Senior Pay Benchmarking
Independent market intelligence to inform senior appointment and pay decisions, drawn from thirty years inside executive search.
Senior pay decisions carry real consequences. Set a salary below what the market will deliver, and you limit the quality of candidate you can attract, or you risk losing someone you cannot afford to lose. Set it above the framework, and you create problems that are harder to undo than to avoid.
Most organisations making these decisions are working from published salary surveys, peer comparisons, or their own historical pay data. All of those are reasonable starting points. None of them gives you a view on what is actually happening in the appointment conversations taking place right now, in your sector, for roles at your level of complexity.
That is what this service provides.
What this work covers
Postholder and Appointment Benchmarking
An independent view of whether a specific role is correctly positioned against the market. Most commonly used when recruiting at director, chief officer, or equivalent level, when reviewing the package for an existing postholder, or when a pay conversation has been raised and the organisation needs an informed external perspective before responding.
The output is a clear, considered view you can take back to your board or governing body, grounded in direct knowledge of what comparable organisations are offering and what candidates at this level are accepting.
Senior Pay Structure Review
A broader review of how your organisation’s senior leadership pay compares against the current market, and whether your pay framework remains fit for purpose given changes in the external landscape, the demands of your roles, or your strategic direction.
This is particularly relevant for organisations that have not undertaken a structured review for several years, or those navigating significant change that has altered the scope and accountability of senior roles.
Why this advice is different
Published salary surveys smooth over the detail that matters most in senior appointments: the difference between sectors, between roles with direct board accountability and those without, between markets where strong candidates are abundant and those where the pool is genuinely small.
The view you get from this service comes from thirty years of direct involvement in senior appointment processes across the public, private, and third sectors. It reflects real knowledge of what organisations are paying, what candidates are accepting, and where the gaps between expectation and reality currently sit. It is a different quality of insight from anything a benchmarking database can provide, because it comes from being inside the conversations rather than aggregating the outcomes.
Who This Is For
HR Directors, Chief Executives, Chairs, and remuneration committee members in complex public sector or regulated organisations, including local government, the NHS, housing, higher education, and significant third sector bodies. Typically used when making a senior appointment and wanting to ensure the package is right, when a postholder has raised pay as an issue and the organisation needs an independent view before engaging internally, or when undertaking a broader review of senior leadership pay and wanting external market context to inform it.
In all three situations, what is needed is a conversation with someone who knows this territory, followed by a clear, considered view that can be taken back to a board or governing body with confidence.
How we work together
This work begins with a conversation about the specific decision you are facing and what you need in order to make it well. From that conversation, we agree the scope and format: a focused advisory conversation and written summary, or a more structured review depending on what is most useful. There is no standard package. The work is scoped and priced per commission.