Third party Compensation Market Survey Reports : what is there in it for HR?

The purpose that often get stated for participating in Compensation Market Surveys, is the need to benchmark ones wage payouts with global trends/competitors/industry leaders so that one does not lag behind or overpay; at the same time capitalise the results to enhance ones image/brand. For employees, Market Survey results makes little sense. Often what gets benchmarked are 'What' and 'How much' are being paid and not 'How' it is being paid; the latter is a major factor for dissatisfaction and attritions. Often the best paymasters do not pay 'much' but pay 'better'. More importantly they pay for performance; maintaining transparency and trust. Employees internally often assess quality of payment practices and externally on payment elements prevailing in Industry. Hence attractive or different compensation elements available in other companies often catches attention. Survey results hardly reveal finer details like for eg the way it is packaged or its tax advantages. From an employer standpoint, in a survey, one assumes that all participating companies fully disclose its pay outs. In reality closely guarded elements hardly gets revealed; especially if such a perquisite is effective in retaining talent from migration to ones competitor. Coming to Basic Pay, that also cannot be benchmarked with precision, as Basic Pay is a multi-variable function. Industries or Competitors reveals just a range. Surveys paint a climate but not the day's weather forecast for you, and hardly helps HR either to lever c&b function to sharpen business competence nor to guage employee expectations in this area. In fact joint forums and networking of HR leaders within the Industry is a much more effective method.