The big issue before firms today is to attract and retain key talent in these tough times by devising innovative compensation policies and packages.
To do this, human resource managers have to get to reliable data across industries and firms quickly.
To serve this end Ernst & Young has launched a new service, PayIndex (www.eypayindex.com), an online database on compensation for the benefit of human resources managers operating in India.
Jyotirmoy Basu of Ernst & Young's human resources advisory services, said PayIndex will help managers locate industry-specific compensation information, find out what the market is paying for critical jobs and assist them in devising compensation strategies for their organisations.
The service will be free for the current year and will initially cover the following industries - information technology, IT enabled services and telecom.
It will, over time, be extended to industries such as pharmaceuticals, media and entertainment, insurance, FMCG, manufacturing and automobiles.
Ernst and Young wants to keep the service free for more than "a few months" because its focus is not earning revenue but developing a community of users who will interact and help improve the quality of the database.
The service will provide an online compensation survey tool by allowing direct access to Ernst & Young's Indian compensation and benefits database. It will allow a user to download reports in spreadsheet format within minutes.
Users will be able to customise their own reports according to their requirements by defining which industries and companies, classified according to ownership and size, are to be included.
The information can be sought according to job positions or levels. The service will offer three products: database surveys, industry surveys and sponsored surveys which will be customised according to specific requirements.
The contents of the latter will become a part of the database after a suitable interval from submission to the client.
The data available will include basic salary, allowances, monetised benefits, performance linked pay and overall cost to the company. It will help HR users with their key requirement of "job matching."
Ernst & Young is laying great store by data integrity and quality. Data will be uploaded only after verification by the firm's professionals. Security will be ensured through encryption of sensitive information and firewalls.
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