Why clients rely on us for pay rate insights
In today’s hiring landscape, salary insights aren’t just useful; they’re essential to understanding how they influence everything from talent attraction and retention to company culture and employer branding.
At Employment Solutions, we work closely with our clients to help them make informed decisions about pay trends, salary benchmarks and compensation strategies, especially for niche roles in sectors such as sustainability and digital engineering. We offer clear, data-led advice that supports everything, from setting the right salary for a role to shaping long-term workforce strategies to enable them to make more confident hiring decisions.
The challenge for employers
Employers are under pressure from multiple angles. Inflation continues to affect candidate expectations and high-demand skills, particularly in areas such as automation, sustainability and digital engineering, are commanding premium salaries. Candidates are also more informed and selective and many consider multiple offers before making a decision. There’s also greater transparency in the job market, so most candidates have a good idea of their worth.
In addition, regional disparities add further complexity. A salary that works in one region might not be competitive in another and, with 58% of engineers now working remotely or part-time, candidates are increasingly looking at the full package, including benefits and career progression opportunities, not just the pay. So if the salary you’re offering is out of step with the market, top talent may simply go elsewhere.
That’s why accurate, up-to-date pay insight is so important. It helps you make confident offers, avoid unnecessary negotiations and build a more compelling overall proposition. That’s where we come in.
How we support our clients
At Employment Solutions, we offer much more than just recruitment services. We work with employers across the UK to provide salary benchmarking and market insights specifically tailored to their business, their location and their sector, helping them make informed, strategic decisions about what they should be paying and why. Here’s how we help:
Salary benchmarking by role – we use live data from current placements, job boards and exclusive surveys to give our clients accurate pay benchmarks for specific roles, experience levels and industries, helping them to align their offers with what candidates expect and competitors provide
Regional pay insights – wherever you’re hiring in the UK, we provide insights into local pay patterns, essential for clients operating across multiple geographical sites. For example, when one of our clients, which operates several manufacturing sites across the country, struggled to meet a candidate’s salary expectation, we were able to show them market data demonstrating how the role compared at both regional and national level and within the sector. This enabled them to adjust their offer appropriately, not only securing their ideal candidate but also prompting a broader review of pay structures across the business, leading to a more consistent, competitive approach for the future
Sector-specific contract vs permanent – in addition to salary levels, we also advise on contract versus permanent hiring strategies. In highly regulated and data-sensitive sectors such as nuclear, finance and industrial automation, we offer guidance on when it makes sense to hire permanently (for long-term capability) and when a contract role might be a more effective strategy (for a rapid skills injection) to best support project timelines, compliance requirements and long-term planning
Employer Value Proposition (EVP) consulting – if our clients can’t match market rates, we help them to strengthen their wider offer or their EVP towards total rewards packages. This might include flexibility, career growth and culture and benefits packages, which we help our clients to clearly communicate to candidates, ensuring that they remain competitive, even when salary is a constraint.
Example insights that we’ve shared
We regularly share up-to-date pay trends, market briefings and sector-specific advice with our clients. Recent trends have included:
Salaries in the renewables and nuclear sectors, where demand is outstripping supply, are rising fastest, reflecting the need for specialist skills
Skills in robotics, sustainability and digital engineering now attract premium offers, often 10-15% above standard benchmarks, due to skills shortages
Flexible working remains a key candidate priority, with 58% of engineers now working remotely at least part of the time. Failing to offer flexible options can reduce your talent pool considerably.
These insights don’t just help our clients with individual hires, they feed into broader workforce planning, budgeting and retention strategies and enable them to make decisions that are realistic and competitive.
The value of data-driven hiring
Incorporating data into your hiring decisions delivers clear benefits. Clients that have access to real data and current trends can move faster, negotiate more effectively and ultimately make decisions that accelerate the hiring process. Candidates who receive well-structured and competitive offers are more likely to accept and remain with an organisation, improving retention and reducing long-term hiring costs. Salary data also supports a broader workforce strategy, including budgeting and talent pipelining, helping businesses align their pay structures with performance, budget cycles and future growth strategies.
When budgets are tight, as they are currently, we help our clients focus on what they can offer. We recommend transparent communication, clear compensation strategies and honest discussions about career progression and benefits packages. You don’t always need to pay the most, you simply need to be credible, fair and well-informed.
That’s why so many of our clients rely on us as more than just a recruitment partner, and see us more as a strategic workforce consultant.
Get the insights you need
We’re often asked questions about salary ranges, how clients can compete without overpaying and going rates for specific regions. So if you’re unsure about whether your salary band reflects the current market, want to build a stronger EVP or simply want to understand what your competitors are offering, we’re here to help.
Get in touch today to see how data-driven hiring strategies including benchmarking and market briefings can transform your recruitment results.
