What Pay Transparency Looks Like for Your Company

Navigating the path to meaningful pay transparency application

Pay transparency is a hot topic in the modern workplace. If you work in HR, I bet you could open your LinkedIn right now and find at least one post about it in less than a minute of scrolling (...or maybe that’s just my algorithm?).

It seems like everyone from politicians, to CEOs, to job candidates and employees have a take on: what pay transparency is, how important it is, and how it should be executed. It’s buzzy and—as most things with compensation are—it’s a touchy subject. 

• Employees and candidates want clarity around their compensation and expectations.
• HR and People leaders want informed and empowered managers.
• Finance teams want to stick to a budget.
• DEI leaders want accountability.
• Execs want a fairly compensated workforce without sacrificing profitability.

But, hot take: Sharing Benchmarking Data ≠ Pay Transparency

In The Pay Transparency Playbook, CandorIQ CEO Haris Ikram explains, 

“This movement is about more transparency for pay, performance, and career path planning for employees and candidates. You can’t achieve that by simply sharing benchmarking data.”

Pay transparency is about:

• Helping people understand your company pay philosophy and why you pay the way you do (this doesn’t have to be a 1-to-1 with the market!)
• It’s about understanding the nuances of the strategy: Does it consider different departments, regions, or any other factors unique to your organization?
• Helping employees, managers, and leadership understand the career ladders. Setting clear expectations at each level and the associated pay.
• Understanding the difference between cash, equity, and other forms of payment—as well as the interplay between them.

To achieve meaningful pay transparency, every company needs to think about who has access to what: what should execs, managers, and individual employees be able to see? And that answer will lie somewhere between no transparency and full transparency; varying from company to company and over time.

Determining what this looks like for you involves asking key questions:

1. What are our goals? Understand what you aim to achieve with pay transparency. Is it to attract top talent, retain employees, or align pay with performance?
2. Who needs to see what data to achieve those goals? Determine which stakeholders, whether department leads, managers, or employees, require access to specific data to support decision-making and drive outcomes.
3. How should they see that data? Consider the format and frequency of data presentation. Should it be accessible through a centralized platform, or is a more personalized approach necessary?

Education and communication across your org are key. Collaborate with stakeholders from various teams, including Finance, Legal, and Leadership. Their insights will help tailor pay transparency initiatives to meet the needs of the entire organization.

By approaching pay transparency thoughtfully and inclusively, companies can leverage it as a powerful tool for driving performance, engagement, and overall success.

CandorIQ offers solutions that empower organizations to navigate the complexities of pay transparency.