Build Competitive Offers. Structure Scalable Pay. Improve Offer Acceptance.
You’re hiring, but your compensation strategy is inconsistent. Maybe you’re making up salaries role-by-role based on what candidates ask for. Maybe your offers get declined because you’re not competitive. Maybe you’re overpaying some roles and underpaying others because you have no structured framework. Maybe you have salary data from Pave, Levels.fyi, or Mercer but don’t know how to turn it into actual salary bands and offers.
As you scale, hiring great talent requires more than instinct or guesswork—it requires clear, competitive compensation strategies that align with market data, your budget, and your growth stage. Without structured compensation, you lose candidates to better offers, create internal equity problems, blow your budget on expensive hires, and struggle to explain pay decisions to your team or board.
The Compensation Benchmarking & Offer Strategy Toolkit solves this: we build a customized compensation framework aligned to your market data, company stage, and budget constraints. You get salary bands, offer strategies, negotiation guidance, and professional templates—everything you need to make confident, competitive, and consistent compensation decisions.
Perfect for:
- Growing companies with 15-100+ employees formalizing compensation for the first time
- Startups and SaaS companies competing for talent with structured pay frameworks
- Companies with access to compensation data (Pave, Levels.fyi, Mercer, Radford) who need help implementing it
- HR leaders and People Ops teams building scalable compensation infrastructure
- Founders and executives making high-stakes hiring decisions without compensation expertise
What’s Included
Interactive Compensation Matrix (Excel):
Customized salary band structure for your roles and levels:
Structure:
- Role families and levels (e.g., Engineering L1-L5, Sales IC1-IC3, etc.)
- Salary bands showing minimum, midpoint, and maximum for each role/level
- Geographic differentials if you hire across multiple markets
- Equity or stock option ranges by role and level
- Total compensation targets (cash + equity)
- Commission and bonus structures for variable comp roles
Customization:
- Built from your actual compensation data sources (Pave, Levels.fyi, Mercer, etc.)
- Reflects your company stage, market positioning, and budget constraints
- Accounts for your geographic hiring strategy (SF/NY premium, remote tiers, etc.)
- Incorporates your equity philosophy and cap table considerations
- Aligned to your role taxonomy and career ladder
Delivery Format:
- Interactive Excel spreadsheet with formulas and drop-downs
- Documentation explaining how to use and maintain it
- Google Sheets compatible
Offer Strategy Playbook:
Strategic framework for structuring and presenting offers:
Offer Construction:
- How to position within salary bands based on candidate experience
- When to offer at minimum vs. midpoint vs. maximum
- Balancing cash compensation vs. equity
- Structuring offers for different role types (IC, manager, senior leadership)
- Variable compensation design (commissions, bonuses, performance pay)
Offer Timing and Positioning:
- When to present initial offer vs. wait for more candidates
- How to position compensation in context of total package
- Communicating equity value and upside
- Benefits and perks messaging
- Setting expectations during interview process
Decision Framework:
- When to stretch budget for critical hires
- How to handle competing offers
- Trade-offs between cash, equity, title, and scope
- Getting stakeholder alignment on offers
- Escalation and approval processes
Market Positioning:
- How to compete at 50th percentile vs. 75th percentile vs. 90th percentile
- When to lead market vs. follow market
- Remote compensation philosophy and geography tiers
- Startup vs. public company compensation trade-offs
Delivery Format:
- Comprehensive Word document or PDF playbook
- Ready to share with hiring managers and decision-makers
Negotiation Scenarios & Response Guide:
Pre-built responses to common candidate objections and requests:
Common Scenarios:
- “I have a higher offer from another company”
- “Can you increase the base salary?”
- “Can I negotiate more equity?”
- “What’s the equity worth in dollars?”
- “Can you match this competing offer?”
- “I need $X to make this work”
- “Can I have a signing bonus instead of equity?”
- “What about remote work location adjustment?”
Response Framework:
- What to say and what not to say
- How to defend your offer while staying flexible
- When to escalate vs. when to hold firm
- Preserving employer brand during negotiations
- Maintaining internal equity while being competitive
Consistency Guidance:
- Ensuring all hiring managers use same approach
- Avoiding ad-hoc compensation decisions
- Documenting negotiation outcomes
- Learning from accepted vs. declined offers
Delivery Format:
- Word document with scenario templates
- Quick reference guide for hiring managers
- Email templates for common responses
Offer Letter Template Pack:
Professional, legally-sound offer letter templates:
Template Types:
- Full-time salaried employees
- Hourly or contract roles
- Executive-level positions
- Commission-based roles (sales, BD)
- Remote employees across different states
Content Sections:
- Position title and reporting structure
- Start date and location
- Base salary or hourly rate
- Variable compensation (bonus, commission, equity)
- Benefits overview and eligibility
- Employment type and status
- Key responsibilities and expectations
- Contingencies (background check, I-9, etc.)
- At-will employment and other standard clauses
Customization:
- Written in your company voice
- Incorporates your specific benefits and policies
- Reflects your equity structure (stock options, RSUs, etc.)
- Includes your actual sign-on process and timeline
Delivery Format:
- Editable Word documents (.docx)
- PDF templates for reference
- Google Docs compatible
Implementation Guide:
Step-by-step guidance for rolling out your compensation framework:
Getting Started:
- How to introduce salary bands to hiring managers
- Training team on offer strategy and negotiation
- Integrating framework into your hiring process
- Tools and systems setup
Ongoing Usage:
- Making offers using your new framework
- Documenting compensation decisions
- Reviewing and updating bands quarterly or annually
- Maintaining internal equity as you grow
Stakeholder Management:
- Explaining framework to executives and board
- Getting finance and leadership buy-in
- Handling requests for exceptions
- Building compensation into headcount planning
Troubleshooting:
- What to do when framework doesn’t fit specific situations
- Handling exceptional candidates or critical roles
- Adjusting for market changes
- Managing internal equity concerns
Delivery Format:
- Detailed implementation document
- Checklists and process guides
What’s Not Included
This service builds your compensation framework—it does not include:
Not included:
- Compensation market data (you provide data from Pave, Levels.fyi, Mercer, Radford, or similar sources)
- Legal review of offer letters or employment agreements
- Benefits benchmarking or benefits strategy consulting
- Individual offer approval or decision-making
- Ongoing compensation consulting or annual reviews
- Performance management or merit increase frameworks
- Equity plan design or cap table modeling
- Compensation committee support or board presentations
- HRIS or compensation software implementation
You’ll receive:
- Customized salary bands and compensation structure
- Strategic frameworks and decision guides
- Professional templates and documentation
You’re responsible for:
- Providing compensation data we’ll use to build your framework
- Making final compensation decisions for individual hires
- Implementing framework in your hiring process
- Updating bands as market changes
- Legal review of offer letters before use
How This Service Works
Step 1: Initial Consultation (Week 1)
- Contact us for custom quote
- We discuss your company size, hiring volume, complexity, and needs
- We provide pricing based on your specific requirements
- You provide details about your compensation data sources and current state
Step 2: Data Collection (Week 1-2)
- You share compensation data you have access to (Pave, Levels.fyi, Mercer, etc.)
- We gather information about your roles, levels, and team structure
- We understand your budget constraints and market positioning philosophy
- We clarify your equity structure and variable comp approach
Step 3: Framework Development (Week 2-3)
- We build your customized compensation matrix with salary bands
- We develop offer strategy playbook aligned to your data and philosophy
- We create negotiation scenarios relevant to your roles and market
- We customize offer letter templates for your company
Step 4: Delivery & Training (Week 3-4)
- We deliver complete toolkit in all formats
- We conduct training session with your team (optional, included in most packages)
- We answer questions and clarify implementation
- One round of revisions included to refine framework
Total timeline: 3-4 weeks from kickoff to final delivery
Why This Service Requires Custom Pricing
Every company’s needs are different:
Company size affects scope:
- 15-50 employees typically need 5-10 role families
- 50-100 employees may need 15-20 role families
- 100+ employees often need 25+ role families across multiple departments
Complexity varies by business model:
- Remote-first companies need geographic tier analysis
- Sales organizations need complex commission structures
- Technical companies need detailed IC and management tracks
- Multi-state employers need location-specific compliance
Data sources require different approaches:
- Some companies have comprehensive Pave data
- Others use free tools like Levels.fyi requiring more interpretation
- Some need help making sense of multiple conflicting data sources
Implementation needs differ:
- Some companies just need the framework
- Others want training and change management support
- Some need ongoing quarterly updates
Contact us at editorial@hrlauncherlab.com with:
- Company size (employee count)
- Number of open roles or hiring volume
- Compensation data sources you use
- Timeline and urgency
- Any specific complexity (multi-geo, complex equity, etc.)
We’ll provide a custom quote typically within 1-2 business days.
Typical pricing range: $1,499 – $3,999 depending on company size and complexity
Why Professional Compensation Strategy Matters
Market competitiveness wins talent: Without structured salary bands, you either lose candidates to better offers or overpay inconsistently. Data-driven bands help you compete while managing budget.
Internal equity prevents problems: Inconsistent compensation creates morale issues when employees discover pay disparities. Structured frameworks ensure fairness and defensible decisions.
Budget predictability improves planning: Random compensation decisions blow headcount budgets. Salary bands help finance and leadership forecast hiring costs accurately.
Offer acceptance rates improve: Candidates trust companies with clear, confident compensation approaches. Fumbling through compensation discussions signals weak organization.
Negotiation confidence increases: Hiring managers with frameworks make better decisions faster. Without guidance, they either give away too much or lose candidates by being inflexible.
Common Compensation Challenges This Service Solves
“We have Pave data but don’t know how to turn it into salary bands” We translate your compensation data into actionable salary ranges, equity targets, and geographic differentials.
“Our offers keep getting declined—we’re not competitive” We help you understand where you’re positioned in market and build competitive offers that close candidates.
“Every offer is a negotiation because we have no framework” We create clear bands and negotiation guidance so you make consistent, confident decisions.
“We’re overpaying some roles and underpaying others” We build structured framework ensuring internal equity and market competitiveness across all roles.
“Our hiring managers don’t know how to structure offers” We provide offer strategy playbook and negotiation scenarios ensuring consistent, professional approach.
“We need to explain our compensation strategy to our board” We create professional framework you can present to executives and investors showing disciplined approach.
What Happens After You Get Your Framework
You’ll have:
- Clear salary bands for all your roles and levels
- Strategic guidance for structuring competitive offers
- Professional templates for offer letters
- Negotiation responses for common scenarios
- Implementation plan for rolling out framework
You’ll be able to:
- Make consistent, data-driven compensation decisions
- Compete effectively for top talent within budget
- Handle offer negotiations with confidence
- Explain compensation decisions to candidates and stakeholders
- Plan headcount budgets accurately
You’ll still need to:
- Make final decisions on individual offers
- Update framework as market changes
- Train new hiring managers on framework
- Maintain compensation data subscriptions
- Handle exceptions and edge cases
Who Should Contact Us for a Quote
This service is ideal if you:
- Have 15-100+ employees and need formal compensation structure
- Have access to compensation data but need help implementing it
- Make regular offers and need consistent framework
- Compete for talent with companies that have structured compensation
- Need to explain compensation strategy to board or investors
- Experience offer declines or internal equity complaints
You might need something different if you:
- Have fewer than 15 employees (may be too early for complex frameworks)
- Need compensation data itself (we work with data you provide)
- Want ongoing compensation consulting, not just framework creation
- Need benefits strategy or total rewards consulting
- Have 200+ employees and need enterprise compensation architecture
Questions about whether this service fits your needs?
Fill out our request form with:
- Company size and stage
- Hiring volume and timeline
- Compensation data sources available
- Specific challenges you’re facing
We’ll be in touch to understand your needs and provide a custom quote.
Related Resources:
- Visit the Compensation Launch Hub for salary and pay strategy guides
- See the Recruiting Launch Hub for hiring process optimization
Legal Disclaimer:
This service is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice. This service does not include compensation market data and is not a substitute for legal or compliance advice. Clients are responsible for sourcing and verifying their own salary benchmarks and for making final employment decisions based on their own policies and judgment. Businesses should consult qualified professionals to address specific legal, regulatory, or organizational requirements and should review all materials with internal HR and legal advisors before use.
