Salary bands: building one without a comp team
A pragmatic, founder-friendly approach to salary bands when you are too small to have a People function.
A pragmatic, founder-friendly approach to salary bands when you are too small to have a People function.
Three bands, four levels
Engineering, Commercial, Operations. IC1 to IC4. That is enough structure for a team of 20 to 60. Anything more is premature.
Anchor to market data
Use two or three reputable comp data sources. Pick the 65th to 75th percentile if you want to attract the better candidates. Document it once a year.
Publish internally
Bands work because they are predictable. Internal transparency removes the 'who got what' conversations that drain teams.
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