Figures helps Treatwell to benchmark salaries in 13 countries

The Challenge

When salaries aren’t published on recruitment ads, how can companies be sure they’re setting compensation at the right levels?  At Treatwell, the HR team struggled with this for many years.

Since its foundation in 2008 the company has welcomed more than 750 employees. “We would be trying to get an indication for our salaries, but it was super difficult,” explains Talya Avram, Director of Talent Acquisition. “In some countries the salary appears on ads, Lithuania being one of them, but it isn’t really a common thing.”

“So we made spreadsheets using data that we could source – like the salary expectations of people coming through, Glass Door, and job ads in some countries. If a manager needed to get a sense of the market, they’d come to me and every time I was having to manually create this spreadsheet with whatever was available, which was very time-consuming.”

Looking around at competitors’ ads and existing employees’ expectations didn’t provide a completely reliable database. “This data we compiled was skewed and not giving an accurate view.”

In turn, this sometimes led to problems further down the road. “Sometimes we’d find that we weren’t competing in the market at the rate we needed to, and we would often have to adjust as time went on.”

The Objectives

It became clear that Treatwell needed a joined-up compensation system – not just to make sure that salaries were set at the correct level from the outset, but to carry out fair reviews, and save time too.

The company is planning significant expansion during 2022-23.  

“We are planning to recruit another 600 people in the next year,” explains Talya. “The market’s changing – the economy’s changing – so with that kind of growth, we need to make sure we’re in the right place in the market.”

The Strategy

Having manually collected salary data for more than 750 roles, Talya’s team was ready to try a different way.  “We’d always investigated the possibility of using data tools. The biggest challenge was finding a tool that would offer a range of data across our 13 European markets. What we found was that many were UK-centric or specific to one country; very few could work across Europe.”

When they started looking at tools for salary benchmarking, Talya was referred to Figures by an associate in the HR community. Offering data from most parts of Europe (with even more coverage in the works), Figures enabled Treatwell to efficiently benchmark new and existing roles. With an upcoming review scheme, Talya was keen to test out the software and see how it could be shared with managers in every country.

“I made sure that the key budget owners in each department had access,” says Talya. “I wanted people to self-serve, really, so that my team isn’t solely responsible for salary decisions.”

The Results

Access to reliable, international salary data.

“It's been good to get a sense of where we stand in the market against our competition – similar companies that have recruited into some of the same roles. Figures gives us a real taste of our market, rather than the big corporates that we don’t want to compete with. The international element means that we can look at a market beyond just the UK or just France. And the fact that Figures is really investing in growth across Europe is really exciting.”

Recruitment budgets can be managed more effectively.

‍Talya has shared Figures with managers across 13 markets. “Ultimately, it's our leaders who are responsible for their budget and for their salary reviews, and they need to be empowered to make those decisions.”

Figures supports budget forecasting.

‍“We’ve got a big exercise coming up, forecasting head count for next year and budgeting for roles,” says Talya. This kind of planning – even on a large scale – is quick and simple using the data generated by Figures.

… and it supports salary reviews, too.

‍Team Treatwell is about to carry out a review cycle and Figures will enable them to stay competitive. “That’s when we can really take advantage, not just for recruiting but retention.”

“Figures enables Treatwell to empower our leaders to make wise and conscious budgeting decisions when it comes to new roles and reviews.”

Talya Avram (Director of Talent Acquisition at Treatwell)