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So, is the structure of your company such that you are able to constantly adjust these carrots (commission, bonus and pay) on an as-needed basis? Would an adju

So, is the structure of your company such that you are able to constantly adjust these carrots (commission, bonus and pay) on an as-needed basis? Would an adjustment down be possible (sorry sales, had to move 1% of your commission to ops to stave off a revolt!)? Do you find the "boil the frog" method to help with this transparent structure? Giving someone 5x 2k raises over 15 months is far less of an event than giving someone a 10k raise after a yearly performance review. Was this something you guys thought of intentionally, or just the way you wanted to run the company regardless of the transparent structure?

swombat 14y ago
> So, is the structure of your company such that you are able to constantly adjust these carrots (commission, bonus and pay) on an as-needed basis? It is privately owned, by me and my cofounder, with no external funding, so we can do whatever we want. Bearing in mind the company is less than 3 years old, there will still be a lot of adjustment to do before we arrive at a configuration that I would call "final" (though I suspect it will continue evolving... after all, it's made of people!)... > Would an adjustment down be possible (sorry sales, had to move 1% of your commission to ops to stave off a revolt!)? We could, but I wouldn't... that would seem unfair. Sales do give up part of their commission but only when the sale is heavily dependent on ops, for example when it's a referred client (they were presumably referred because they got great service) or when it's an "enhancement" client where we go in and increase their claim size (there's a lot of technical work in that). > Do you find the "boil the frog" method to help with this transparent structure? Giving someone 5x 2k raises over 15 months is far less of an event than giving someone a 10k raise after a yearly performance review. Was this something you guys thought of intentionally, or just the way you wanted to run the company regardless of the transparent structure? I hadn't thought of it that way. From talking to our team, I think they're happier being able to earn smaller pay raises regularly, rather than having to wait a whole year to find out if they "made it". That was intentional - I don't like the way many companies wait a whole year to tell you whether you're doing well enough to deserve a pay raise, and right from the get go I decided it would be a six-monthly process, and then made it quarterly.
- MetaCosm 14y ago
  All in all -- sounds really good, short turn around times and raises also keep people really focused. Sadly, it seems like this would only work in a specific "flavor" of industry. For example, wouldn't work for a software product that takes 3 years to develop and then is funded by ads. But, if you are in a sales-focused industry with short customer turn around, sound great.
  - swombat 14y ago
    Well, guilty as charged. I've only solved this problem in my own context, and that's what I'm talking about. GrantTree is a fairly sales-driven business with relatively short customer turnaround. When I start a software business, I'll solve the problem in that context too... you might have to wait a few years before I can talk about it though ;-)

swombat 14y ago

> So, is the structure of your company such that you are able to constantly adjust these carrots (commission, bonus and pay) on an as-needed basis? It is privately owned, by me and my cofounder, with no external funding, so we can do whatever we want. Bearing in mind the company is less than 3 years old, there will still be a lot of adjustment to do before we arrive at a configuration that I would call "final" (though I suspect it will continue evolving... after all, it's made of people!)... > Would an adjustment down be possible (sorry sales, had to move 1% of your commission to ops to stave off a revolt!)? We could, but I wouldn't... that would seem unfair. Sales do give up part of their commission but only when the sale is heavily dependent on ops, for example when it's a referred client (they were presumably referred because they got great service) or when it's an "enhancement" client where we go in and increase their claim size (there's a lot of technical work in that). > Do you find the "boil the frog" method to help with this transparent structure? Giving someone 5x 2k raises over 15 months is far less of an event than giving someone a 10k raise after a yearly performance review. Was this something you guys thought of intentionally, or just the way you wanted to run the company regardless of the transparent structure? I hadn't thought of it that way. From talking to our team, I think they're happier being able to earn smaller pay raises regularly, rather than having to wait a whole year to find out if they "made it". That was intentional - I don't like the way many companies wait a whole year to tell you whether you're doing well enough to deserve a pay raise, and right from the get go I decided it would be a six-monthly process, and then made it quarterly.

MetaCosm 14y ago
All in all -- sounds really good, short turn around times and raises also keep people really focused. Sadly, it seems like this would only work in a specific "flavor" of industry. For example, wouldn't work for a software product that takes 3 years to develop and then is funded by ads. But, if you are in a sales-focused industry with short customer turn around, sound great.
- swombat 14y ago
  Well, guilty as charged. I've only solved this problem in my own context, and that's what I'm talking about. GrantTree is a fairly sales-driven business with relatively short customer turnaround. When I start a software business, I'll solve the problem in that context too... you might have to wait a few years before I can talk about it though ;-)