4 ms·

How about: raises. When your engineers can realistically get a 20, 30 or 50% raise switching jobs, go ahead and match that. Does your entry level person now hav

by logn 14y ago

How about: raises. When your engineers can realistically get a 20, 30 or 50% raise switching jobs, go ahead and match that. Does your entry level person now have two years of experience? Boost their pay. A lot. Give people raises based on market rates, not based on their current pay. Also, performance review processes at companies are generally horrid. I think it more often de-motivates people, lowers morale, and makes people want to go to other jobs if they feel under-appreciated or feel the process is bogus. Employees shouldn't have to write a 3 page essay justifying their growth and goals. It should be evident from their work. And peer reviews are all the worse. If a manager can't competently review performance of engineers, the manager isn't doing his/her job.

hkmurakami 14y ago
The Netflix culture slides immediately came to mind: "At many firms, when employees are hired, market compensation applies. (but at comp review time, it no longer applies!) At Netflix, market comp always applies: esentially, top of market comp is re-established each year for high performing employees. At annual comp review, manager has to answer the Three Test for the personal market for each of their employees: 1. What could person get elsewhere? 2. What would we pay for replacement? 3. What would we pay to keep that person? (if they had a bigger offer elsewhere?) http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 edit: slides 96 and 100
- msoad 14y ago
  I always hear two completely different things about Netflix culture. This slide represent the good side but there are Glassdoor reviews too. What really is going on at Netflix? Are people happy and those Glassdoor reviews are from fired people or what?
  - BrandonM 14y ago
    Did you see slides 22-25? It sounds like they have the potential to cut a lot of people regularly. That would easily lead to disgruntled ex-employees. Edit: See also slide 38.
  - jstanley 14y ago
    I am generally skeptical of Glassdoor reviews. I think the culture (both socially and technically) where I work is great, and I couldn't imagine much better, but all of the Glassdoor reviews are quite negative. I can only assume it is because happy employees don't bother posting to Glassdoor.
    - larsberg 14y ago
      Too bad you're getting downvoted! The glassdoor stats are useful, but as you said seem to reflect disgruntled or people on the way out. For example, the pay ranges were at the bottom of the level band (which was tied to the job titles) corresponding to my previous employer. There are only two reasons to be at the bottom: just promoted, or...
      - msoad 14y ago
        I agree, you barely see salaies close to $200K for software engineers in Bay Area but it's a norm for good engineers here. They can get paid up to $250K for their job in Bay Area.
suyash 14y ago
You make some great points here that I totally agree with.
potatolicious 14y ago
So very, very true. Hell, half the time your employees don't actually know how much their job sucks until they start looking because they feel underpaid. I felt into that category - spent two years right out of college at a company where my technical skills were atrophying and middle management reigned supreme. Younger me didn't know any better - but knew that I was being grossly underpaid. I'm still a little bit thankful that they shafted me two compensation reviews in a row, otherwise I may still be working that job. > "Also, performance review processes at companies are generally horrid." I have never, ever met a review process that wasn't a complete waste of time. There was always a huge disconnect between compensation and reviews. I'd get reviews where my coworkers vouch for my abilities and sometimes sing my praises, and then my total compensation adjustment would come in sub-1%. We just spent the last week and half wasting everyone's time writing up these review forms so that the conclusion is "is very good at his job, well liked by everyone, demonstrates initiative and judgment, is worth a 0.8% raise". Compensation is a big deal, and should have been mentioned in the slide deck IMO. I don't care how perfect my job is, if I feel like there's a 30-40% gap between my comp and market comp, I'm going to up and leave.
- fyi80 14y ago
  > Compensation is a big deal, and should have been mentioned in the slide deck IMO. I don't care how perfect my job is, if I feel like there's a 30-40% gap between my comp and market comp, I'm going to up and leave. So, replace the whole slide deck with just one slide: $$$$
- Joeri 14y ago
  I agree about the uselessness of performance reviews. I've seen several attempts at introducing a performance review process, and the results are always the same: everybody finds out what they already knew intuitively, nobody gets a meaningful raise that they wouldn't have gotten without the review anyway, and bottom performers who haven't already been weeded out will not be weeded out as a result of the review. I would say that there's no reason for a business to have performance reviews, but i've seen them used as an instrument to postpone raises with the argument "we're setting a baseline now to adjust compensation next year". So, they are useful as a cost reduction instrument, provided your people don't walk out in disgust.
nahname 14y ago
Anything specifically come to mind about performance review that sucks? I feel like there is opportunity in that space to innovate.
- logn 14y ago
  I just generally see that as useless hoops to jump through. As a manager I'm always evaluating my people. I don't need a big event made out of it or need to solicit feedback from all sorts of people. It's a basic function of a manager and they seem to have delegated that function to the employees themselves and other teammates.
- walshemj 14y ago
  Capture by parts of the company whose goals can be negative for the long term good of all the stakeholders and as a way to manage the pay levels down using the cloak of performance reviews.
fudged71 14y ago
A local startup here is tackling that second paragraph of yours and they just got an opportunity for office space in the valley. Basically using a simple goal-oriented checklist for managers to evaluate performance, trying to make the process less formal, more focussed, and more enjoyable. More about that here: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/startup-weekend-canadian-cloud-showdown-2013-03-20 http://www.techvibes.com/blog/startup-weekend-canadian-cloud...

by logn 14y ago

hkmurakami 14y ago

The Netflix culture slides immediately came to mind: "At many firms, when employees are hired, market compensation applies. (but at comp review time, it no longer applies!) At Netflix, market comp always applies: esentially, top of market comp is re-established each year for high performing employees. At annual comp review, manager has to answer the Three Test for the personal market for each of their employees: 1. What could person get elsewhere? 2. What would we pay for replacement? 3. What would we pay to keep that person? (if they had a bigger offer elsewhere?) http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 edit: slides 96 and 100

msoad 14y ago
I always hear two completely different things about Netflix culture. This slide represent the good side but there are Glassdoor reviews too. What really is going on at Netflix? Are people happy and those Glassdoor reviews are from fired people or what?
- BrandonM 14y ago
  Did you see slides 22-25? It sounds like they have the potential to cut a lot of people regularly. That would easily lead to disgruntled ex-employees. Edit: See also slide 38.
- jstanley 14y ago
  I am generally skeptical of Glassdoor reviews. I think the culture (both socially and technically) where I work is great, and I couldn't imagine much better, but all of the Glassdoor reviews are quite negative. I can only assume it is because happy employees don't bother posting to Glassdoor.
  - larsberg 14y ago
    Too bad you're getting downvoted! The glassdoor stats are useful, but as you said seem to reflect disgruntled or people on the way out. For example, the pay ranges were at the bottom of the level band (which was tied to the job titles) corresponding to my previous employer. There are only two reasons to be at the bottom: just promoted, or...
    - msoad 14y ago
      I agree, you barely see salaies close to $200K for software engineers in Bay Area but it's a norm for good engineers here. They can get paid up to $250K for their job in Bay Area.

suyash 14y ago

You make some great points here that I totally agree with.

potatolicious 14y ago

So very, very true. Hell, half the time your employees don't actually know how much their job sucks until they start looking because they feel underpaid. I felt into that category - spent two years right out of college at a company where my technical skills were atrophying and middle management reigned supreme. Younger me didn't know any better - but knew that I was being grossly underpaid. I'm still a little bit thankful that they shafted me two compensation reviews in a row, otherwise I may still be working that job. > "Also, performance review processes at companies are generally horrid." I have never, ever met a review process that wasn't a complete waste of time. There was always a huge disconnect between compensation and reviews. I'd get reviews where my coworkers vouch for my abilities and sometimes sing my praises, and then my total compensation adjustment would come in sub-1%. We just spent the last week and half wasting everyone's time writing up these review forms so that the conclusion is "is very good at his job, well liked by everyone, demonstrates initiative and judgment, is worth a 0.8% raise". Compensation is a big deal, and should have been mentioned in the slide deck IMO. I don't care how perfect my job is, if I feel like there's a 30-40% gap between my comp and market comp, I'm going to up and leave.

fyi80 14y ago
> Compensation is a big deal, and should have been mentioned in the slide deck IMO. I don't care how perfect my job is, if I feel like there's a 30-40% gap between my comp and market comp, I'm going to up and leave. So, replace the whole slide deck with just one slide: $$$$
Joeri 14y ago
I agree about the uselessness of performance reviews. I've seen several attempts at introducing a performance review process, and the results are always the same: everybody finds out what they already knew intuitively, nobody gets a meaningful raise that they wouldn't have gotten without the review anyway, and bottom performers who haven't already been weeded out will not be weeded out as a result of the review. I would say that there's no reason for a business to have performance reviews, but i've seen them used as an instrument to postpone raises with the argument "we're setting a baseline now to adjust compensation next year". So, they are useful as a cost reduction instrument, provided your people don't walk out in disgust.

nahname 14y ago

Anything specifically come to mind about performance review that sucks? I feel like there is opportunity in that space to innovate.

logn 14y ago
I just generally see that as useless hoops to jump through. As a manager I'm always evaluating my people. I don't need a big event made out of it or need to solicit feedback from all sorts of people. It's a basic function of a manager and they seem to have delegated that function to the employees themselves and other teammates.
walshemj 14y ago
Capture by parts of the company whose goals can be negative for the long term good of all the stakeholders and as a way to manage the pay levels down using the cloak of performance reviews.

fudged71 14y ago

A local startup here is tackling that second paragraph of yours and they just got an opportunity for office space in the valley. Basically using a simple goal-oriented checklist for managers to evaluate performance, trying to make the process less formal, more focussed, and more enjoyable. More about that here: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/startup-weekend-canadian-cloud-showdown-2013-03-20 http://www.techvibes.com/blog/startup-weekend-canadian-cloud...