How Natural Cycles uses Ravio & HRIS-derived data for more confident compensation benchmarking

Virág Madácsi has been at Natural Cycles for over five years. She joined as an HR & finance admin when the company had around 50 people. Now, as People Operations Manager, she owns compensation across a team of 180 in Sweden, the US, Switzerland, and several other markets.

Her instinct for structure has shaped how Natural Cycles runs compensation today. Getting there took a few years, involved navigating a data trust problem, and then making a deliberate decision about which sources to rely on.

The problem with multiple data sources

When Virág first started working on compensation, the process was already data-driven, but the data lived in spreadsheets that grew longer and messier as the company grew.

Benchmarks were refreshed for each cycle and stored in the compensation review sheet, but ad hoc benchmarks for new hires and promotions lived somewhere else entirely.

“At one point I was thinking, where do I even find this benchmark? Is it in the main comp review sheet? Is it in a random sheet we created for that one hire?” It was becoming unmanageable.

Ravio came in not as a replacement for her local provider, but as a complement to it.

The decision came down to a few things: the ability to export data directly to Excel, flexibility to select specific percentiles, stronger data coverage for the UK and Spanish markets, and a market insights layer that provides context on hiring trends and salary movements by sector.

Alongside that was a data quality problem.

Natural Cycles was pulling from several benchmarking sources at once, trying to get a reliable market picture across Sweden, the US, and Switzerland.

Some sources were broadly in line, but others weren’t, and Switzerland proved particularly difficult. Natural Cycles employs data scientists there, and finding reliable benchmarks for that role and market was one of the biggest challenges.

“There wasn’t really a super reliable data source to count on.” When sources disagree that much, averaging across them is as much guesswork as analysis for the People Team.

Ravio had been part of the picture early on, initially on a free plan. It wasn’t the only source, but it became the one Natural Cycles kept returning to.

The reason comes down to where the data originates. “Having the data connected to HR systems gives you trust. In an HR system, the data is going to be correct.”

Live, verified payroll data rather than self-reported figures is what separates a benchmark she can defend from one she can’t.

Getting leadership buy-in to buy Ravio

Natural Cycles started using Ravio through an unusual route. The person who first reached out to propose it was a Natural Cycles customer herself, excited about the product and keen to have the company on board. Natural Cycles signed up on the free plan, which ran for two years.

When the plan ended, Natural Cycles had to decide whether to continue.

Natural Cycles runs a rigorous supplier assessment for every tool it onboards, a standard that comes with being a regulated medical device company.

Ravio went through the company’s security and regulatory review before it was approved.

What the process looks like now

Natural Cycles runs two comp cycles a year – a mid-year refresh in April and May, and a full annual review at the end of the year. Between cycles, Ravio is used for ad hoc benchmarking when a new role comes up during recruitment or promotion flows.

“We run a benchmark refresh twice a year and use that fresh data for the next six months.”

Natural Cycles established its levelling framework in 2023, as the company continued to formalise its compensation approach and prepare for evolving pay transparency requirements.

“We’re benchmarking 70-plus individual roles, twice a year.” The whole annual cycle takes two to three months from start to finish.

Crucially, with Ravio, the experience of running it has changed. “You are no longer lost in the process. You know exactly what comes next. It’s just so much more manageable.”

When the data is challenged

Employees increasingly arrive with AI-generated salary benchmarks and ask why their pay doesn’t match.

Virág has buy-in from leadership and managers. For the occasional employee who questions it, the sourcing, coupled with a well-defined, solid salary review process, is the answer.

"I see AI as a useful tool to challenge my thinking, but not a replacement for reliable compensation data,” Virág says.

“I like to start with trusted market data and then use AI to pressure-test my research or explore different perspectives. It’s reassuring to look at the Ravio data – because you can trust that HR systems have accurate figures."

Advice for People teams at similar-stage companies

“Trust is everything – and it’s not just trust from leadership, but trust in your own answers. If you don’t have that trust, everything slows down. You start wasting time, and in this role, time is very precious.”

That trust starts with reliable sources.

“Your recommendations and proposals need to carry the weight of data. They’re not an opinion – they’re a proposal based on actual data that we trust.”

When a candidate pushes back on an offer or an employee questions whether they’re fairly paid, the sourcing is what makes the answer credible.

On working across markets: “Have one methodology, one comp strategy, consistent – and then execute it locally. Don’t reinvent the wheel every time you add a new country.”