Victor Ueda· Job Architecture Lead, Independent
Asked in Global & Mobility ·
We are a software company of about 1,100 people in 14 countries and we are opening a small office in Tashkent: a country manager, two sales people and an office administrator. None of the three surveys we buy has a usable cut for Uzbekistan. One has 11 companies in total and nothing at management level.
So far I have taken our Kazakhstan range and applied a discount of 20%, which is a guess with a spreadsheet around it. The recruiter is quoting candidate expectations about 35% above my number.
How do others build a defensible range for a market like this, and how much weight do you give to what candidates ask for?
11 helpful · 3 insightful · 1 agree · 5 replies · 1k views · 5 following
Accepted answer· by Elif Alvarez
What has worked for us in Central Asia and parts of West Africa is three sources weighted openly: the proxy country ratio at 40%, a custom cut requested from the survey provider at 30% (they will often run one for a fee even below their usual minimum sample, with a caveat), and documented candidate data at 30%. For the country manager specifically we stopped pretending there was a local market. We price it against a regional leadership range and accept that it sits far above the local structure. The sales and admin roles get the local range. Review after 12 months once you have your own offer and acceptance history.
Read in the conversation ↓
Sonia DuboisCSI
Compensation Manager, Lumen Biosciences
A proxy market is fine as a starting point, but the discount should come from something. We use the ratio between the two countries in the one survey that does cover both at junior levels, then test whether that ratio holds as you go up. It usually narrows a lot at management level because the pool of people who can run a foreign subsidiary is small and internationally minded.
Total Rewards Manager, Silverline Media
I would trust the recruiter more than the discount. For a first hire in a thin market, candidate expectations from five or six serious conversations are market data, just not published data. We write them down in a file note with dates and employer type, and that note is what we show the auditors.
Samir DelaneyCBS, CEP
Senior Compensation Analyst, Silverline Media
Elif AlvarezCRP
Director, Total Rewards, Kestrel Aerospace
Accepted answer
What has worked for us in Central Asia and parts of West Africa is three sources weighted openly: the proxy country ratio at 40%, a custom cut requested from the survey provider at 30% (they will often run one for a fee even below their usual minimum sample, with a caveat), and documented candidate data at 30%.
For the country manager specifically we stopped pretending there was a local market. We price it against a regional leadership range and accept that it sits far above the local structure. The sales and admin roles get the local range. Review after 12 months once you have your own offer and acceptance history.
Victor UedaCEP
Job Architecture Lead, Independent
Thanks all. I have asked the provider for a custom cut and will price the country manager off our regional range for Central and Eastern Europe. The 20% discount is going in the bin. I will keep the candidate notes as a third source rather than the deciding one.
