Montreal-based HR tech company Workleap has acquired Barley, a Canadian compensation management platform, as it looks to bring performance and pay decisions into a single workflow for employers.
The deal aims to bridge a long-standing gap in talent management: the disconnect between performance evaluation and compensation planning. Barley’s tools will be integrated into the broader Workleap platform, enabling HR teams and managers to move from reviews and goal tracking directly into compensation planning and total rewards decisions — without switching systems or relying on spreadsheets.
“A lot of companies want to pay for performance, but most lack the tools to do it well,” said Simon De Baene, CEO and co-founder of Workleap. “Workleap gives you the signal, and Barley gives you the confidence to act on it.”
Unified platform for performance and pay
The acquisition allows Workleap to offer a full suite of features, including 360-degree feedback, AI-generated review summaries, and compensation tools that help employers align pay with performance, budget, and internal guidelines. The company said this approach helps reduce manual admin work, improve fairness, and boost employee retention.
Barley, which focuses on pay band management, compensation benchmarking, and analytics, will complement Workleap’s existing tools, such as Officevibe and Workleap Performance. Together, the tools aim to help employers make clearer and more data-informed pay decisions.
“We started Barley to tackle the longstanding challenge for organizations to make proactive compensation decisions that are both data-driven and easy for employees to understand,” said Jafar Owainati, CEO and co-founder of Barley. “Joining Workleap was the clear next step for our team.”
This marks Workleap’s third acquisition and second since Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) invested $125 million in the company. Earlier acquisitions include Quebec-based Didacte in 2023 and U.S.-based Pingboard later that same year.
