Crowdsourcing pay data – Willis Towers Watson

HR professionals need to have a perspective on crowdsourced pay data as employees gain increasing access to online salary data submitted directly by workers globally, according to an insight from consultant Willis Towers Watson. A recent US survey found that the majority of HR and compensation professionals feel strongly that crowdsourced pay data can be unreliable and untrustworthy due to its anonymity and tendency for salaries to be overstated.

Underlying the concerns, according to Willis Towers Watson, is the very real possibility that personal agenda taint the results. For example, some members of the crowd may have a different purpose in seeking to submit their pay data online and may be inclined to distort it in order to push certain pay ranges upwards, or to diminish the value of other jobs. However, simply disregarding and discrediting crowdsourced pay data will not make it any less present and HR needs to listen empathically to employees’ salary concerns.

The key is to take ownership of the situation by studying what the organisation is up against, which can give employers a glimpse into employees’ experience of what the data means to them and how they use it, the consultant argues.