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TAKE A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO PAY TRANSPARENCY

15 April 2025

There’s real power in pay transparency it enhances motivation, boosts performance and promotes fairness.
​As businesses increasingly adopt remote and international work models, ensuring fair and transparent pay practices is paramount if organisations want to thrive and grow. In the dynamic modern workplace implementing pay transparency can have far-reaching effects on organizations with significant global implications that present unique challenges that positively impact the bottom line.

SPEAKERS:
​Tipu Zaheer | ENGIE
​Saul Huisman | SWISS RE
​Nikolaos Kounadis | ALPHA BANK
​Bruno Zori | CNH INDUSTRIAL
​Burak Akay | BASF
​Delia Gomez Ortiz | NESTLÉ

Tipu Zaheer
​Head of Compensation & Benefits, HR Performance & HRIS AMEA
​ENGIE


KEY POINTS

  • The speaker emphasizes that pay transparency should not be reduced to figures or data tables. Instead, it is a strategic enabler rooted in trust, fairness, and culture-building across organizations.
  • Proactiveness in the context of pay transparency entails clearly communicating pay decisions—including the how, why, and what—to both managers and employees. This fosters clarity, removes ambiguity, and helps eliminate biases in reward processes.
  • A transparent reward framework empowers managers with tools to make well-informed, fair decisions. It also builds mutual respect between employers and employees, reinforcing understanding and acceptance of compensation strategies.
  • While the EU is advancing legislation and policy frameworks on pay transparency, companies in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—such as ENGIE—are actively preparing to align. This includes educating internal stakeholders and adapting to expected regulatory changes.

Saul Huisman
​Reward Partner Group Functions & EMEA
​SWISS RE


KEY POINTS

  • Swiss Re’s approach to pay transparency started in 2017 with its first pay equity audit and culminated in a full rollout across EU locations in June 2024, with global expansion ongoing. The initiative is deeply integrated into the company's compensation philosophy and organizational culture.
  • The implementation relied on structured training across three workstreams:
    ​1) Over 60 sessions for 3,500 line managers, focusing on accountability and real-life decision-making scenarios.
    ​2) 25 employee sessions, aimed at increasing understanding of compensation frameworks, objective vs. subjective factors, and the logic behind pay positioning.
  • The launch of pay transparency communications became Swiss Re's most-read internal article, underscoring employees’ interest. Clear explanations of compensation factors and de-emphasis of subjective metrics (like “hot jobs” or tenure) helped build trust and clarity across the organization.
  • Swiss Re publicly includes pay ranges in job postings in the EU, Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, and Israel—after risk assessment with recruitment and business teams. Out of hundreds of postings, only five cases required withholding pay data, indicating a strong alignment between transparency and market readiness.

Nikolaos Kounadis
​Director, HR Strategy, Rewards and OE
​ALPHA BANK


KEY POINTS

  • Starting in 2020, Alpha Bank launched a broad HR transformation, culminating in a structured career framework that includes:
    ​- 1,300 new job titles;
    ​- 14 job families (12 individual contributor, 2 managerial);
    ​- A job evaluation system based on global grading;
    ​- Detailed role profiles including responsibilities, skills, and requirements.
    ​This framework sets a strong data-driven foundation to align with the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
  • While regulatory alignment is important, Kumadis emphasized that pay transparency alone addresses only ~10% of the gender pay gap. The core issue lies in the underrepresentation of women in higher-level roles—what he called the “sticky floor” problem—requiring broader structural and cultural change.
  • HR professionals must both "show the problem" to leadership by surfacing data on gender representation and "pull society forward" by embedding fairness into talent systems. It’s not enough to implement frameworks—HR must also act as change agents within and beyond the organization.
  • Quoting Kazantzakis, Kumadis urged peers to lead by example in their personal and professional lives. Change, he noted, must start “from me”—with each person actively promoting equality in their immediate environment, including family, partnerships, and teams.

Bruno Zori
​Director Compensation & Benefits EMEA
​CNH INDUSTRIAL


KEY POINTS

  • To ensure consistent understanding and adoption across countries, CNH Industrial emphasizes the importance of clear internal communication, manager training, and the standardization of global processes—balancing local flexibility with corporate coherence. Education of people leaders is considered a continuous, long-term investment.
  • Despite having gender-neutral reward systems in place for years, CNH identified discrepancies between policy and practice. Through detailed analysis—adjusting for factors like tenure, time in role, and hiring cycles—they shifted from raw averages to adjusted pay gap metrics, acknowledging the complex cultural and systemic variables influencing outcomes.
  • Even with equal pay structures, retention of female talent—especially in technical roles—remains a challenge. CNH adapts its reward policies and exit analysis to understand and mitigate attrition in underrepresented clusters, ensuring a more inclusive and sustainable talent strategy.
  • As pay transparency becomes more embedded, automation of data processes, combined with strict data quality controls, is critical. CNH integrates audits, scorecards, and system alignment to build a self-service model for managers and ensure readiness for both internal governance and external reporting.

Burak Akay
​Global Head of Compensation & Benefits
​BASF


KEY POINTS

  • The speaker highlights the significance of the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which was discussed in 2021, published in 2023, and is set to be fully embedded in EU countries by 2026. This directive requires organizations to ensure transparency in pay structures and address gender pay gaps.
  • The implementation of pay transparency requires not only the accurate reporting of pay data but also a cultural shift within companies. Organizations need to focus on data quality and ensure that employees are well-informed about their pay ranges, including how compensation decisions are made.
  • The speaker emphasizes that large organizations, such as BASF, face significant challenges in implementing the directive due to their global structure and large workforce. A structured and proactive approach is required, which includes addressing reporting requirements, pay range publication, and recruitment processes.
  • The speaker stresses that pay transparency should not only focus on gender pay gaps but should also address issues related to nationality, disability, and other forms of discrimination. Companies need to adopt a comprehensive approach to ensure fairness and transparency in compensation.

Delia Gomez Ortiz
​Head Center of Competence Total Rewards – Europe
​NESTLÉ


KEY POINTS

  • Nestlé started integrating pay transparency and manager involvement as early as 2012, and by 2019 had fully embedded compensation data and decision-making into digital systems accessible to line managers, HRBPs, and employees. This long-term vision positioned the company to anticipate regulations like the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
  • Since 2018, Nestlé has taken a public stance on equal pay for equal work, incorporating global pay equity reviews into its annual compensation cycle from 2021 onward, with adjustments made for countries with legal restrictions. This reflects a values-driven, not just regulatory-driven, approach.
  • Through initiatives like Total Reward Statements, Nestlé provides over 120,000 employees with a full view of their compensation package—strengthening both employee value proposition (EVP) and internal equity perceptions. Transparency is positioned as a pillar of the company’s global HR strategy.
  • The journey required investment in policies, systems, data consolidation, and especially manager and HR capability building. Nestlé highlights that pay transparency is not solely a Total Rewards responsibility, but a cross-functional effort involving cultural change, leadership education, and IT alignment across highly diverse global operations.

THANK YOU!


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