I’m Alistair and I help startups and small businesses build trust through fair and transparent pay
The Challenge
Compensation is often shrouded in secrecy. A black box of subjective assessments and random figures that are difficult to verify which leads to frustration, confusion, and a lack of trust.
If you’re like most of my clients, you’re probably facing the same questions
❓ “How can I get a pay rise?”
❓ “How are our salary benchmarks calculated?”
❓ “Why is X making more than me when we’re doing the same job?”
❓ “Why don’t we display salary bands on job adverts?”
❓ “Why do we pay higher salaries in location A vs location B?”
❓ ”I heard HappyPaws pays more for this role. Why don’t we pay the same?”
What happens if nothing changes?
❌ Your best people leave. They’ll find fairness and transparency somewhere else.
❌ Trust erodes. Pay secrecy breeds suspicion and resentment.
❌ Growth stalls. Pay confusion distracts teams from actual work.
And just to add to the pressure...
New pay transparency laws are being introduced across the globe. The EU’s directive kicks in from June 2026 and it’s not just about publishing pay ranges.
You’ll need to document your approach to pay, show how roles are evaluated consistently, and prove fairness in your salary decisions.
If you’re not prepared, expect more questions, more scrutiny and a much bigger compliance headache.
The Solution
I’ve distilled the complexities of salary benchmarking and building a compensation philosophy into a practical six-step process. This framework is built for real-world application rather than theory, ensuring every step is transparent and easy for any organisation to follow.
It’s already helped more than 80 organisations from the UK to New Zealand and San Francisco to Oman build trust around pay.
Step 1: Project Set Up & Discovery
Starting the project on the right foot
Step 2: Market Data
Choosing relevant and reliable data to compare yourself against
Step 3: Job Architecture & Levelling
Building a ‘common language’ for mapping roles back to the market and comparing ‘apples to apples’
Step 4: Compensation Philosophy & Salary bands
Defining your ‘North Star’ for pay decisions and building your salary bands
Step 5: Analyse market position and pay equity
Spotting pay gaps and understanding the cost to close them
Step 6: Educate & launch
Making sure everyone understands how pay works
Two Powerful Project Deliverables
1. Compensation Calculator
2. Compensation Philosophy
Transparent, Project Based Pricing
Most organisations I work with fit into one of three buckets based on their existing compensation foundations. After a brief chat, I'll provide a tailored scope of work with a clear costs that match your specific needs.
Option 1️⃣
You’ve Got Some Basics… And Your Happy With Them | Option 2️⃣
You’ve Got Some Basics… But It’s Messy | Option 3️⃣
You’ve Got Nothing in Place | |
Best for… | You’ve got some basics and you're happy with them. You just need to build bands and audit equity, fast! | You’ve got some basics, but it’s messy. You need hands-on help to rework levels, job families, or your data strategy. | You’ve got nothing in place. You need the full job architecture build and a brand-new philosophy. |
Duration | 4-6 weeks | 2-3 months | 3-4 months |
My Monthly Reserved Capacity | 2 Days /Month | 3 Days /Month | 3 Days /Month |
Material Costs | £4,000 | £4,000 | £4,000 |
Total Project Cost | From £7,900 | From £11,800 | From £13,750 |
Prices on this page are exclusive of VAT.
At the end of any engagement you’ll walk away with the following:
✅ Compensation calculator (Google Sheets) ✅ Compensation philosophy ✅ Levelling framework ✅ Manager training decks ✅ A ton of comms materials including emails and launch presentations ✅ Bespoke compensation calculator videos based on your unique strategy
❌ Salary benchmarks are not included
Costs do not include salary benchmarking data. You'll need to budget separately for this. Benchmarking data can range from free to £8k per year, depending on your location. I'll help you select the option that best matches your needs.
I’m intentionally running a one-person business. You work directly with me from start to finish. To keep my sanity and more importantly, to ensure you get my undivided focus, I operate a Reserved Capacity model. This means I ring-fence my time for each client so you get dedicated support. I’m never stretching myself too thin or juggling twenty different tasks
- Dedicated Focus: Once we finalise a scope of work and agreement, I’ll let you know which days I’ve got ring-fenced just for you. While I will always endeavour to answer quick questions outside of this time, those specific days are locked into my calendar exclusively for your business.
- Total Transparency: Everything is recorded on a shared timesheet you can access at any time. No "hidden hours" or mystery billing.
- Simple Overage: If we have a particularly busy month and need to go over your allocated time, I’ll just record it on the timesheet and bill it at the end of the month.
Not Ready for a Project?
If you’re not quite ready for a full project but still need expert support — whether it’s a second opinion on salary bands, a location based pay check in, or help sense checking your market data, I offer ongoing monthly support as a flexible alternative.
Half day per month 🕞 | Full day per month 🕞 |
£600 +VAT | £975 +VAT |
Up to 4 hours (≈£150/hr), tracked and used flexibly across the month. | Up to 7 hours (≈£140/hr), tracked and used flexibly across the month. |
- Support starts from half a day (£600 + VAT) as a minimum monthly commitment
- Unused hours roll over into the following month
- You can increase to a full day or more if you need additional ongoing support
- All contracts are rolling month-to-month
FAQs
Transparency
Monthly retainer
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