"We love our working partnership with Pave. Pave has helped make our pay transparency program possible through real-time benchmarking data and easy workflows for managers.” – Tatyana Levit, Director of Global Compensation
Affirm is a financial technology company that enables consumers to pay for purchases over time without late fees or compounding interest. To achieve its mission to deliver honest financial products that improve lives, Affirm builds solutions and aligns its teams with values like “No fine print”, “People come first”, and “Simpler is better”.
Affirm’s compensation philosophy helps them live up to those values by making it simple, transparent, and easy to understand. In May of 2021, the compensation team rolled out and published a compensation grade structure internally. Then, in November of 2023, they took their transparency to the next level. They published geographic differentials, pay grades, and pay structures for every job at the company externally for candidates or anyone else to view.
Affirm’s pay program — and its focus on transparency — is uniquely designed to inspire confidence in how compensation decisions are made and build trust. Externally, Affirm is showing what it means to be a leader in pay transparency.
“Employees and candidates expect transparency, equity, and fairness. It’s not enough to just meet legal requirements. It’s a critical time to be a catalyst for positive change.” – Tatyana Levit, Director of Global Compensation
Revealing its pay structure came with a few challenges such as building new processes and having reliable data to back compensation decisions.
From gathering the right data to running a streamlined process, executing even a single merit cycle is a ton of work. But, Affirm wanted to ensure that employee compensation was always aligned with performance and the market, even if that meant making changes outside of its annual merit cycle. In response, the comp team developed its hallmark Anytime Changes program, enabling managers to adjust compensation at any point throughout the year to reward great performance. Their team knew that traditional methods like benchmarking surveys and spreadsheets wouldn’t keep up with the pace of this program. They needed a better solution.
“Our managers wanted to adjust compensation at any time to responsively reward great performance. We knew this would pose challenges but would also be an opportunity to live our values.” – Tatyana Levit, Director of Global Compensation
Additionally, when managers or recruiters had compensation conversations, questions would arise about the company's overall philosophy. How are compensation decisions made? Is this in line with the market? This led to leaders spending more time explaining how pay decisions were competitive instead of having conversations about growth opportunities and professional development.
Affirm realized that it needed a technology solution that would help leaders make decisions based on where the market is today, enable managers to make quick changes, and, most of all, empower candidates to understand their total compensation.
Affirm has partnered with Pave to power its unique compensation program.
Enabling managers to make compensation changes year-round would be a logistical challenge at most companies. With Pave, Affirm can easily manage this program in just a few clicks. Pave’s platform gives managers a single place to understand their employees’ compensation history, cash position, and equity vesting.
When employees or candidates ask questions about their comp, the Compensation team can rely on Pave’s real-time market data to guide their responses. Having easy access to data to guide compensation discussions gives Affirm credibility and enables managers to spend more time talking about career growth and development.
Both employees and candidates now have more clarity on their total rewards packages. Candidates who receive offers are sent an interactive visual offer letter (powered by Pave) that breaks down their base pay, equity, bonuses (if applicable), and total compensation over time. Employees can model out how their total compensation can grow depending on company performance.
“Our pay transparency program is a cross-pollination between many teams. We needed a solution that is as dynamic as we are.” – Patryk Muczynski, Senior Compensation Analyst
Affirm’s pay transparency program has garnered appreciation from every corner of the company. Managers are grateful for an all-in-one platform they can rely on to make equitable compensation decisions. Employees are responding with an overwhelmingly positive sentiment about the trust built through Affirm’s compensation practices.
The recruitment team shares feedback from candidates who say they felt prepared for offer conversations because they understood pay ranges, geo-differentials, and the overall total rewards structure.
Most impressively, Affirm is driving a culture of transparency and trust amid a volatile labor market. It is setting the bar for what a values-driven compensation philosophy and strategy looks like in action. Affirm’s story demonstrates the positive difference that pay transparency can make at every level of an organization and why it is the future of compensation.
“We’ve seen pay transparency build a culture of trust, which increases employee satisfaction and engagement, as well as confidence in our leaders and the direction of the company.” – Tatyana Levit, Director of Global Compensation
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