Know Your Worth - Glassdoor for Employers UK

The Employer's Guide

Know Your Worth

If your employees have discovered Know Your Worth by Glassdoor, it may have caused them to come to you to ask questions about their base pay. As a result, you may be feeling unsure what this tool is and what you need to know about. We’re here to help. We have outlined what you need to know about Know Your Worth, and how you can leverage it for conversations about pay with employees and candidates.

The Importance of Pay Transparency

While workplace transparency is becoming the new normal, it is still really hard for people to know if they are being paid fairly. Very few companies openly share pay data, and talking about pay remains largely taboo in our society yet workers want and need more information. Glassdoor is changing this. Here’s why:

By the Numbers

20%
Job seekers face a salary black hole when applying for jobs: more than a fifth of employees did not have an accurate idea of what a salary was on offer when applying for their most recent job.1
67%
Job seekers are not negotiating their salary: two-thirds of employees did not negotiate their salary last time they were offered a new job.1
70%
Transparency can create lasting change: 70% of employees believe that salary transparency can help to reduce the gender pay gap.1
72%
Salary transparency can energise the labour market: 72 percent of employees would be more likely to apply for a job that indicates an approximate salary.1

About Know Your Worth

What is Know Your Worth?

Know Your Worth provides a personal estimated market value for base pay. Users discover what they’re currently worth in their local job market and find out if they’re paid fairly. Users simply enter in their current job title, base salary, location, relevant years of experience, education and gender (optional), then Know Your Worth generates an anonymous and free market value base pay estimate.

Introduced in the U.S. in 2016, as of May 2020 Know Your Worth is also available to Canada and UK employees.

How accurate are Know Your Worth market values?

In the U.S., the Know Your Worth model currently predicts the market value at an 11.8 percent median margin of error, based on each person’s personal attributes. The median margin of error for the UK is not yet available. As we continue to receive more and more salary reports from Glassdoor users, accuracy will continue to increase. (Learn more in our FAQs & Methodology.)

Can I, as an employer, verify the salary estimates or employees’ market values on Glassdoor?

Employers can update Salary Estimates for their roles in the Employer Centre. In addition, the best way to help improve the accuracy of the salary data on Glassdoor is to encourage your employees to contribute a salary report or to try using Know Your Worth. The power of this tool lies in predicting earning potential, rather than pinpointing a specific employee’s pay at your company. As Glassdoor continues to grow, we will continue to evaluate other ways to help make the site even more valuable.

But our total rewards and compensation package extends beyond base pay.

Know Your Worth provides insight into the estimated median base pay an employee could earn in today’s job market. A Know Your Worth estimated market value is an estimate of base pay and is designed to be a starting point for candidates and employees. We do our best to make this clear.

Know Your Worth does not currently factor in other types of compensation or benefits that you may offer into an individual’s market value. We recognise these other factors are often considered as part of a company’s total compensation and rewards program that can significantly influence base pay at a specific company. Just as companies evaluate performance on more than just the tasks completed, employees need to understand that what they receive from the company extends beyond the paycheck.

Tips on Talking About Know Your Worth With Employees

Below are tips on how to help employees learn more about Know Your Worth, how base salary fits into your company’s overall compensation and rewards package, how promotions and raises work at your company, and how to help be responsive to the facets of employment that are valuable to each of your employees.

1. Review the employee’s Know Your Worth estimated market value.

Understand, the estimated market value is not an estimate for base pay at your company. It is designed to be a median estimate of earnings potential in the current local job market, based on their work history and current market trends around related job openings and pay. However, this is an opportunity to review the person’s current compensation in their department and among people with similar work experience to make sure it’s appropriate in today’s market. Explain your company’s current compensation

2. Explain your company’s current compensation strategy.

Most employees understand base pay is only part of the equation in evaluating overall compensation and rewards. Engage in discussions by reviewing the estimated market value for each employee in context of your company’s total rewards and compensation strategy. Additionally, employees (and employers themselves) often overlook the softer rewards that come at a high price to the employer. Remind employees of the full value they receive as an employee at your organisation and how base pay fits into their overall package. This can be everything from your health insurance to flexibility to continuing education support to snacks, etc. This is different at every company. If you haven’t yet fully crystallised or articulated your overall compensation package, spend some time with your team to create the strategy, messaging and materials that will help you lead these discussions to drive deeper understanding and engagement.

3. Explain your company’s process for promotions and raises.

Glassdoor Economic Research shows that career progression is more important than salary when it comes to drivers of employee satisfaction. If someone is fairly new to your company, you can share details on how the performance review and pay raise process works. If an employee has been with the company through performance reviews, leverage this as an opportunity to create a development plan with your employee to ensure they understand the path forward and upward.

4. Know what’s important to your employee.

Different employees need and value different things. What’s most important to your employee? Flexibility? Time off? Career progression? Feedback? Base salary? Use this as a time to engage in a more meaningful discussion with your employee in order to drive deeper engagement and a more healthy and meaningful relationship.

Salary discussions are nothing new but the increasing transparency around salary data is. Having access to real-time, location-based competitive salary data will help empower your employees and candidates — as well as your company. Reinforcing that you embrace transparency and encourage direct conversations about pay and overall compensation can help you drive differentiation for your employer brand, and attract and retain top talent to help you win.

 

Citations

  1.  Censuswide Survey, March 2020