77.2%Consultancy salary surveys (e.g., Mercer/WTW/Aon, Croner, Agenda Consulting)
77.2% of organisations in the lumi HR community selected “Consultancy salary surveys (e.g., Mercer/WTW/Aon, Croner, Agenda Consulting)” for sources used for external pay benchmarks (base: 267 organisations, 2026 H1; organisations could select more than one).
Figures describe organisations in the lumi HR community, not a random sample of UK employers.
How UK organisations answered
| Answer | Share of organisations |
|---|---|
| Consultancy salary surveys (e.g., Mercer/WTW/Aon, Croner, Agenda Consulting) | 77.2% |
| Peer network / informal comparisons | 60.3% |
| Job adverts / published salary ranges | 54.3% |
| Recruiter market intelligence | 43.1% |
| AI assistants (e.g. ChatGPT, Copilot) | 23.2% |
| Live market benchmarking tools (e.g., HR DataHub) | 13.5% |
| Other | 4.1% |
Definition
The external benchmark sources drawn on, spanning consultancy surveys, live tools, recruiter intelligence and peer networks; select all used. See the methodology for how the base is built, how not-applicable answers are handled, the public floor, and which organisations are excluded.
Source: lumi HR, UK Reward Metrics, September 2026, lumihr.co.uk/metrics/sources-used-for-external-pay-benchmarksLast updated 19 September 2026 · Data licence: CC BY 4.0 for the figures in the CSV download.
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