Narrowing the gender pay gap is a hot topic these days. One of the ways to combat wage inequity is through banning the salary history question most candidates are faced with. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico are states that passed laws banning salary history. Cities like New York and Philadelphia have followed suit. More so now, recruitment teams must rely on software applications to provide real-time and market-driven view of compensation.

Strategically speaking, staying current on compensation drives candidate attraction and employee retention and engagement. Compensation packages are one of the top, if not the top, factor in recruiting. Much sought after candidates generally have multiple offers to choose from and a high base salary would attract this talent. Once hired, employees feel motivated to perform well knowing that there is a direct relationship between their productivity and their salary. Retaining top employees save organizations money in recruitment and training costs, hence there is an advantage to ensuring their employees’ salaries are realistic and competitive to the market.

HR leaders will benefit in acquiring a compensation platform for their organization. First it automates the planning process and reduces the administrative work associated with salary planning, data collection, and storage. And secondly, it provides expanded pay data for national and global companies. Managers are secure in knowing they have reliable data in support of their compensation decisions. Lastly, it promotes trust and transparency between managers and their employees when employees know there is a standardized tool used to define their compensation. Examples of companies that offer pay analysis are Payscale, CompAnalyst, and Salary.