How to Use This Tool

Daily Workflow

1. Open New Recommendation and fill in candidate type, competency, range min/mid/max, and Offer Floor/Ceiling (your budgeted negotiation window for this req).

2. For internal candidates, enter Peer Average, Lowest-Paid Peer, Highest-Paid Peer, Supervisor Salary, and Current Salary. The more data you enter, the more flags activate.

3. Review the recommended salary, diagnostics (compa-ratio, penetration, quartile, % increase), and all flags — they update live as you type.

4. Click "Save Recommendation" to record the case in History — all past cases are preserved.

How the Recommendation Is Built — Internal Candidates

Step 1 · Grade-Anchored Target: competency position factor places a salary between Offer Floor and Ceiling (fallback: mid × target compa-ratio if floor/ceiling are blank).

Step 2 · Peer-Anchored Target: starts at the peer average, adjusted by the competency Peer Adj % (Entry below avg → Expert above avg). This is the primary equity reference.

Step 3 · Blended Target: Peer-Anchored × equity weight + Grade-Anchored × (1 − equity weight). Edit the weight on the Assumptions & Weights page.

Step 4 · Internal Floor: raised if needed to current salary + minimum increase %.

Step 5 · Range Clamp: forced inside min–max. Flags fire if clamping overrides the target.

External Candidates

External recommendations always use the Grade-Anchored Target only — peer average, lowest/highest peer, and current salary are shown for market-comparison context but do not drive the calculation. The Supervisor Compression check still applies to External candidates.

Salary Variance Diagnostics (diagnostic only — do not affect the recommendation)

Variance vs. Lowest/Highest-Paid Peer and vs. Supervisor show $ and % differences and drive several of the flags below.

Supervisor Compression Threshold

Set on the Assumptions & Weights page. If the recommendation is within the threshold % of the supervisor's salary, a compression-risk flag appears. If it meets or exceeds the supervisor, an immediate escalation flag fires.

Manual Override

Enter a value in the Manual Override field to test a different number — all diagnostics and flags evaluate that number instead, and every override is recorded in the audit log on the recommendation's detail page (original value, override value, reason, who, when).

Tuning the Weights

All levers live on the Assumptions & Weights page: equity weight, minimum increase %, max increase guardrail %, supervisor compression threshold %, negotiation band %, and the equity-vs-peer-avg thresholds.