Enterprise B2B HR Tech Legal Compliance 2024

Case Study: Equal Pay - Designing for Transparency & Compliance at Scale

When the EU introduced strict new Pay Transparency Directives, Schaeffler needed to transition from fragmented, opaque reporting to a unified self-service platform. As Lead UX Designer, I designed Equal Pay: a role-based, compliance-first HR analytics platform that enables transparent pay equity insights while protecting privacy.

80,000+ Employees with Access

4 Roles Tailored Environments

100% EU Compliant

This project comes under NDA — some information may not be available publicly. This project comes under NDA — some information may not be available publicly. This project comes under NDA — some information may not be available publicly. This project comes under NDA — some information may not be available publicly. This project comes under NDA — some information may not be available publicly. This project comes under NDA — some information may not be available publicly.

Quick Specs

Project Snapshot

Role Lead UX Designer

Timeline 2024

Client Schaeffler (Global Automotive & Industrial Supplier)

Domain Enterprise B2B, HR Tech, Data Visualization, Legal Compliance

Scale 80,000+ employees across 54 countries

1. Challenge

The Situation Before 2024

The legacy mess: HR partners spent weeks manually consolidating and reconciling Excel files for ad-hoc salary inquiries.
The impending threat: EU Pay Transparency Directives demanded proactive disclosure and accurate reporting, creating immediate compliance risk.
The design challenge: make sensitive, mathematically complex salary data understandable to factory floor employees and global leaders without creating panic, breaches, or cognitive overload.

2. Discovery

Empathizing with the Ecosystem

Interviews and desk research across org levels narrowed the focus to two representative personas.

Nadia K. - Manufacturing Engineer (Employee)

"I just want to know if I'm paid fairly - no jargon, no PDFs."

Context: Mobile-first user on the factory floor, monthly usage.
Goal: Quickly understand salary standing vs peers without filing HR tickets.
Friction: Complex portals and fear of retaliation due to poor context.

Jens S. - HR Business Partner (HRBP)

"I need to explain pay gaps to three business units before the next leadership review."

Context: Desktop-first power user, weekly usage during review cycles.
Goal: Drill into groups, run simulations, export compliance-ready reports.
Friction: No unified source, high manual reconciliation effort, and compliance pressure.

3. IA & Logic

The Structural Strategy

Card Sorting Insights

Salary vs Group Average - 92% (highly critical)
Department Breakdown - 78% (critical)
Gender Pay Gap - 71% (highly relevant)
Comparison Group Definition - 67% (moderately relevant)
Historical Trends - 54% (nice to have)

Workshop Principle

"Fewer clicks to comparison." Users wanted immediate contextual answers, not dashboard clutter.

Role-Gated Information Architecture

To respect privacy and reduce cognitive load, I separated the experience into four role-specific swimlanes.

Employee

My Salary, Comparison Group, Pay Gap Indicator, Policies.

HRBP

Background Reports, Salary Band Explorer, Export Tools, Predictive Models.

Leader

Team Overview, Group Drill-downs, Pay Gap Flags.

Recruiter

Recruiting Simulation, Salary Band Limits, Candidate Recommendation Engine.

4. Design Decisions

The Why Behind the UX

Relative, Not Absolute Salaries

To balance trust and privacy, I used percentage-based gaps instead of absolute salary values. This protects confidentiality, avoids anchoring, and aligns with legal constraints.

Role-Gated Separation

I designed separate role-specific landing paths to prevent accidental data leakage and reduce complexity. Each role gets only the tools needed for its decisions.

Proactive Recruiting Simulator

I introduced real-time offer simulation in recruiter workflows, shifting the product from a reactive reporting dashboard to a proactive pay-gap prevention system.

5. System Alignment

Design System Integration & Technical Alignment

Database alignment: mapped components to SAP SuccessFactors APIs for live calculations across salary bands, comparison groups, pay-gap metrics, and audit logs.
Reusable component library: salary bar cards, pay-gap indicators, comparison badges, tooltip overlays, table rows, filter chips, and audit trail entries.
Delivery outcome: improved handoff quality and long-term scalability across product teams.

6. Results

Business Impact

80,000+

Employees Enabled

Frictionless access to transparency metrics across 54 countries.

Distinct Roles Served

Employee, HRBP, Leader, and Recruiter through one secure platform.

100%

Directive Compliance

Aligned with 2024 EU obligations ahead of legal deadlines.

HR Overhead Reduced

Operational Efficiency

Migrated from ad-hoc Excel/email operations to a structured self-service model.

This project is covered under NDA. I can walk through deeper flows, tradeoffs, and implementation strategy in a 1:1 portfolio review.

Want to See the Workflow Deep Dive?

I can share a detailed walkthrough of role-gated flows, data safeguards, and design-to-engineering decisions.

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