Compensation & Job Structure for Small Business | HR People

Compensation & job structure

Take the guesswork out of jobs and pay.

As businesses grow, titles, responsibilities and compensation drift apart. Nobody decided it should be that way. It happened one offer, one counteroffer and one promotion at a time, and now it is hard to explain.

Market data, not guesswork Defensible pay decisions Exempt reviews included Not a PEO

What this is for

Pay drifts. Nobody notices until somebody compares.

None of these are decisions anyone made deliberately. They are what accumulates when every offer is negotiated on its own.

  • 01
    Your newest hire earns more than the person training her

    You paid market rate to get her in. The person who has been there four years finds out, and the conversation that follows is not really about money.

  • 02
    Two people have the same title and completely different jobs

    One runs a team and a budget. The other does not. Both are called Manager, so both expect to be paid like one.

  • 03
    Somebody asked for a raise and you have no basis to say yes or no

    You do not know what the role is worth, what the others earn, or what precedent you are setting. So the answer comes down to how the conversation feels.

  • 04
    A counteroffer three years ago is still distorting your whole structure

    You went above the range once to keep someone. That number is now the floor for everybody at that level, and nobody remembers why.

Clear roles. Thoughtful pay decisions. Better organizational structure.

What is covered

Roles, levels, ranges and the data behind them.

Brandi's full compensation and structure list, from the market data through to the org chart.

Compensation benchmarking

Salary research against real market data for your roles, your industry and your region, rather than a national average that means nothing locally.

Job descriptions

What each role actually does, written properly. Everything else on this page depends on this being right first.

Job levelling

Roles grouped into levels so a title means the same thing across the business and a promotion means something specific.

Salary ranges

A minimum, midpoint and maximum for each level, so every offer and raise has a defensible place to sit.

Exempt and nonexempt reviews

Whether a role is genuinely exempt under the rules rather than because it is salaried. The most expensive thing on this list to get wrong.

Promotion guidelines

What has to be true for someone to move up, and what that move is worth, decided before the conversation rather than during it.

Bonus and incentive structures

Variable pay tied to things people can actually influence, with the rules written down before the period starts.

Org charts and career paths

Organisational charts, roles and responsibilities and career paths, so people can see the structure they sit inside.

How it works

Three steps, and you keep every decision.

  1. 1
    We map what you have

    Current roles, titles, pay and who reports to whom. Often the first useful output is simply seeing it all on one page.

  2. 2
    We benchmark against the market

    Real salary data for your roles in your region, so the discussion is about numbers rather than impressions.

  3. 3
    We build the structure

    Levels, ranges and guidelines, with a plan for moving anyone who sits outside them. You decide the pace and the budget.

This is a fit if

  • Titles and pay have grown inconsistent as you have added people
  • You are about to hire and do not know what the role should pay
  • Someone has asked for a raise and you have no framework to answer
  • You have salaried staff whose exempt status has never been reviewed

Probably not if

  • You want a formal executive compensation or equity plan
  • You want us to tell your team what they will be paid
  • You are looking for a PEO to take your employees onto their books

We do not set your pay. We give you the market data, the structure and the ranges, and you make the calls with the budget you actually have. A structure you cannot afford to implement is worse than none.

Client stories

What changed for them.

★★★★★

They understand that small businesses need HR solutions that are professional but also realistic and affordable.

Christopher BaileySmall Business OwnerLafayette, LA
★★★★★

They understand that every business is different. Their recommendations are specific to our company rather than generic HR answers.

Ashley MorganOwner & OperatorConroe, TX
★★★★★

They took our HR processes from scattered and reactive to organized and professional. We finally feel like we have a real HR department supporting us.

Michael R.PresidentBeaumont, TX

Questions

What owners ask about pay and structure.

Published compensation survey data matched to your roles, your industry and your region. That regional part matters more than owners expect. A national average for a role can be well off what the same job pays in Houston, Beaumont or Baton Rouge, and paying to a national number is how businesses either overpay or lose candidates.

That happens, and it is useful to know even when it is uncomfortable. We do not expect anyone to fix it in one month. Usually it becomes a phased plan across a year or two, starting with the roles where the gap is widest or the flight risk is highest. You set the pace against your budget.

That is your call and there are reasonable arguments both ways. Some businesses publish ranges and find it reduces the number of speculative raise conversations. Others keep them internal and simply use them to make consistent decisions. We will talk through both, and note that some states now require ranges in job postings.

Job board postings tell you what people are advertising to attract candidates, which is not the same as what the role actually pays once someone is in it. They also skew high, skew recent and rarely match your scope. Survey data is matched to the real job.

Because it is the one on this list that costs money when it is wrong. Paying a salary does not make someone exempt. If a role has been classified incorrectly, unpaid overtime accrues over a period of years and applies to everyone in that role rather than one person.

Yes. A single role benchmark before you make an offer is a common and inexpensive way to work with us, and it is a much cheaper conversation than correcting the number a year later.

Tell us what is on your plate.

Twenty minutes, no pitch. Brandi will tell you what she would take on, what she would leave with you, and roughly what it costs. If you are not ready for us yet, she will say so.