Your compensation review template, built around your dates

Plan for about 12 weeks if you have fewer than 100 people, about 16 weeks with 100 to 500, and about 18 weeks above that. Start from the day new salaries take effect and count back. These timings come from Ravio's conversations with customers, so adjust them to fit your calendar.

Once a year is the norm, with a way to handle off-cycle changes in between. In Ravio's survey, 44% of companies review pay annually, 25% annually with off-cycle changes, and 26% twice a year.

At minimum, performance-based increases and market adjustments, with a pay equity check before anything is signed off. Promotions are best run as their own process with their own budget. In Ravio's survey, 86% of companies include performance-based increases, followed by market adjustments and promotions.

Finance usually sets the total, often as a percentage of base salary, and the People team decides how to spend it. The best outcomes come when People bring Finance a costed case: what it takes to close pay equity gaps, keep pace with the market and fund promotions. In Ravio's survey, Finance sets the budget at 40% of companies, the leadership team at 30% and the People team at 21%. Across European tech, the median salary increase was 5.0% in Ravio's latest Compensation Trends report, though it varies a lot by funding stage.

Enough to shape the outcome, not enough to set it alone. Recommend an increase for each person, let managers propose changes with a written reason, and keep the final say central. In Ravio's survey, 41% of companies work this way. 20% give managers full control, and 16% give them none.

Through their manager, in a conversation that gives the new number and the reason behind it, after a company-wide note on how decisions were made. Most teams only do the first part. In Ravio's survey, 92% tell people their new number, 57% explain how they got there, and 14% show how their pay compares with the market.