Executive Salary Benchmarking
Executive Benchmarking Methodology
Ashdown Group has over 1 million registered candidates, a deeply engaged talent pool, and a vast network of senior executives across all industries, providing an accurate salary data source. The depth of this network, and the data provided by an engaged community of executives, ensures our salary benchmarking research is amongst the most accurate executive salary data available.
Our methodology is built on real-time market intelligence, direct executive insights, and proprietary data analytics, to provide the most accurate compensation benchmarks available. Data is gathered directly from peers within all industries, including executive pay, benefits and overall package data.
We research executive roles against all major publicly available salary data sources to provide demand trends and skill availability insights, producing a bespoke report against each specfic role.
Salary benchmarking is a structured process designed to provide reliable and actionable salary comparisons. Benchmarking involves job analysis, identification of relevant salary survey data, and the extraction and interpretation of that data to deliver meaningful insights.
Our approach combines multiple high-quality data sources to ensure precision, reliability, and actionable insights.
Our Approach
![]() |
Direct Executive Intelligence. We engage with senior executives and board-level professionals through direct outreach, confidential surveys, and in-depth industry conversations. This enables us to gather first-hand, real-time compensation data directly from those in comparable roles within competitor organisations. |
![]() |
Exclusive Candidate Database & Market Insights. With over 1 million registered candidates, our proprietary database offers a rich and diverse source of verified salary information across industries, geographies, and leadership levels. Our recruitment activities further supplement this data with real-time compensation intelligence. |
![]() |
Skills Demand & Talent Availability Analysis. We assess salary data in the context of demand for specific skills and the availability of talent in the market. Our benchmarking considers factors such as company size, complexity, revenue, scope of role, and market capitalisation to provide a complete picture of compensation competitiveness. |
![]() |
Competitor Analysis. Working with you, we identify target companies and roles to research direct executive insight from your competitors. We conduct extensive salary research using publicly available data from executive profiles, job postings, and peer networking insights, cross-referencing against known compensation structures in leading competitor organisations. Integrating salary statistics from national statistics offices, regulatory filings, and pay transparency reports to validate and complement our proprietary datasets. |
![]() |
Job Market & Industry Trends Analysis. Our ongoing market intelligence efforts track executive hiring trends, bonus structures, equity compensation, and other benefits that influence total remuneration at board and C-suite levels. |
Unmatched Data Depth
& Accuracy
Unlike traditional salary surveys that rely solely on self-reported data or limited employer contributions, our methodology triangulates data from multiple real-world sources, ensuring a holistic and highly accurate salary benchmark.
Independent & Unbiased
Insights
We are fully independent and not tied to in-house surveys when advising on salary benchmarks. We use the most appropriate, cost-effective data sources for each benchmarking project, ensuring accuracy and impartiality.
Access to Senior Executives
& Board-Level Talent
As a leading executive search agency, we maintain active relationships with top-level professionals across industries, allowing us to validate salary insights with real-world executive compensation structures.
Providing a Competitive Edge for Executive Talent
Make informed, data-driven compensation decisions, increase Executive retention rates, attract top talent and maitain a competitive position in the wider employment market.
Executive Expertise
Ashdown Group have supported over 3000 organisations and helped over 17,000 senior managers with salary and hiring guidance. Our research success and guidance has been underpinned by our industry expertise and unique data resources.
Comprehensive Salary Benchmarking Report
You will receive a detailed breakdown of salary ranges, bonus structures, equity incentives, and total compensation packages for executive, board-level and senior leadership roles.
Competitor Salary Analysis
Comparative salary data from peer organisations to benchmark executive compensation effectively.
Skills Demand & Talent Supply Report
Analysis of demand for specific skills against the availability of qualified talent in the market.
Benefits Benchmarking Services
Insights into flexible benefits, benefits plans, and long-term incentive plans (LTIPs).
Interpreting Salary Data
Salary benchmarking does not replace the need for strategic decision-making in executive compensation. Instead, it provides an objective foundation upon which remuneration stakeholders can base their salary, bonus, and benefits decisions. By balancing market rate insights with individual role considerations, companies can set competitive and fair compensation structures.
Using our expertise, reach, and insight gives you the information necessary to attract, retain, and grow a high-performance team.
Our goal is to become your preferred salary benchmarking supplier, building a successful and longstanding partnership.