← HR Metrics·Compensation & Benefits
Actual vs Plan Variance
Variance of actual comp spend against budget, by area × function × geography.
How it’s computed
(total_actual - budget) / budget * 100
What the evidence shows
Evidence (effect sizes, priors, validity) is syncing from Principia.
Run it on your data
This metric is computed in the People Analytics Toolbox on your own numbers. See pricing — posted, no quotes.
sources: toolbox:metrics-catalog
What the literature says
The measurement literature behind this signal — sourced, so you can defend it.
“162). If the IRS is sustained, the payment is a dividend and subject to double taxation as corporate income and as individual income.[C6, C6A]Unweighted (simple) averageSee unweighted mean.[C2, C17, GR3]Unweighted meanA simple arithmetic average of individual means.[C2, C17, T3,…”
— Worldatwork Handbook Compensationmatch 46%
“Using a fixed dollar budget is the most conservative budget process. In such cases, finance establishes a predetermined fixed dollar amount to be paid for sales performance. Unfortunately, the only means to distribute such dollars is to provide payouts based on percentile…”
— Compensatingthesalesforcethirdeditionaprmatch 40%
“2. Comparing Different Data Sets . In this example, we see that on a relative basis, the salaries of the accounting assistants vary more than the salaries of the administrative assistants. 3. Comparing the Same Data Set Over Time . We continue to compare the data for the…”
— Statistics for Compensationmatch 40%
Resources: Worldatwork Handbook Compensation · Compensatingthesalesforcethirdeditionapr · Statistics for Compensation