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I'll let you know soon. We are over 30 people already ( 2 people started since the interview ). The point of the system is that for a bonus system to work well
by xal 16y ago
I'll let you know soon. We are over 30 people already ( 2 people started since the interview ).
The point of the system is that for a bonus system to work well the people who give the bonuses need to know about the individual people's contributions. From the company perspective, people who are very helpful to other employees are very valuable and Unicorn rewards this. People who finish big and hard projects are obviously valuable to the entire company and Unicorn rewards this. People who may be solid but are grumpy and don't like to show off their accomplishments... well... If they leave over unicorn and end up being replaced with people who do the things that are rewarded by the system then I'm happy with this outcome.
So far it's been a huge surprise to see where the money goes in Unicorn and I'm thrilled with it.
- petercooper 16y agoPeople who may be solid but are grumpy and don't like to show off their accomplishments... well... If they leave over unicorn and end up being replaced with people who do the things that are rewarded by the system then I'm happy with this outcome. Do you prefer less-talented, extroverted employees over more-talented, introverted ones?
- xal 16y agoBeing a (hopefully) talented introvert myself I definitely don't optimize for that :-) I don't think it's fair to see our system so black and white. First of all, i'm sure it has problems. Probably many. However, bonus systems all have problems. The traditional top down, performance review style bonus system definitely works best for the extroverts. From what i've seen of unicorn, the people who are most rewarded are the quiet but helpful kinds. Also, if unicorn helps to get people into the habit of sharing their accomplishments with their friends and coworkers then I think that's worth it all by itself. You have to share your accomplishments. Everyone loves to work with people who do great stuff. But if those people don't tell you about the great stuff they do then you cannot know about it and you cannot partake.
- catch23 16y agoAny chance of sharing some screen shots or code on how one actually awards accomplishments? Is it like a badge system where there are a set number of achievements, or is it something like a "free form" achievement where one states how it can be solved and a way for the system to know when it has been solved? Is it something like: "Fix bug #30 and get $10"? Or is it something like: "Solve 20 bugs in one week and get $10?" I'm just thinking of doing something similar for my own little shop too...
- xal 16y agoI described it below. I think your approach would vastly overcomplicate a system like this. It's essentially a freeform money transfer system. You click on a person, you enter an amount and we have a ledger system that moves the money from your bonus budget into someone else's bonus receivables. Originally we thought we will have to protect against bonus trading but instead we simply trust our employees as we should. If two people start trading bonuses then this may be a fireable offense.