Compensation structure charts and pay grade overview arranged on a desk

1327 Business Solutions

Built With Intention

Practical, Industry-Specific Compensation Models, Not a One-Size-Fits-All Approach

A Different Approach to Compensation Design

1327 Business Solutions designs compensation models built for one industry at a time, grounded in real experience running compensation programs from the inside, not just advising on them from the outside.

Most compensation consulting applies the same generic, survey-based approach regardless of what the work actually looks like. 1327 Business Solutions takes a different approach, building a defensible compensation structure designed around what an industry actually values, not a template borrowed from somewhere else. The current focus is university and college foundations, an industry where pay decisions are hard to defend by simply using market survey alone. 1327 also offers executive compensation review, benchmarking market pricing for senior leadership roles against reliable outside data. Every engagement is grounded in years of hands-on experience managing compensation programs day to day, which means the result comes out realistic, easy to administer, and built for teams without a dedicated compensation department to lean on.

One Industry at a Time

A compensation model that works for a hospital doesn't automatically work for a foundation, and a model built for a foundation won't automatically work somewhere else. 1327 Business Solutions thoroughly researches and builds industry-specific models rather than stretching one generic framework across every client. The current focus is university and college foundations, where the model is being tested against dozens of real job descriptions and multiple independent market data sources. Future industries will follow the same process: tested and validated before it's offered as a fit, never applied as a shortcut.

How the Model Comes Together

Analysis

Before entering an industry, 1327 designs a pilot cohort made up of a handful of industry leaders and strong representatives of that industry, who contribute real job descriptions and salary data. From there, the work turns analytical: identifying the common threads that show up across those roles, competencies like level of supervision, knowledge and expertise required, and education, and testing how those competencies actually correlate with salary data. That means looking at how each role is positioned internally against its peers, and externally against the market.

Model Design

Once those patterns are validated, the model itself gets built: a defensible, industry-specific structure of measurable criteria, weighted to reflect what genuinely matters for the work being done. Not adapted from a different industry's framework. Built from what the data for this one actually shows.

Calibration and Benchmarking

The completed model gets benchmarked, fine-tuned, and calibrated against multiple market data sources until it's ready to deploy. The result is a compensation structure with defensible pay grade boundaries an industry can trust, understand, and manage on its own.

Our Philosophy

Compensation programs usually fail for the same reason. They're designed by people who have never had to run one day-to-day, defend it to a board, or explain it to an employee. 1327 Business Solutions is built the opposite way. Every model starts from firsthand experience administering compensation programs, not just consulting on them, and that shows up in the details a purely academic approach tends to miss. The result is designed to work at smaller organizations and larger ones alike, as long as it's applied consistently, and it's built to be genuinely easy to implement and run, not just handed over with a wave goodbye. That includes staying involved after launch. 1327 continues on as an annual partner, updating the model as roles change and new market data comes in, so the structure stays current instead of going stale the year after it's built.

Why It Matters

51%

of employees are open to leaving their job

Gallup

200%

cost of replacing a departing leader

Gallup

1 in 3

HR pros say no formal pay equity strategy

SHRM

30%

drop in intent to quit with transparent pay

Payscale

The 1327 Difference

Practical by Design

Built by people who've actually administered compensation programs, not just studied them. Every structure is realistic enough to run with a small HR team and no dedicated compensation department.

Defensible By Design

Written rationale sits behind every role placement, not just a market number. An organization's HR team or board can ask why, and there's an answer on paper.

Direct Access, Not a Rotating Team

You work directly with the people building the model, not a rotating group of analysts and account managers. No layers between you and the actual work.

Model Design or Market Pricing, Your Call

Not every organization needs a full custom model right away. For executive and board-level roles, 1327 also offers a standalone market pricing review, so you can get a defensible read on where your top roles land against the market without committing to the full build.

Get In Touch

Every engagement starts with a conversation about what your industry actually needs, not a generic pitch. Reach out to learn more about the pilot program, the executive compensation review service, or how the model could work for your organization.