Houston Health Department

Determining competitive compensation across a variety of fields became laborious.

Download Case Study

Determining competitive compensation across a variety of fields became laborious.

Employee Icon
Employees
1200
Industry Icon
Industry
Product Icon
Product
Insight
Region Icon
Region
South
Why PayScale?

Hernandez and his team began the search for a software solution that would support decisions about compensation based on real-time data, not guesswork. “From a purchasing standpoint, we looked at every vendor equally. But we had a list of criteria that was very important to us,” said Hernandez. “With PayScale, we liked the fact that the data is updated constantly as the market changes. That’s simply not possible with an annual salary survey.”

Pain Points
Effective Resource Management
Employee Morale
Accurate and Highly Specific Comp Data
The Results
Enabled more effective resource management.

Like any government agency, HHD must manage all operations with increasingly limited resources. “PayScale helps us strategically in the sense that we always know where the market is, and we can make proactive decisions when it’s time to manage our budget,” said Hernandez.

Boosted employee morale.

Government agencies like HHD typically don’t expect to compete for talent on salary with private entities. Yet with PayScale, the agency has increased the visibility of the compensation process, with the result that employees know HHD is committed to ensuring compensation is both fair to them and affordable within the agency’s budget. “A lot of people in government enjoy what they do, but we’re not here for the big dollars. We’re here because we want to fix things,” said Hernandez. “With PayScale, we’re able to show our employees we’re looking out for them. Being able to have that conversation, to show them we’re being proactive about their compensation, is a big morale booster.”

Accessed accurate and highly specific compensation data in minutes, not weeks.

With PayScale, Hernandez and his team can access fresh compensation data that is specific to the local market and the government industry. “I recommend PayScale to other agencies because of the value of the data,” said Hernandez. “Having that at your fingertips is powerful when making compensation decisions.”

Addressed “I’m underpaid” conversations with up-to-the minute compensation facts.

Compensation transparency can’t always explain why people are paid certain amounts. With PayScale, the department can more effectively address “I’m underpaid” conversations with current, validated data. “With PayScale, I can pull out the salary roster and show an employee exactly where he or she is, where the market is, and where it’s going to go,” said Hernandez. “This has enabled us to offer an entirely new level of transparency.”