Comment By: Paul Reiman
Published: July 27, 2023
I've been asked by a few people how I think about the new product announcement from Pave, which enables using 3rd party compensation survey data in the Pave platform. Check out their post using the link in the comments. Having not yet seen the product in action, here are my initial reactions based on the announcement.
1) Long Live Surveys
Pave's marketing has generally suggested that surveys are too slow, too expensive, and a relic of the past. But here's the problem: Compensation professionals trust the data. While I do think there are benchmarking methods that can improve upon the traditional survey experience, the methods that surveys use for producing quality benchmarks remain the gold standard. This new Pave solution recognizes this reality.
2) Another Entrant in a Competitive Landscape for Market Management Tools
Within the compensation technology domain, we continue to see investment and evolution within the "market management" category. There are a number of new players that have emerged as more established players have consolidated or evolved their tools. Looking back in time, there are literally double or triple the number of choices for market management compared to just a few years ago. Pave adds another choice in this competitive space.
3) Platform Advantage?
We describe the CompTech domain as having four separate categories: market management, cycle management, pay communication, and pay analytics. With this new product, Pave becomes a more complete player across multiple categories, which may offer a platform advantage. However, many organizations segment the market management work from other tools, since the user is a Compensation professional and band/range creation serves as an intermediary between benchmarks and actual pay decisions. As such, having a separate tool for market management has not been a challenge for most organizations. It's unclear if Pave can create a clear advantage by having solutions across categories.
4) Open Systems Win
More broadly, this is another example of where being open to integrating data and solutions from competing providers is the right answer. Pave is correct to recognize that their benchmarking data isn't the only source an organization is likely to use. By creating a place to manage the market data that a customer trusts and wants to use, Pave becomes a more viable solution.
5) More Guidance Needed
When clients and contacts started asking for my thoughts on this, it strengthened my thesis that the CompTech market needs more unbiased and practical advice. We had some research planned for late Q3 and into Q4 of this year, which I'm going to try and accelerate given the market demand. Stay tuned -we're on it.
