Understanding Workday’s Compensation Philosophy and Support of Pay Parity

Compensation is a complex topic for most companies, especially when it comes to the issue of pay parity. Workday is no exception, but as a company that places great value on transparency, I feel it’s important to share some insights on our compensation philosophy overall. I also want to share the results of our most recent analysis of how we’re doing with pay parity across Workday globally, and the steps we’re taking to maintain those positive results in the future.

First, let’s talk philosophy. We know that competitive compensation is fundamental to employees feeling valued, motivated, and recognized for their contributions. We believe that providing employees with company ownership, solid pay, and a range of benefits is table stakes for being agreat place to work.

As Workday has evolved and matured as an organization, we have generated solid financial results, and through this journey we continue to share our successes with employees. We pay at or above the market average in total direct compensation, which includes base salary, stock grants, and performance-based pay, such as commissions or bonuses for applicable positions. To maintain an accurate understanding of the market, every year we benchmark ourselves against other companies with similar attributes and use that information to build budgets and make compensation adjustments. In addition, we continue to evaluate how we’re doing in less direct areas of compensation, which has resulted in increases to 401(k) matches and ongoing enhancements to our other benefits plans.

Verifying that we havepay parityat Workday is a priority for us. During our recent annual compensation cycle, we re-ran our previous gender and ethnicity-based analyses and found a small number of disparities, which we were able to adjust quickly.

We know that pay parity is an ongoing journey and we will continue to monitor it on a regular basis, as well as continue to enhance Workday applications to support this work for both ourselves and our customers. Following our latest annual compensation cycle, we shared feedback on our process with the Workday product teams and sought input from customers about their pay parity analysis practices, with the goal of making it easier for customers to run their own pay parity analyses using Workday.

And being a relatively new mother myself, I also understand the importance of taking action today to lay the groundwork for future generations. We need to do everything we can to ensure that our children enter a workforce that’s fair and equal, where everyone’s contributions are valued regardless of their gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other attribute. By providing equal pay for equal work, companies can make pay inequity a topic that our children only read about in history books.

Deepening our focus on pay parity has prompted us to look under the hood of all our programs. From belonging and diversity to product and technology, we’re evaluating what our employees need, and are excited by the opportunity we have to further strengthen our pay parity efforts.

And it’s not just about what we’re measuring, it’s about keeping pace with regulation. Every week I hear news about a different city, state, or country that’s focusing on pay parity and new reporting requirements. We’re committed to keeping abreast of the regulatory environment and understanding each region’s needs, while also staying true to our core compensation philosophy.

By continuing the conversation about pay parity, maintaining a learning mentality on the topic, and helping our customers reach their own goals, we look forward to joining others in identifying and closing existing wage gaps, and ensuring our children will enter a workforce where pay parity is a given.