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.
The Solution
I've simplified the complex world of salary benchmarking and building a compensation philosophy into a clear 6 step process
This guide has helped more than 70 organisations from the UK to New Zealand and San Francisco to Oman build trust around pay and take their first steps toward pay transparency.
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
Want to dive deeper into each step?
Read more about the 6 steps in my guide here. No email signup—just free, open access, exactly how I believe resources should be.
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.
The project scope and price vary based on what you already have in place and how much support you need—from full end-to-end management to light-touch guidance in the background.
Don't see an exact fit? No problem - many clients fall somewhere between these options. After a brief chat, I'll provide a tailored scope of work with a clear, fixed cost that matches your specific needs.
Option 1️⃣ - You’ve Got Some Basics | Option 2️⃣ - You’ve Got Some Basics… but it’s Messy | Option 3️⃣ - Starting From Scratch | |
Best for… | Organisations who’ve already levelled their team, have benchmarking data, and need expert input to build salary bands and run a pay equity audit, fast. | Organisations with some foundations in place — but they’re not working. You need hands-on help to rework levels, job families, your data source or philosophy, and train the team on what’s changing. | Organisations at an early stage in their thinking about compensation. You need hands-on support to build and roll out salary bands and your compensation philosophy. |
Duration | 2-4 weeks | ~2 months | ~2 months |
Cost | From £5,400 | From £9,200 | From £9,200 |
Please note, 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 Only - I don’t work in Excel) ✅ 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. Salary data from providers like Radford, Mercer, Ravio, and Pave is not included in these prices. You'll need to budget separately for this. Benchmarking data can range from free to £10,000 per year, depending on your location. I'll help you select the option that best matches your needs.
How We'll Work Together
I’m intentionally running a one-person business, so you’ll work directly with me from start to finish.
We'll have weekly working sessions focused on specific topics, plus ongoing communication through email, Slack, and Loom videos.
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.
Support Tier | 🕓 Half Day per Month | 🕘 Full Day per Month |
Who It's For | Occasional support clients | Clients with ongoing priorities |
Monthly Fee | £500 | £1,000 |
Included Time | 4 hours | 8 hours |
Time Tracking | Yes — all usage recorded | Yes — all usage recorded |
Flexibility | Used flexibly throughout the month | Used flexibly throughout the month |
Commitment | 3 month rolling contract | 3 month rolling contract |
Cancellation | 1 month notice | 1 month notice |
FAQs
Transparency
Monthly retainer
This website was built without code using Notion + Super ⚡️ by Alistair
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