Compa has announced the launch of Compa Benchmarks and Compa Stock Intelligence, entering the real-time data category of compensation market intelligence. This platform expansion further realizes Compa’s vision to help compensation teams navigate ever-changing labor markets.
Background: Real-Time Data in Context
It’s no longer just about surveys. Compensation professionals have a variety of data sources to understand what is happening in the market for talent. In our research, we see six different types of market data.
Real-time data uses software to increase the speed of market intelligence by eliminating the traditional survey submission process. By connecting directly to an organization’s HR system, these data tools can provide an always-on and always up-to-date view of the market for a given role.
The compensation survey market has been ripe for disruption, as the survey submission process is labor-intensive and inherently historical. Some compensation practitioners have been wary of trusting and adopting real-time providers, citing concerns about job matching and the evolving landscape of anti-trust guidance related to competitive data sharing. We find these concerns largely unfounded and view real-time data as the emerging gold standard for compensation market intelligence.
Compa’s Move Into Real-Time Data: Our Perspective
Compa was the pioneer of offer-based compensation intelligence. Offer-based data measures something different than a traditional compensation survey. Offer-based data is derived from actual offers made, which measure what may be paid for new hires in a given role. Because offer-based data reflects current labor market transactions, it can be more volatile than full-population compensation benchmarking. But in that volatility lies an indicator of the trend: as offers increase, it signals likely pressure on how existing workers are paid.
Compa’s CEO, Charlie Franklin, is a compensation practitioner - he knows the challenges of compensation benchmarking and has been on a mission to help the profession move from surveys to software. Given Compa’s ambition, it is no surprise that Charlie and the team are expanding their offering to get into the heart of compensation intelligence.
What To Expect
Unlike many other CompTech startups that focus on smaller organizations before moving upmarket, Compa has been focused on enterprise technology companies from the beginning. With Compa’s relationships in this market, we see this launch as a needle-mover for the real-time data category as more enterprise-level companies see the value and build trust in a software-based benchmarking process. Compa’s onboarding process and use of data science to detect anomalies will build trust that traditional job matching is no longer needed.
Given Compa’s depth in understanding offer-based data and its founding team’s deep compensation expertise, we’re bullish on its ability to provide unique value from the combination of offer-based data and real-time employee data. Offer-based data measures something different than full-population benchmarking, but we see promise in both types of data on the same platform.
Don’t Forget About Equity
Not to be buried among the broader shift into real-time data, this launch includes the Stock Intelligence product, which provides a very granular view of equity practices. Beyond aggregated grant-date values, Compa’s Stock Intelligence provides tremendous insight into previously anecdotal equity compensation benchmarks. We’re particularly excited about the benchmarking of equity program design practices, like vesting schedules and refresh strategies.
What We’d Like to See
Compa has been focused on enterprise technology companies, and users within that space love the product and the insight it can provide. Over time, we hope to see Compa expand beyond this homestead and offer its approach to other industries. There is a relative lack of innovation in compensation benchmarking in non-technology industries, and hope Compa can expand its focus.
To Compa’s credit, its laser focus on compensation market intelligence for enterprise technology is its current strength, compared to other CompTech players with broader ambitions that dilute innovation and impact within a narrow core market. However, we see broader market demand and believe Compa’s approach can create value more broadly.
How to Buy
Compa Benchmarks is available for free. Yes, free. An expanded view of Benchmarks and the Stock Intelligence product is part of Compa Pro, which also includes Compa’s existing Offer Intelligence data suite. Contact Compa directly to learn more and get a demo.
Disclosure: Novo Insights has not been paid for this article, nor does Novo Insights receive a referral fee of any kind should clients become Compa customers. For more information about our approach to conflicts of interest and disclosure, view our Conflict and Disclosure Policy.
