Funny how? Ha-ha funny, or funny like a clown. Well neither really. These are just a few of the quirky, humorous situations I’ve stumbled across. Would love to hear your stories.
Towers’ Data Always Runs High – I’ve actually heard this one on several occasions. My response is always, “Really? Do they have bigger calculators or something?” I think not. It’s better to look at the participant lists and see if there’s a driving force behind why there may be data differences between survey vendors for the same benchmark job. Towers Watson does have a very high percentage of large companies and better representation amongst a few of the higher paying industry groups which offers a better rationalization for why their data might be higher. But what if, just maybe, that is the relevant labor market where you compete for talent. Conversely, what if you’re a smaller firm in a notoriously low paying labor market? You would likely be looking to compare to a different set of participating companies. The real story here is make sure you select the survey vendors that are the best reflection of the labor pool where you swim and don’t just knee-jerk react to some off-handed comment that one vendor “runs high”.