Sierra Systems
Sierra Systems

bethanye McKinney Blount and Lisa Dusseault, a pair of serial entrepreneurs and accomplished software engineers, could have picked just about any industry to carry out their next business venture. The “why compensation software” question was frequently posed to them when they approached venture capitalists. “It’s very unusual for a pair of engineers to say, ‘we’re going to work on creating a compensation platform.’ However, this was an area that intrigued both of us, especially since compensation is a fundamental and essential component of every business,” says bethanye, who was featured on Forbes’ 2018 list of Top 50 women in Tech.

The duo set off on a mission to provide businesses with “enough insight” to make good compensation decisions. But they weren’t willing to take shortcuts. Only after interviewing more than 70 thought leaders and HR officers did they settle upon the idea of starting Compaas, an HR tech solution provider offering a comprehensive compensation intelligence platform.

A SaaS platform, Compaas connects to an organization’s existing HR tech stack—which could include an HRIS, a stock administration tool, or even a random spreadsheet to track certain organizational metrics. The platform assembles the various streams of data to provide businesses with a clear, thoughtful, and powerful view into how compensation is distributed across various cross-sections of the organization. For organizations that use stock as part of their compensation (e.g., ESOP), Compaas is an absolute must-have. The analytics platform offers equity-adjusted compa-ratio calculations to help organizations understand the effect of combining stock and cash for a complete compensation view.

Another unique feature offered by Compaas is its Rewards tool. While leveraging all the benefits of the primary platform, the Rewards tool gives managers and stakeholders their own compensation portal where they can recommend raises, leave notes, and more. The built-in approval process ensures that managers needn’t wait for approvals from upper management before sending recommendations to payroll. bethanye, CEO of Compaas, elaborates: “Through the Rewards tool, we have given businesses a powerful, context-rich, and secure process that reduces the time taken to run a raise cycle. This leads to happier internal customers—employees.”

Through the Rewards tool, we have given businesses a powerful, context-rich, and secure process that reduces the time taken to run a raise cycle

It’s also important to highlight the dynamic nature of the software. Since Compaas is in-sync with an organization’s tech stack, the data generated is always up-to-date and reflects the constant changes that a business undergoes. Additionally, bethanye and her team leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the compensation strategy of an organization aligns with their goals and values. “We work with our clients on a recurring basis to understand new patterns or trends that emerge in the data through the analytics platform,” says bethanye, before highlighting that businesses also use Compaas to gather detailed insights about employees. A feature that is particularly useful for HR managers, Compaas details the timeline of events of an employee’s tenure with the company. She adds, “You can see all the important events for an employee, from their performance to bonus history, and a whole lot more.”

A business can reap the benefits of Compaas almost as soon as it’s deployed. bethanye cites the example of Managed by Q, an office management platform company. While the client had the pertinent data needed for a company-wide compensation review, the information was spread across fragmented systems. Combining the data into spreadsheets and triple-checking the same would have been a time-consuming process. Compaas simplified the process as the platform assembled its scattered data into one place, and converted them into actionable insights that Managed by Q could leverage to make timely compensation decisions.

An exciting future awaits Compaas. To think that it has evolved from a PDF report to a full-fledged analytical platform and only continues to add layers and feature sets, is proof that bethanye, Lisa and their team have yet to arrive at the finished article. They are constantly seeking ways to improve the platform. In 2018, alone, Compaas interviewed a total of 167 HR professionals, understanding the pain points plaguing organizations across the board. Their immediate focus is to continue working with Workday and other HR platforms on Compaas’ integration features. Also, to shore up the just-released Compaas rewards program, “As more customers run their raise cycles through the platform, we will be able to make significant improvements to the product,” says bethanye.

Most of all, Compaas is poised to instill excitement into the workaday lives of its clients. “A business working with Compaas is not using just a product. We wish to change the experience of how they work and get through their day,” concludes bethanye.