Exploring the Gap Between Company Pay Policies and Worker Experiences
New research from HiBob, the team behind the Bob people management platform, shows a rising gap between how companies decide pay and how workers experience those choices. Many leaders believe their decisions are fair, yet employees often question them.
Managers Feel Confident Yet Face Frequent Challenges
About 83 percent of people managers say they can support pay and promotion choices with clear data. Still, many decisions face review. In the past year, more than three-quarters of managers saw formal challenges related to promotions, base salary changes, and performance ratings that affect pay.
Data Problems Affect Teams And Talent
The fairness gap affects more than morale. Around 93 percent of managers say missing or delayed data led to poor team results during the last year. Thirty percent say strong performers were underpaid or not recognised enough. Twenty-seven percent say promotions went to people who were not fully ready.
Wider Business Impact From Pay Issues
Managers also report broader problems. About 24 percent say pay budgets were used poorly. Nearly 29 percent link missing data to lower team spirit and engagement, often tied to feelings of unfair treatment or weak recognition.
Concerns About Consistency Across Teams
Many managers worry about uneven standards. Sixty-eight percent believe similar roles are judged with different measures across teams. Sixty-seven percent say they cannot ensure fair pay without a clear shared view of people and financial data.
Access To Data Remains A Major Barrier
The research suggests the main issue is not a lack of data but poor access to it. Most managers can reach HR data and finance data quickly. Yet 61 percent still spend at least three hours pulling details from many systems before making decisions. Fifteen percent need more than five hours.
Pressure Leads To Guesswork
When managers struggle to gather the right information, decision quality drops; About 65 percent admit they sometimes rely on educated guesses to meet deadlines. Sixty-four percent say privacy rules or access limits block the data they reasonably need.
Lack Of Unified Systems Creates Risk
Only 2 percent of managers use one combined HR and finance dashboard. Most companies still rely on separate tools and spreadsheets without one clear source of truth, which increases confusion and risk.
Expert View On The Need For Alignment
Toby Hough, VP of People and Culture EMEA at HiBob, says bringing HR and finance together has always been difficult because the teams work in different ways and often rely on different data sets. He notes that growing public scrutiny now makes these gaps harder to ignore. When data is not aligned, decisions take longer, become harder to defend, and face more challenges. He adds that unified data helps leaders make fair choices that support both staff and business goals.
Fragmented Systems Raise Future Concerns
As pressure over pay and promotions grows, the study warns that scattered systems may become a serious risk. Companies must balance cost control, performance, and fairness. Without connected data, they face higher chances of disputes, lower engagement, and possible compliance problems.
