The sorry state of market data

There was a time, not so long ago, when the news that so and so was having access to such and such survey results was making grown up men and women yellow with envy and lusting for a peek at it like they had not since their last tantrum for a pony or a red firetruck. Nowadays, you could stay all week on the parking lot of Target, giving away whole reports of brand new market data and you would not get any taker. And why is that ? Because the limits of the science and the boldness of the art that go in the making of market data do not fare well during the recession. At all.
First of all, some companies did cut their participation to some surveys (the old practice of "once every other year" , although a recipe for disaster, was too tempting in times of budget cuts deeper than the worry wrinkle on Bernanke's forehead). Second, the dynamics imposed by the lay-offs on the average salaries are very complex. For the companies in real trouble, the fire sale of talent has  impacted solid contributors with  oh-too-visible high salaries, bringing down the average of some jobs. For companies just worried about the future, the employees with non critical skills or performance were let go, changing for ever the composition of the workforce and reducing the salary growth expectations of the remaining top talent. Last but not least, the dramatic hiring freeze nation wide has deprived the market of a quasi automatic increase.Not only companies do not have to compete as strongly, but the dreaded "salary compression " issue will find itself way down on the list of concerns when the next salary review will come (whenever that is).
A quick review of the greatest and latest data in some surveys shows what , being so naive, I would have called "inconsistent data" just a year ago. The data itself is not necessarily that bad but we have to refrain from using market data the way we are used to. There is no need to analyze the data year over year because not only are the numbers all over the place for the reasons invoked above, but more importantly because there is no value in doing so : if your company is merely surviving, hoping to make it till the end of the recession, the engagement and commitment of your remaining talent should be achieved by ways that have nothing to do with salaries and if your company is doing better than average and can afford keeping its top talent motivated by giving increases, the market data is not going to be able to tell you how much. Not this year. Not next year. Who knows, it might help the thousands of compensation professionals who, each and every year, make an attempt to explain their management that there should be other considerations in deciding a salary increase budget than just "what the market is doing".

Comments

[DOYLEJana20]

That's good that we can get the loan moreover, that opens up new chances.