Every compensation structure dies the same way: one urgent hire at a time. The market's hot, the candidate's great, the manager says we'll lose them — so the offer goes out ten percent above range, nobody prices what it does to the five people already doing the job, and next year's compression audit finds the wreckage. The exception wasn't wrong; the fact that nobody decided it was the problem.
This form makes the exception a priced decision: evidence-based justification (market data, failed searches, scarcity — not adjectives), an internal equity table listing everyone the offer leapfrogs, the true cost including incumbent adjustments, the alternatives that avoid permanent compression, and a named approval authority. Two exceptions for the same role triggers a range review — because at that point the range is what's wrong.
Who should use this approval form
- HR and compensation teams fielding above-range offer requests
- Owners and executives who approve pay but never see the equity picture
- Hiring managers who want exceptions approved faster (complete forms move faster)
- Municipalities and nonprofits where one exception breaks a published scale
What it helps prevent
- One urgent hire silently repricing an entire team
- Exceptions that become the de facto new range with no decision ever made
- Pay equity exposure from undocumented deviations
- Hiring managers making compensation policy one offer at a time
- The compression audit you'll otherwise need next year
What’s inside
- Part 1 — Proposed Offer
- Part 2 — Justification
- Part 3 — Internal Equity Review
- Part 4 — Compression Impact and Remedy
- Part 5 — Alternatives Considered
- Part 6 — Approval
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.