| name | comp-band-review |
| description | Use when reviewing compensation for a role, a team, or the whole population — checks where people sit against defensible bands, finds equity gaps, and produces a ranked, costed set of adjustments. |
Compensation Band Review
A playbook for turning pay from a series of one-off negotiations into a consistent, defensible system. The failure mode it prevents: bands that drift out of touch, people quietly underpaid against newer hires, and "fixes" proposed without their price so leadership can't actually act.
Ground the bands
- Confirm the bands you're reviewing against: the range per role and level. If a band hasn't been checked against market and internal reality recently, that's step zero — a review against a stale band measures nothing.
- State the scope: one role, one team, or the full population, and the point-in-time snapshot you're using.
Map where people sit
- Place each person in their band: below range, low, mid, high, or above. Note tenure and last change so you can tell a deliberate position from neglect.
- Find the pressure points: compression (newer hires paid near or above longer-tenured peers), people stuck below range, and bands drifting below market for roles you need to hire into.
Check equity
- Compare comparable work: people doing the same job at the same level should sit in a defensible relationship, whatever their negotiating history. Flag gaps that pay for the same work differently without a reason.
- Bring in ratings from the Performance Lead where pay should reflect performance, so merit and position move together rather than at cross purposes.
Cost the fixes
- For each proposed adjustment, compute the cost — the raise, and its ongoing and knock-on effects. A fairness fix without its price isn't a recommendation, it's a wish.
- Rank the adjustments by impact: the equity gaps and retention risks that matter most, first, so a limited budget lands where it counts.
Recommend
- Present the decision-ready set: who, from what to what, why, and what it costs — routing anything outside an approved band to the Head of People for the call.
Quality bar
- Every position is measured against a current, market-checked band.
- Equity gaps for comparable work are surfaced, not buried in averages.
- Every recommendation carries its cost and a one-line, deliverable rationale.
Output format
Band review: scope and snapshot → position table (person, band, placement, tenure) → equity and compression flags → ranked, costed adjustment list → recommendations, with out-of-band cases routed up.
