

At Peridot, we support our employees to work from home as often as they like and set no minimum requirements on how many times people should come to the office. We’ve been responsive to our colleagues request to have access to co-working desks in places local to them and understand that this is critical to keep colleagues connected and to help us attract talent from all four corners of the UK.