## What peer comparison does

Peer comparison lets planners see how an employee's compensation stacks up against similar employees during the cycle. Instead of making decisions in isolation, planners can instantly check whether a raise, band position, or performance rating looks reasonable compared to the employee's peers, directly from the employee detail panel.

This helps planners catch inconsistencies before they become problems: an employee who's being paid significantly below similar peers, a raise that's out of line with what others at the same level received, or a high performer whose band position hasn't kept pace.

### Questions planners can answer with peer comparison

* Is this employee's compa ratio in line with others at the same level and department?
* Are we giving this person a meaningfully different raise than their peers, and is that justified?
* How does this employee's performance rating compare to others in the same band?
* Is this employee an outlier, or are they consistent with their peer group?
* After this raise, will this employee still be below, at, or above their peers?

## How it works

When a planner opens an employee's detail view, the peer comparison panel shows:

 ![right-50](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=132a7398-af5d-4da5-b6c0-d58b48d9b16e " =916x919")

* **Peer averages** for key metrics: performance rating, compa ratio (salary and total cash), range penetration (salary and total cash), and cash increase percentage. Each metric shows the peer group average alongside the target employee's value and the percentage difference.
* **Scatter plot** positioning the employee among their peers, with configurable X and Y axes. By default, the X axis is performance and the Y axis is your chosen comp range metric.
* **Band visualization** showing where the employee sits within their compensation band relative to peers (available when matching by compensation range).

Planners can define peers in two ways:

* **Compensation range**: Employees in the same band
* **Worksheet columns**: Employees matching on dimensions you configure (department, level, location, job family, or any text column)

When multiple dimensions are configured, planners can select which ones to match on, giving them flexibility to narrow or broaden the peer set.

## Setting up peer comparison

### Step 1: Rank your performance values

Peer comparison uses performance ratings on the scatter plot's X axis. For this to work, Pave needs to know the order of your performance ratings from lowest to highest.


1. Go to **Configurations** > **Columns**.
2. Find your **Performance** column and click the edit icon.
3. In the column properties, find the **Order Values** section. This displays all the performance rating values in your cycle.
4. Drag and drop the values to arrange them from **lowest to highest rating** (e.g., "Below Expectations" at the top, "Exceptional" at the bottom).
5. Save the column.

This ranking is what converts text-based ratings ("Meets Expectations") into numeric positions on the scatter plot. Without it, the performance axis can't display correctly. This ranking also affects how performance displays in charts and the cycle outcomes dashboard, so it's worth getting right even if you're not using peer comparison.

 ![](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=1846da08-5f37-4bf9-a064-f3c96a147707 " =573x471")

### Step 2: Choose your comp range metric

This determines how Pave measures where an employee sits in their band, both in peer comparison and across other features like the salary impact and total cash impact columns.


1. Go to **Configurations** > **Worksheet Settings**.
2. 
    ![](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=61b22f44-86bb-438c-b549-fbf0343c7194 " =1638x519")
3. In the **Comparison Metrics** section, select how you calculate where employees sit in their bands:
   * **Compa ratio (salary)**: Employee's salary divided by band midpoint
   * **Compa ratio (total cash)**: Total cash divided by total cash band midpoint
   * **Range penetration (salary)**: Percentage of progression through the salary band (0% = min, 100% = max)
   * **Range penetration (total cash)**: Same calculation for total cash

Choose the metric that matches how your compensation team thinks about band positioning. This selection is used as the default Y axis on the scatter plot and as the metric shown in peer averages.

 ![](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=a72db104-a5c3-461b-9b66-5eeb8f9cb9f4 " =592x377")

### Step 3: Configure peer dimensions

Peer dimensions define which columns planners can use to match peers by worksheet columns. This is where you decide what "similar employees" means for your organization.


1. In **Worksheet Settings** > **Comparison Metrics**, find the **Peers dashboard** section.
2. Select the columns that should be available as peer matching dimensions. Only text-type columns are eligible. Common choices:
   * **Department**: Compare against others in the same department
   * **Level**: Compare against others at the same job level
   * **Location** or **Metro**: Compare against others in the same geography
   * **Job Family**: Compare against others in the same job family

You can select multiple dimensions. Planners will then be able to choose which dimensions to match on when they use peer comparison, and they can combine dimensions (e.g., same department AND same level) to narrow the peer set.

Think about what comparisons are most useful for your planners. If your organization is large enough that level alone produces hundreds of peers, combining level + department gives a more meaningful comparison. If you're smaller, a single dimension may be sufficient.

 ![](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=08793b80-2b82-48fb-b644-7a132eef6ce9 " =902x458")

### Step 4: Ensure permissions are set

Peer comparison requires the **Peer Comparison** permission to be assigned to the roles that should have access. Check your role configuration to confirm the right planner roles can view peer data.

 ![](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=bcb4e65e-12c8-48f7-a95a-176ff4acc0c3 " =1221x87")

## What planners see

Once configured, planners access peer comparison from the employee detail panel under the Peers tab.

## Things to know

* **Peers are scoped to what the planner can see.** A planner only sees peers from employees they have access to in the cycle. They won't see compensation data for employees outside their worksheet or permission scope.
* **Performance ranking affects more than peer comparison.** The ranking you set also controls how performance displays in charts, the cycle outcomes dashboard, and any visualization that uses performance as an axis.
* **Peer dimensions and outlier dimensions are related.** The compensation outlier smart flag uses a similar concept of peer matching. Configuring peer dimensions here also informs how outlier detection defines "similar employees."
* **Both matching methods are always available.** Planners can always match by compensation range (band). Worksheet column matching is available for whichever dimensions you configure.




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