TALENT & HR · 05
Salary Benchmarking
Compensation ranges for technical roles in the UAE and the wider GCC, expressed as total packages rather than base salary alone. For HR teams setting bands for the year, and for hiring managers who have just lost a candidate on money.
Total package, not base salary
Comparing base salaries across this market produces misleading answers. Housing and transport allowances, schooling support for dependants, annual flights, medical cover, bonus structure and end-of-service gratuity can differ by a wide margin between two offers with identical headline figures.
Benchmarks are therefore built as full packages, with each component shown separately so you can see where your structure is generous and where it quietly is not.
- Base, allowances, bonus and benefits broken out per level
- Comparison against your current structure, role by role
- Notes on where a component is unusual for the market
Where our numbers come from
Ranges are built from offers we have seen accepted and declined in the last twelve months, packages reported by candidates during our own searches, and published survey material used as a sanity check. Sample sizes are stated per role, and where a role is thin we say the number is indicative rather than dressing it up as data.
Nothing in a report identifies an individual or a client organisation. Aggregated ranges only.
Bands that survive contact with finance
A benchmark is only useful if it becomes policy. Reports set out level definitions, band midpoints and progression rules, so the same job title in two departments does not attract two different offers. Recommendations include the cost of moving existing staff onto the new bands, since that is the number that decides whether the exercise proceeds.
Counter-offers and the cost of getting it wrong
An underpriced offer rarely produces a cheap hire. It produces a declined offer, a restarted search and, when a candidate does accept, an early resignation once they compare notes. Rebenchmarking a scarce role and paying correctly usually costs less than a second search and three months of an empty seat.
What you get
- Benchmark report covering the roles and levels you specify
- Total package ranges with each component broken out
- Sample size and confidence stated per role
- Gap analysis against your current pay structure
- Recommended bands with midpoints and progression rules
- Cost estimate for moving existing staff onto the new bands
- Regional comparison across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where relevant
- Briefing session with HR and the hiring managers
Typical outcomes
10 days
Typical turnaround for a benchmark report
12 months
Recency window for the offer data used
Quarterly
Refresh cadence we recommend for scarce roles
Questions
Ranges are drawn from the last twelve months, weighted towards the most recent quarter, because compensation for scarce technical roles here has been moving. Reports carry the date of the data behind them.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are covered where we have recent placement data, which is strongest for engineering and data roles. Coverage per market and per role is stated in the report rather than implied.
Rarely outside funded startups, where it does appear and is usually valued conservatively by candidates. For most employers in this market, cash and allowances do the work that equity does elsewhere.
Yes, and that is often the point. We map the role onto comparable positions we have placed, state the assumptions made and flag where the estimate is thinner than we would like.
Related
Next step
Start with a 20-minute call.
Tell us the roles you need filled, the system you need built, or both. You will speak to someone who has done the work, and leave the call with a route forward.