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Friends,
Short and sharp from me this week:
Thanks for the beautiful responses to the new look FNDN series. Meant a lot ❤
I rawdogged my first ever podcast (what I’m calling IRL podcasts without the safety of my screen). We chat: startups, comp, HR roles.
Otherwise, please enjoy another great guest article from someone I’ve enjoyed learning from on LinkedIn, Eliyahu Verzub (follow on LI). I find his posts and articles on comp especially engaging, practical, and easy to digest.
So it was a no brainer to share some of that advice here.
Enjoy this weeks edition ✌️
STARTUP RESOURCE
Buying your first compensation benchmark?
Most startups get one shot at picking the right dataset.
Too often, decisions are driven by:
• What the VC suggests
• Slick marketing
• Flashy features
Not by whether the data actually fits.
Budgets are tight, and as Head of People, your choice sets the tone for credibility—and governs the biggest line item in the business.
I’ve made the mistakes already. You don’t need to.
The Ultimate Playbook for Assessing Benchmark Vendors gives you a step-by-step way to define needs, compare options, and choose the dataset that delivers real insight. Inside: the key vendors to know, a vendor assessment framework, and a deep guide to buying right.
Bottom line: make your benchmark investment clear, fair and competitive.
Interested in sponsoring the FNDN Series? Drop me a line!
Know a startup Head of People looking for answers 🙋 why not forward this to them for some instant karma? ✨
THE BREAKDOWN
From Matt: This week we’re joined by Eliyahu Varzub, who was most recently running compensation at Meta. He’s seen (more than) his fair share of comp practices and shares some short and sharp tips below for ways to ensure they’re working effectively for you. Over to you Eliyahu.
Hi, I’m a self-proclaimed compensation enthusiast and data nerd who’s spent the past 16 years figuring out how to make pay both fair and practical. Along the way, I’ve partnered with companies like Meta and GE Digital helping leaders cut through the noise with data, streamline messy processes, and build comp programs that actually work.
I love turning complex market data into simple, actionable insights, and I’ve got a track record of creating rewards programs that feel competitive and equitable. I get way too excited about spreadsheets, but it usually works out well for the people I work with.
Stop Pay Chaos: 3 Mistakes Companies Make (and How to Fix Them Fast)
Compensation goes off the rails long before anyone runs a pay cycle. I’ve had the benefit of seeing inside many organizations — some that should have known better — and the same avoidable issues surface again and again. Chaos creeps in quickly, but you can shut it down just as quickly. Here are the three biggest culprits and the fixes you can put in place by next week.
Mistake #1: Job Structures Gone Wild
One of the biggest blunders is not establishing (or enforcing) ownership of the job structure. When anyone can create new roles ad-hoc chaos ensues:
Survey mismatches: When every vertical invents its own titles, market matching becomes nearly impossible. Your Comp team can make their best guess about what pay ought to be, but if they didn't create the job, they have no way to know for sure.
Redundant jobs and unclear work: Two different titles for identical work double your complexity and confuse headcount reports and career paths. Employees are left guessing about their responsibilities and how they fit into the bigger picture, and the organization lacks clear definitions of what work is being done.
Pay equity issues: Similar jobs with wildly different pay? That’s a recipe for dissatisfaction, mistrust, and even legal risks if disparities align with protected categories.
Career stagnation and gridlock: Without a clear structure and consistent role hierarchy, employees don’t know how to grow, what skills to develop next, or what the next promotion looks like. They polish their LinkedIn profiles instead of their skills.
Quick Fix Checklist:
Secure C-suite mandate that every new or revised role flows through Compensation for approval.
Launch a lightweight role-request form capturing title, scope, draft description, and org justification.
Conduct a quarterly “role cleanse” to merge duplicates and archive obsolete titles.
Publish a living role library on your intranet so managers can check before creating something new.
Mistake #2: Keeping Levels a Mystery
Not defining and communicating levels clearly is a mistake even large organizations make, and it’s a killer for small and medium ones. When levels are vague:
Misaligned pay: Employees might be paid too much or too little for their level, throwing your budget off or leaving talent feeling undervalued.
Confusion reigns: Managers and HR business partners (HRBPs) can’t explain why someone’s at a certain level or how they can move up, leading to frustration.
Calibration breaks: With fuzzy levels, performance ratings and promotion decisions can become arbitrary and aren’t comparable across teams.
Quick Fix Checklist:
Work with HR and leadership to define levels that align with the surveys you use (think Mercer, Radford, or whatever your go-to is). Make these definitions crystal clear and share them with HRBPs and managers.
Roll out manager training: practice leveling calibration sessions so HRBPs and leaders speak the same language.
Run twice-a-year pay audits.
Publish level guides to employees and weave them into career conversations and performance reviews.
Mistake #3: Bending the Data to Fit the Hire
Ever been in a hiring crunch where the perfect candidate’s salary expectations don’t match the role? "Well, if we can't support her pay expectations at level 5, let's bring her in at a 6!" But fitting the data to the employee is a dangerous game:
Precedent trouble: Once you bend the rules, others expect it too. Good luck explaining why one person got special treatment.
Role vs. pay mismatch: Paying someone at a higher level without the matching scope creates inequity and sets false expectations.
Trust erosion: Employees notice inconsistencies ("why is he level 4 and I am only a 3, we do the same work!").
Quick Fix Checklist:
Evaluate the role before evaluating the candidate’s ask. If the scope does not justify their target pay, stick to the posted level.
If their skills legitimately warrant a higher level, expand the scope and re-grade the role deliberately. Communicate the change and update the job description before the offer.
Capture any exception in a documented approval flow that includes HR, Comp, and an executive sponsor.
Review new-hire compensation against internal peers each quarter to catch and correct compression early.
What do you think, have you encountered these pitfalls? Any other common mistakes that you see? Disagree with any points? Please let me know!
Also, please check out my other posts here.
Also, I am on the hunt for a new role! Details here.
If you enjoyed this post or know someone who may find it useful, please share it with them and encourage them to subscribe.
That’s all for from me this week.
Sure, this is technically the end of the newsletter, but we don’t have to end here! I’d love this to be a two-way chat, so let me know what you found helpful, any successes you’re seeing, or any questions you have about startup compensation.
Until next week,
When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help you:
1. Tools & resources
Resources and tools that give you what you need to build your own startup compensation practices.
2. Comp consulting
I run FNDN, a global comp consultancy that builds compensation practices that are clear, fair and competitive for startups.
3. Startup People Summit
I run the Startup People Summit, a one day annual event focused on creating the playbook for startup people practices. Grab recordings from past events, or subscribe to the newsletter to join the next event.
