Elevance Health has a bold purpose: to improve the health of humanity. For their consumers and communities, they're committed to creating more innovative health solutions. For their associates, Elevance Health is committed to creating an impactful, inclusive workplace. That means focusing on the criticality of pay equity.
In 2020, Elevance Health partnered with Syndio to conduct a gender and race pay equity analysis. The analysis found that pay for women and people of color is within one percent of that awarded to white male counterparts. But they didn't stop there.
In 2021, Elevance Health started using Pay Finder™ to ensure employees' salaries don't exacerbate or create new pay disparities. Today, the compensation team and 200+ recruiters use Pay Finder to inform decisions about pay day in and day out.
We are leaders in our industry and we want to be leaders in pay equity."
Adam Swanlund
Compensation Manager
Elevance Health
Health Insurance
100,000
Maintain equitable pay
Ensuring consistent, equitable pay for every new hire
Syndio's Pay Equity Platform PayEQ®, Syndio's Pay Finder™, and Syndio's Expert Consulting
- 25% reduction in pay equity remediation costs
- 6% decrease in time to fill roles
- 6% increase in offer acceptance rate
- Increased trust and improved employer brand
25%
reduction in
pay equity remediation costs
6%
increase in offer acceptance rate
Increased trust and improved employee brand
6%
decrease in time to fill roles
When generating offers, Elevance Health always took internal pay equity into consideration, but managers had limited access to enterprise information. Managers could only look at individuals who reported to them or within a single geography but didn't have statistical analysis based on employees doing substantially similar work more broadly across the company to determine what was equitable and guide their pay decisions.
"Managers didn't know what they didn't know," says Swanlund. As a result, managers would propose offers that were competitive with market rates, but not always in line with internal pay equity. Elevance Health sought a solution to get managers and recruiters in sync with the compensation team to deliver competitive offers that don't create new pay disparities.
Elevance Health turned to Pay Finder to empower over 200 internal and external recruiters to embed pay equity into their recruiting process, even as they hired 2.5 times more employees than planned post-Covid.
How it works
The recruiter searches for a job and enters specific characteristics about a candidate (e.g. education, location, experience). Pay Finder then returns a set of insights that helps the recruiter determine the ideal salary that's both competitive and equitable. This includes the internal range for the job and a predicted pay range unique to that individual.
Compensation teams can also see the implications of pay decisions before they are finalized, such as the impact on pay equity if a recruiter makes an offer that falls outside of the recommended range.
Meaningful, educated discussions about pay
Pay Finder is empowering recruiters, leaders, and even candidates to have more informed conversations about pay. In one example, a recruiter used Pay Finder data and visualizations to show a business leader why hiring a candidate at the maximum range would increase disparities, which instantly persuaded the leader to agree to a more equitable salary.
Elevance Health recruiters now share salary range details in the first conversation so the candidate can decide whether or not to move forward. With questions about pay no longer a concern, a candidate feels more at ease to continue the conversation.
This is game changing. Pay Finder informs the conversation between recruiters and hiring managers, guiding the right decisions; it's a partnership. For candidates, you can see them become more at ease and comfortable continuing the conversation because pay is no longer a question. And employees know that we've taken appropriate steps to be fair and equitable."
Adam Swanlund
Compensation Manager
Elevance Health
The transformation over the last two years — including the comp team's partnership in the recruitment process and the implementation of Pay Finder — is already delivering results that impact the business.
Lower remediation costs
Pay Finder helped Elevance Health maintain pay equity with every new starting salary, resulting in a 25% reduction in remediation costs.
Improved recruiter efficiency
The ability to clearly explain why salaries are what they are — to candidates, employees, and within hiring teams — speeds up the recruitment process by reducing negotiations and internal and external deliberations around pay. This resulted in a 6% decrease in time to fill and 6% increase in offer acceptance rate.
Increased trust
As Pay Finder fosters more meaningful and transparent conversations about pay, it also helps to build trust among internal team members, and between the hiring team and candidates.
Boosted employer brand as Fair Pay Workplace
By partnering with Fair Pay Workplace to certify their pay equity methodology, Elevance Health further strengthened their employer brand. In recognition of its commitment to pay equity, Elevance Health has received several acknowledgements, including being listed on the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and as a Great Place to Work.
The data that Pay Finder provides helps me clearly explain why we pay what we pay and supports fair offers for both internal and external talent."
Lindsay Holt
Senior Recruiter
Elevance Health
Swanlund hopes to put Pay Finder in the hands of more HR Business Partners to inform pay changes beyond the open recruiting process, like a promotion or internal move. "We want to have a constant pulse on what an equitable range is for that individual," he says.
