Model N Achieves Accurate and Efficient Pay Equity with Syndio
Doing the right thing for its employees is core to Model N’s culture. The revenue management technology company is committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace and ensuring its 1,000 employees around the globe are paid fairly.
But with a small Total Rewards department, they had limited resources to devote to pay equity analysis. Even more problematic, they were not sure if they were putting budget towards unnecessary remediation using their internal pay equity tool.
In 2022, Model N started using Syndio’s PayEQ® to upgrade their processes and achieve their pay equity goals. Ultimately, they gained far more, as faster, better analysis and decision making created new efficiencies across HR and the entire organization.
Syndio has been transformational, playing a key role in our goal to ensure employees are rewarded fairly and equitably. It’s been well worth the investment.
John Gadd
Sr. Director, Total Rewards, People Operations and Technology
Technology
> 1,000
U.S., with offices in India, Switzerland, and Canada
Pay equity, pay explainability, and pay transparency
Manual process led to lack of confidence in remediation
Syndio’s PayEQ®
- Reduced analysis time by 50%
- Eliminated remediation costs
- Gained full confidence in results
- Increased transparency and trust
At the start of their pay equity journey, Model N used an in-house tool for manual analysis. It was a time consuming process that took the Total Rewards, HR Business Partners, and Legal teams approximately 12 weeks to complete.
The homegrown system posed inherent risks, as it lacked the ability to analyze pay in a statistically significant way. This likely contributed to unnecessary and costly remediation. Without the internal expertise, the team may have made pay adjustments that weren’t needed.
“Remediation isn’t bad,” says Gadd, “but if it’s unnecessary remediation, those funds could be put to better use. Analyzing pay equity without specialized expertise can carry hidden costs that are hard to quantify.”
Over-remediation also reduced pay uniqueness in some instances. When pay is not differentiated based on skills and proficiency it can lead to dissatisfaction among other employees who feel undervalued or unfairly compensated. The team sought a partner to help them revamp their approach and progress on their pay equity journey.
In 2022, the Model N team chose PayEQ to systematically assess pay equity and remove the challenges of manual analysis. They chose Syndio for the software’s validated pay equity methodology and robust statistical analysis, and for the company’s team of experts.
“What set Syndio apart from other solutions,” says Jenn Zelno, Director of Total Rewards at Model N, “was the analytical rigor in combination with the support from the team.”
Model N leveraged Syndio’s team of experts to ensure they were making the right decisions — around everything from creating an accurate data model to applying controls. Despite starting with imperfect data, Model N saw immediate value from PayEQ and refined their analysis over time.
The Model N team also realized there was far more value partnering with Syndio over an attorney.
“We anticipated that working with a lawyer would be a cumbersome process,” explains Gadd, “involving a lot of back and forth due to the lack of software, and it would only be a once-a-year process. With Syndio, we have the flexibility to run analyses on demand.”
Their decision paid off. PayEQ powers a repeatable, rigorous process that allows the team to analyze pay equity more frequently and head off any surprises. In addition to running a full analysis prior to their mid-year compensation cycles, they can run an analysis at any time to find and address outliers and prevent larger discrepancies.
The analysis also helps the team stay aligned with their pay-for-performance philosophy by providing an unbiased, data-driven view of their employees.
Syndio allows us to have a more thorough vetting process for the compensation that we’re offering at any time, not just during our comp cycles when we’re correcting decisions that may not have been aligned equitably. Every pay decision matters and now we can approach pay equity more in real time versus reactively.
Jenn Zelno
Director of Total Rewards
Using the Syndio platform for accurate and explainable pay equity results has streamlined processes across the organization.
Using Syndio reduced the team’s first pay equity analysis from 12 weeks to 8 weeks, and shortened subsequent analyses to 4-6 weeks. This allows them to efficiently allocate existing resources and run more frequent analyses to prevent inequities.
Model N has achieved 100% pay equity, ensuring no statistical differences in pay across genders globally and among races and ethnicities in the U.S. Since starting to use Syndio, they haven’t had to make any new adjustments and have eliminated remediation costs.
“The justification became clear once we realized that our investment in Syndio was a fraction of what it previously cost us annually to remediate,” says Gadd.
Validating and explaining pay builds trust with employees, strengthens Model N’s culture of belonging and respect, and bolsters retention efforts. As Zelno says, “One of the best ways to retain employees is by being truly transparent with your pay decisions.”
Model N has been recognized for their company culture, named as a Best Place to Work for Millennial Employees and a Best Workplace in the Bay Area by Fortune, and as one of the 2024-2025 Best Companies to Work For by U.S. News & World Report.
I can’t say enough about how easy, streamlined, and clean the process is with Syndio. PayEQ ensures we’re consistently applying the same logic and decision criteria to every situation, which allows our employees to have confidence in the fact that we’re doing the best we can for them — that pay is fair and equitable and truly rewards employees for the effort and the skills they bring to their jobs.
Jenn Zelno
Director of Total Rewards
The bottom line
“The justification became clear once we realized that our investment in Syndio was a fraction of what it previously cost us annually to remediate.”
John Gadd
Sr. Director, Total Rewards, People Operations and Technology
