PayScale Inc, today announced that PayScale Professional, its new compensation data service for HR professionals and hiring managers, has been named as one of the "Top 10 HR Products of the Year" by Human Resource Executive magazine. PayScale Professional’s service was recognized for ease-of-use, innovation and value because it enables HR professionals to perform salary comparisons based on the specific factors that influence a position’s compensation, such as: education, workplace skills, certifications, and length of service rather than on the job title alone.

PayScale Professional, launched in June 2006, is designed for HR and hiring managers seeking instant access to current salary data for single jobs or company-wide benchmarking. Employers are able to instantly find data matched to their employee’s exact profile (i.e. computer programmer with 6 years experience and skill in C ), enabling true person-based compensation setting for the first time. All reports are based on actual data-points collected by PayScale’s real-time salary survey, the largest in the industry, with no imputed, aging or cost-of-living adjustments made to the data.

"After reviewing a significant number of product entries this year, we are pleased to select PayScale Professional as one of the 10 best HR products of 2006," said David Shadovitz, editor of Human Resource Executive magazine. "We were impressed by PayScale’s ability to present highly detailed, compensation data that reflected not only current market rates for the position, but the unique variables that influence compensation for that position. PayScale’s system proved to be efficient and easy to use, providing employers with the detailed data they need in order to make logical informed decisions about employee pay."

"It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by the editors at HR Executive," stated Mike Metzger, president and CEO of PayScale. "As the HR landscape continues to evolve, we strive to equip employers with comprehensive, up-to- date, real-time data enabling HR professionals and hiring managers to make better decisions. This award is a great industry validation of our efforts."