Compensation Benchmarking
Pay the market — not the rumour mill.
We build role-specific benchmark views for the leadership seats that move your P&L: total cash, annual incentive design, long-term instruments, and benefits norms. Cohorts are chosen for comparability — not convenience — so your committee can defend decisions to auditors, investors, and your own leadership team.
CXO
Role-specific cuts — not generic “officer” bands
India
Domestic and India-based MNC reality
Total
Cash, incentive, LTI, and key perquisites
Defensible
Methodology explained for committees
Perspective
Benchmarking fails when the peer set is wrong
Many benchmark exercises collapse because the comparator companies are aspirational but not comparable — different scale, ownership, or risk profile. The result is either pay inflation you cannot justify or defensive under-payment that costs you leaders.
Gladwin International anchors cohorts in operating reality: sector, revenue band, ownership structure, and talent market tension. We then layer live placement and offer data from our search practice so the numbers reflect what is happening now — not three years ago.
Method
Benchmark architecture
Typically a 4–6 week sprint from kickoff to committee-ready pack — faster when data exists from prior cycles.
- 1
Role & level definition
We lock job size, scope, and reporting line so we are comparing true functional peers — not title inflation.
- 2
Cohort construction
We propose a primary and secondary peer set; you approve before any numbers are run.
- 3
Data fusion
We combine survey-grade structure with proprietary offer and placement intelligence from active mandates.
- 4
Quality control
Outliers are investigated — winsorising only with explicit committee visibility.
- 5
Committee pack & narrative
Delivered with an executive summary your chair can read in ten minutes — and appendices for those who want the depth.
Scope
What you receive
- Benchmark statistics for target roles (median, p25, p75 as appropriate)
- Total reward breakdown: fixed, STI, LTI, sign-on norms where material
- Cohort listing and methodology footnotes
- Scenario views: at-target versus stretch incentive outcomes
- Recommendations language for policy updates where requested
- Refresh roadmap for annual or bi-annual cycles
Common use cases
- Annual remuneration committee benchmarking cycles
- New hire offer approval for CXO or country head roles
- Internal equity reviews after acquisitions or restructuring
- Promotions into the C-suite requiring defensible step-ups
- Investor or board requests for “market proof” on pay decisions
One firm, two lenses
Because we also run executive search at scale, our benchmarks are continuously tested against real offers — not only against static surveys. When you need a rival-specific organizational or project financial overlay, we can pair this work with Competitor Financial Intelligence.
Competitor research & analysis
Related intelligence programmes
Competitor Talent Intelligence
We monitor leadership movements, role creations, and succession signals across the companies that matter to your strategy. Delivered as structured briefings — not raw news feeds — so you can brief the CEO, the board, or your own talent committee with confidence.
Competitor Financial Intelligence
Competitor Financial Intelligence is powered by our Continuous Intelligence Monitoring Methodology: peer financials, project economics, growth, EBITDA, leverage and debt ratios, and other company- and project-level signals are kept current on a defined refresh rhythm — not parked in a static slide deck. Eligible clients access The Apex Council, our dedicated portal where financial intelligence dashboards run in live mode, so your CFO, strategy, and board forums see the latest defensible view of the rivals that matter.
When intelligence becomes a hire
Retained executive search for the roles you need to fill — partner-led mandates with our twelve-month guarantee.