Compensation Planning with Precision - Use Market Data & Tools that Scale

Now that we’ve explored how to build the foundations of a scalable compensation program in Part 1, it’s time to put those principles into practice using the tools and market data that power these programs. In Part 2, we’ll dive into how to operationalize your compensation philosophy using the right tools, market data, and expert support.

As your startup grows, managing compensation manually becomes increasingly complex. Compensation planning tools are software solutions designed to streamline and optimize the compensation process. These tools are providing HR, Finance, and Compensation Decision Makers with huge administrative improvements in the power and capabilities they have at their fingertips. 

By analyzing market data, automating tasks, and providing valuable insights, these tools can help you:

• Ensure Fair and Competitive Compensation: Align compensation with market rates and internal equity.

• Improve Decision-Making: Make data-driven decisions based on real-time market data. 

• Enhance Efficiency: Automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and avoid mistakes and data privacy issues when previously using spreadsheets and manual processes.

• Enhance Transparency: Provide employees with clear insights into their compensation.

• Support Strategic Workforce Planning: Identify talent gaps and develop effective talent strategies. 

Compensation Planning Tools

Compensation planning tools are newer entrants to the people tech marketplace, so their feature sets are ever-evolving. When selecting a tool, it’s important that you are clear on the requirements needed and focus on features that align with your stage and the needs of your internal team.

Key features to consider are:

• Market Data: Does the tool have its own proprietary market data, does it integrate with market data sources you need, or do you have to manually add in your data?

• Job Leveling and Banding: Can you use your internal job levels and assign salary bands for each level?

• Performance Management: Can you integrate performance ratings to use as a key data point when making compensation decisions?

• Equity Management: Can you track historical equity grants and vesting schedules across teams and the company overall?

• Reporting and Analytics: Can you generate insightful reports on compensation trends, cost-effectiveness, and workforce planning for HR, Finance, and Leadership?

• Integration with HRIS: Does the tool seamlessly integrate with your HRIS, payroll, and/or equity systems for a holistic view of employee compensation?

• Scalability: Can the tool accommodate your current and future company needs?

Market Data Sources

Market data sources provide data points on how the cost of labor is evolving for the various roles within your company. Utilizing market data helps companies make informed decisions about salary ranges, equity grants, and benefits packages. 

Choosing the Right Market Data Sources

The compensation data industry is changing. The traditional survey model is evolving to a real-time data model. Real-time data sources better account for off-cycle changes and real-time market swings. Plus, equity data tends to be much richer as you’re often not getting direct access to the equity management platform and actual grant sizes in the traditional model. 

So, how do you choose the right market data source for you?

• Relevance: Ensure the data source covers the specific industries, job roles, and geographic regions relevant to your company. Try to pick the market data sources that cover the most roles and geographies from which you have or want to source talent.

• Data Confidence: Consider the breadth of data (covering various job roles) and the level of confidence you have in the data. Is the data set large enough to be valid?

• Accuracy: Verify the accuracy and reliability of the data. You often get what you pay for with market data. If you’re relying on free data sources, you cannot necessarily trust the validity of that data.

• Timeliness: Access up-to-date market data to make timely decisions. Traditional data sources like Radford and Mercer, while historically trusted, provide a snapshot in time and can lag behind the market by 6-12+ months due to cumbersome survey submission processes, making them less suitable for early-stage startups. 

• Be Cautious of Unverified Data: Freemium or crowd-based platforms like Pave or Ravio lack rigorous validation for job matches and job levels, leading to reliability issues. 

• Ease of Use: Choose a user-friendly platform that simplifies data analysis and reporting. Compensation sources like Radford require a more hands-on, analytical approach that your company may not have the resources or expertise to tackle. 

Word to the wise: Benchmark data doesn’t tell you what you should pay someone. It tells you what others paid people who may or may not have similar qualifications or be in similar roles. Use market data as a guide, but don’t look for exact answers. This is where the art of compensation comes in and where it can be helpful to utilize multiple data sources and compensation consultants as your compensation program gets more complex. 

Market Data Sources & Compensation Planning Tools

Picking the right market data sources and/or compensation planning tools can be tricky. In today’s evolving compensation marketplace, tools are divided into three categories: 

• market data only

• compensation planning only, where you have to import your own market data

• a combination of the two 

It’s important that you evaluate these tools sufficiently so you know what you’re buying and you get a solid return on your investment. We’ll also touch on when it’s valuable to bring in an external compensation consultant. 

Combined Comp Data + Comp Planning Tools + Consulting Services

• Complete (Accel portfolio company) All-in-one solution that allows HR and Finance teams to seamlessly stitch together data to confidently suggest and communicate compensation cycles, offer letters, and employee total rewards statements. Complete focuses on building equitable bands and transparent communication from day one. It’s a strong fit for high-growth teams formalizing structure and emphasizing pay transparency. Complete offers 120+ real-time integrations with HRIS, ATS, and Cap Table to bring all of your compensation data under one platform. Features include compensation planning, leveling and bands, total rewards communications, and interactive offer letters to close top talent. Complete has embedded consultants available to advise on strategy and support your compensation goals.

  
  

• Kamsa: All-in-one solution combines validated global market data, pragmatic job architecture, intuitive software, and hands-on expert consulting to help startups build competitive and equitable compensation programs that drive both fairness and growth. The platform helps teams standardize titles, levels, and bands, then run structured reviews with clear guidelines and analytics. Customers like the balance of software and advisory—useful for first‑time formalization of compensation programs or international benchmarking. Primarily focus on pre-IPO companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, typically at Series A and beyond. Expertise spans industries such as technology and tech-enabled industries as well as the professional services sector, with particular depth in sub-industries such as Health Tech, SaaS, Cybersecurity, FinTech, Climate Tech, Renewable Energy, and Education.

  
  

• Sequoia OS: Combine expert comp advisory and an integrated platform to provide strategic guidance, smoother execution of your comp and equity program, and one source of truth to make more impactful people-spend decisions. Best for teams prioritizing tech-enabled advisory support, rather than robust planning tool capabilities. Global Primarily US-focused compensation benchmarking from 1,000+ Sequoia customers, plus Carta integration. 

“It’s not that companies don’t want to pay fairly; they just don’t have the right data and tools.” — Lola Han, Founder & CEO, Kamsa

Combined Comp Data + Comp Planning Tools

• Pave: Compensation intelligence platform, including real-time salary and equity benchmarking data and compensation workflow tools for market pricing, delivering pay cycles, and communicating total rewards. Integrations with 30+ HRIS, ATS, and cap table systems make data ingestion straightforward, and compensation cycles are easy to configure with built-in budgets, guardrails, and audit trails. We see strong adoption of Pave data in VC‑backed companies (~7,000 participants with invested capital levels between $1M and $100M), with many companies with <500 employees using Pave as their primary data source. Pave is also actively growing its late-stage private and public company data. Keep in mind, Pave’s benchmarking shines most where the peer network is deepest, so supplemental data sources may still be required for highly specialized roles or non‑tech industries. Pricing for benchmarks scales with company size.

  
  

• Carta Total Comp: Provides real-time equity data and compensation benchmarks for private companies. It’s compelling for equity‑heavy organizations that already run valuations, cap tables, and grants on Carta, since payroll expense forecasts and offer letters can draw from a single system of record. Total rewards portals help employees see the value of cash and equity together. Used by companies at the super-early stage (2-3 employees) up to Series B-C (250 employees). Later-stage companies tend to “graduate” off Carta Total Comp as they need to pull in public company data. For companies not on Carta for equity, the value case may be less compelling than comp‑focused tools.

  
  

• Lattice: Has long been a market leader in performance and engagement. Their compensation module ties merit cycles to performance data already living in the Talent Suite. HR leaders can set budgets, enforce ranges, surface calibration insights, and generate employee‑friendly statements—all in one workflow. The appeal is strongest for Lattice customers who want compensation tightly linked with goals, reviews, and promotions. Considerations: Benchmarking typically relies on partner data and imports; if you need native, always‑on benchmark coverage, you may pair Lattice with a dedicated data provider. A good option for early-stage companies looking to consolidate tools.

Stand-Alone Comp Planning Tools

• ChartHop: Best-in-class people operations platform that allows for dynamic org planning and restructures, flexible budgeting, guidelines, approval workflows, compensation bands, and compensation planning cycles. Managers get the context to make trade‑offs (e.g., budget impact of proposed increases) with real‑time visibility for HR and Finance. ChartHop now offers global HRIS capabilities, plus supports performance management and engagement surveys. The most robust compensation planning tool on the market, but you will need to pull in your own market data and sync data from various point solutions.

  
  

• CandorIQ: Unifies compensation and headcount planning to manage people spend end‑to‑end. You can model scenarios, align HR and Finance on a single plan, and run cycles with policies and approvals baked in. Offer workflows and total rewards communication help close the loop from planning to candidate/employee experience. Considerations: As an emerging platform, CandorIQ is evolving quickly, but buyers should confirm current depth for their specific integrations and benchmarking needs.

Want help researching, evaluating, and selecting the right compensation planning tool for you? I recommend checking out OutSail's free advisory services. They’ve collaborated with me on the various compensation planning solutions above and can help choose the right tool for your company’s specific needs. 

Stand-Alone Market Data Sources

• Aon Radford: The most widely used, reputable global database for Series C+ private and public company data. Because the data reflects point-in-time submissions, it is often lagging in-the-moment market trends versus more modern solutions. Takes a considerable time commitment to participate. You will need an internal resource and/or a compensation consultant to manage the data submission and data validation process. You can pay for custom data cuts.

• Mercer: A global consulting firm offering a range of HR services, including compensation benchmarking. Likely not a fit for early-stage startups, but a go-to as companies step into regions where data is lacking (Africa, Asia, etc.) or for companies outside of the technology industry.

• Compensia: Typically used by late-stage and public company board of directors compensation committees to develop broader equity program benchmarking and executive compensation. 

• Levels.fyi: Free data source for technical talent salary information.

• Ravio: Europe’s top real-time salary benchmarks for tech companies, their sweet spot is small and mid-sized companies. Lacking equity compensation data. 

  • Fun Fact: Accel portfolio company Remote has partnered with Ravio on a free Salary Explorer tool if you want to check it out!

• Figures: Leverages extensive European salary data.

• Compete: Free salary benchmarking tool.

Leveraging Compensation Consultants

As your company grows, you may need specialized expertise to navigate the complexities of compensation. A clear sign for this is when the generic job architecture isn’t cutting it anymore and you need a compensation structure specifically designed for your growing company. Or perhaps you’re hiring your first “Head of” role and relying too heavily on anecdotal candidate data. A compensation consultant can provide valuable guidance and support, particularly during critical growth phases. 

Startups should consider working with an external compensation consultant when they need strategic guidance but don’t yet have the scale or complexity to justify a dedicated full-time internal team member. This is particularly useful in early scaling stages, when setting up job leveling and pay structures, or when navigating unique challenges like global expansion or M&A.

When should I hire a full-time compensation person? 

Bringing compensation in-house typically makes sense once you reach around 200+ employees with rapid growth or 300+ employees globally. By 500+ employees, most companies benefit from an internal team to provide ongoing oversight, run compensation cycles, and ensure alignment across geographies and functions.

Hiring too early or at the wrong level can backfire - a consultant who’s too tactical won’t help you develop a strategic framework, while one who’s too senior may not want to execute hands-on tasks like building compensation bands or running compensation reviews.

Key Considerations When Selecting a Consultant:

• Experience: Look for consultants with experience working with startups and understanding their unique challenges.

• Industry Expertise: Choose a consultant who specializes in your industry and knows how to select the right market data sources.

• Alignment with Your Company Culture: Ensure the consultant's communication and collaboration style aligns with your company's culture and values.

Key Benefits of Hiring a Compensation Consultant:

• Expert Guidance: Access deep expertise across areas like executive pay, equity refreshes, and sales compensation.

• Objective Perspective: Gain unbiased, data-backed recommendations.

• Efficiency: Avoid the overhead of a full-time hire until your needs are ongoing.

• Scalability: Flex consulting support up or down as your organization evolves.

Common Compensation Consulting Engagements:

• Series A-B:

  • Compensation Program Design and Implementation: Develop a comprehensive compensation strategy, including job leveling, compensation bands, and performance-based pay.

  • Market Pricing: Conduct market research to determine competitive salary ranges and equity valuations.

  • Equity Planning: Design equity plans, including vesting schedules, performance conditions, and dilution strategies.

• Series C+

  • Executive Compensation: Develop executive compensation packages, including base salary, bonuses, and long-term incentives.

  • Global Compensation: Manage global compensation programs, including expatriate compensation and tax equalization.

  • Merger and Acquisition Integration: Integrate compensation programs following a merger or acquisition.

Here are a few of my trusted, go-to compensation consultants who primarily support venture-backed startups:

• Armina Behrouzi @ Wailea Consulting

• Matt McFarlane @ FNDN

• Ashish Raina @ Optimize Talent

• Lola Han @ Kamsa

• Tudor Havriliuc 

Want introductions to any of these awesome consultants? Message me at shelby.wolpa@gmail.com and I’ll send a warm intro!

The Takeaway

Data and systems only work when guided by a clear philosophy. Together, tools, data, and expert guidance form the backbone of a modern, fair compensation program.

Here’s how to operationalize your strategy effectively:

1. Adopt the right technology. Compensation platforms bring structure and scalability.

2. Use reliable data. Triangulate across multiple sources for accuracy and confidence.

3. Seek expert insight. Consultants help translate data into an actionable strategy.

4. Review regularly. Update tools, data, and benchmarks as your company evolves.

A Blueprint for Success

This framework serves as a blueprint for Series A–C startups looking to build compensation programs that scale sustainably.

Ready to take your HR strategy to the next level? Let’s connect to discuss how my expertise can drive your company’s growth. 

Here are a few ways I can help:

• Schedule an "Ask Me Anything" micro consulting session to get personalized advice

• Purchase a Playbook to accelerate your progress

• Ongoing retained Advisor to your leadership and people team to build a strong people operations foundation and best-in-class employee experiences