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Part 10 | Action Guide | Your roadmap to practical compensation management in Vietnam
Welcome to the final edition of the Executive Series: Compensation strategy in Vietnam — Essential insights for business leaders
Throughout Parts 1–9, we have examined core principles and strategic insights essential for business leaders and HR professionals aiming to build and sustain effective salary management frameworks in Vietnam. Now, you may be asking:
“How exactly should we begin?”
To answer that question clearly and practically, we have distilled the most essential first steps into a concise action guide.
Here are eight practical To Do items that will empower you to immediately enhance your approach to strategic compensation management.
To Do 1 | Listen intentionally to employee feedback
Have you recently heard statements like these from employees or managers?
- “We’ve been getting more questions about salary increases and promotion policies.”
- “Other companies in our industry seem to be raising salaries faster than we are.”
- “Our job postings aren’t getting the same traction, even after adjusting conditions.”
These are potential indicators that your salary practices might be drifting out of alignment. Initiate deliberate dialogues with your Vietnamese HR team and frontline managers to surface concerns:
- What compensation-related issues or perceptions exist internally?
- If no issues arise, can we confidently assume alignment, or might concerns be going unnoticed?
Active listening to internal feedback can help uncover hidden salary management gaps.
To Do 2 | Visualize your current compensation landscape
Leverage recent payroll data to create a scatter plot comparing salaries to job grades/levels.
X-axis: Job grade or level (e.g. Junior, Mid, Senior, Manager, Director)
Y-axis: Gross monthly or annual salary
This visualization allows you to evaluate the internal structure of your salaries—making clear where there are consistent patterns, or where inconsistencies may be emerging.
You can do this easily in Excel, and if you’re unsure how to get started, ICONIC is available to support.
To Do 3 | Analyze your salary scatter plot thoroughly
Carefully review your visualized salary distribution, reflecting on critical points such as:
- Are salaries overly dispersed within identical job grades?
- Do any salary inversions exist across hierarchical levels?
- Does your current salary structure appear strategically balanced or intuitively misaligned?
Note down your observations honestly and without judgment. This reflection process helps uncover compensation gaps that may not have been obvious before.
To Do 4 | Define your ideal salary structure strategically
Considering internal feedback (To Do 1) and your scatter plot analysis (To Do 3), outline an ideal salary distribution for your organization:
- Where should differentiation between job grades become clearer?
- Which employee segments or grades should be prioritized for adjustment?
- How should excessive salary dispersion be corrected strategically?
Even manually annotating your printed scatter plot can provide valuable clarity.
To Do 5 | Collect external market benchmarking data
Avoid assessing compensation solely with internal data. Gather external market benchmarks from reliable sources, ideally multiple ones, to reduce bias.
Recommended sources include:
- Free salary guides
- Reports from chambers of commerce, industry associations, or industrial zone committees
- Actual payroll-based salary surveys (highly credible)
We strongly encourage participating in ICONIC’s 2025 Vietnam Salary Survey. This annual survey is built on real payroll data provided by companies across industries. Participating companies receive a complimentary executive summary report with the latest Vietnam compensation benchmarks.
To Do 6 | Compare internal ideals against market realities
Carefully overlay your ideal salary structure (To Do 4) with the external market benchmarks collected (To Do 5).
Ask yourself critically:
- Are differences intentional strategic decisions, or unintentional misalignments needing adjustment?
- Do gaps signal potential risks or competitive disadvantages?
This step transforms simple observations into actionable strategic compensation insights.
To Do 7 | Finalize your salary structure for practical implementation
Refine and finalize your ideal salary structure to ensure practicality and strategic alignment. Incorporate insights from internal analysis and external benchmarking into salary ranges for the upcoming fiscal year.
This structured approach results in a robust, strategically balanced salary framework that distinctly aligns with your organizational identity and goals.
To Do 8 | Schedule next year’s salary review proactively
Embed ongoing salary management practices into your HR governance by scheduling next year’s compensation review process in your calendar today.
Regular and deliberate reviews ensure compensation strategies remain continuously aligned with market conditions and organizational evolution.
Practical execution matters most
This concludes our 10-part Executive Series. The best next step is immediate, practical action. Implementing even one or two of the recommended To Do items provides meaningful progress.
We sincerely hope this series has provided clarity and strategic direction, empowering your compensation strategy in Vietnam.
Thank you for your dedicated engagement throughout this series. ICONIC remains ready to assist whenever you encounter future compensation management challenges in Vietnam.
👉 First step: Achieve market clarity through the Vietnam Salary Survey 2025
Participate in our 2025 Vietnam Salary Survey to receive a complimentary executive summary providing critical insights into compensation trends & participate in a Webinar on Compensation strategy.
The survey closes on July 31—participate early to guide your 2025 compensation planning.
📍 Participate in ICONIC’s Vietnam Salary Survey 2025
Join over 800 leading companies already participating and receive your complimentary Executive Summary Report, delivering essential salary benchmarks and actionable insights into Vietnam’s labor market.
Register by July 31, 2025 - Confident decisions start with clear, reliable data.
