The Core Challenge
National Carwash Solutions (NCS) has grown to more than 1,500 employees through 20+ acquisitions over the last 8 years. While this expansion has strengthened NCS’s market position, it has also resulted in a highly fragmented workforce across the U.S. and Canada, including field sales and service teams, manufacturing and warehouse operations, and a broad range of corporate functions.
Allie Jensen, HR Manager at NCS, faced a daunting administrative burden during compensation cycles. For years, the team operated in what they described as “spreadsheet hell," relying on Google Sheets and Excel to manage highly sensitive pay data across a complex, multi-state workforce.
In an effort to modernize, they transitioned to their HRIS system’s compensation module – only to discover in the eleventh hour it lacked the flexibility and key functionality required to automate the process as planned. With deadlines looming, the team was forced to revert to their manual, spreadsheet-driven process – increasing risk, workload, and frustration at the exact moment accuracy mattered most.
The Challenges:
- Administrative Overload: Managing version control, maintaining data security, and manually manipulating compensation data for hundreds of employees created significant operational strain. The process made it impossible to eliminate errors, consumed hours of manual effort, and introduced unnecessary risk at a time when accuracy was critical.
- The "Night-Before" Technology Failure: NCS attempted to transition to their HRIS provider’s compensation management solution. However, the night before the cycle launch, the team discovered the system could not support the complex logic required to link performance ratings with comp-ratio based recommendations.
- Lack of Data-Driven Equity: Without a system capable of enforcing necessary compensation logic, pay decisions were difficult for managers to justify. There was no efficient way to audit pay equity across gender, department, location or roles, limiting visibility and increasing the risk of inconsistent or inequitable outcomes.
The Solution
After experiencing functionality issues with their previous tool, NCS turned to 15Five’s Compensation module (powered by Comprehensive.io) to bring structure, security, and strategic rigor to the compensation review process.
Allie partnered closely with 15Five to design and implement a sophisticated merit cycle that directly linked Performance Review ratings with Comp Ratios. Instead of giving managers a blank slate to start from, the system automatically calculates recommended pay adjustments based on employees’ documented performance level and where they fall within their salary band. This shift replaced uneven decision-making with a consistent, data-driven framework.
The "A-Ha!" Moment
The breakthrough came when Allie realized the platform could actively reduce unconscious bias in compensation decisions. With clear data visualizations and automated logic, managers could align their decisions more objectively with performance, creating greater consistency across the organization.
For the first time, the HR team had immediate visibility into discrepancies. If a manager attempted to give a significant increase to a lower performer, the system flagged it-prompting HR to ask, "Where is the disconnect here?" This transformed compensation conversations from administrative troubleshooting to strategic talent alignment.
What National Carwash Solutions (NCS) Said About 15Five
“Before 15Five, it was a nightmare. Sending sheets back and forth... we didn't have the immediate insight to identify increase request outliers and say, 'Your employee’s performance review was X, and their comp ratio is Y, so they should receive an increase close to Z.' Now, efficiency has gone up tenfold.”
— Allie Jensen, HR Manager at National Car Wash Solutions
“We basically took the opportunity for bias out of the merit process... It’s nice to know that we have a platform we can trust.”
— Allie Jensen, HR Manager at National Car Wash Solutions
The Results
- Tenfold Increase in Efficiency: Eliminating manual spreadsheets saved at least 8 hours of administrative time per cycle – before even accounting for reduced errors, rework, and back-and-forth communications with leaders, supervisors and employees.
- Removal of Calculation Bias: NCS successfully implemented a formulaic approach that ties pay increases directly to performance ratings and comp ratios, ensuring that high performers in lower salary bands are prioritized for growth.
- Improved Strategic Insight: HR can now instantly filter and analyze compensation data to audit for fairness, replacing hours of manual aggregation with real-time analytics.
- Managerial Confidence: Once managers understood the logic behind the recommendations, they became more confident in explaining compensation decisions to their teams, strengthening transparency and trust.
