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Buffer Sees Clear Benefits To Transparent Employee Salary Policy
An anonymous reader writes: At social media startup Buffer, a single leadership decision eliminated salary negotiation for new employees, preempted gender-based salary discrimination, and prompted a flood of job applications. The decision? Make all employee salaries transparent. "We set down transparency as a core value for the company," CEO Joel Gascoigne said in 2014. "And then, once we'd done that, we went through everything. And salaries was one of those key things that we found that [made us] question ourselves: 'Why are we not transparent about this?'" Years later, the policy is still in place (go ahead and calculate your salary as a would-be Buffer employee) — and it presents a fascinating case study for anyone interested in the ways open organizations approach a rather prickly subject: transparency.
Something tells me I'd either be very happy with my starting salary, or very unhappy with my "master" salary...
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Buffer Sees Clear Benefits To Transparent Employee Salary Policy
We now have intelligent buffers handling HR stuff? Cool.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
No negotiation on salary basically means they are bottom feeders.
Did you look at their salary levels? In the SF area, they are offering $122k to entry level programmers. That is not "bottom feeding". It is ridiculously high. My company (San Jose) offers fresh "BS in CS" grads between $80-100k, and we have no problem getting people from SJSU or even Berkeley. Their problem is on the high end. As that employee goes from beginner to intermediate to advanced, their salary only goes up by $20k. That is a pittance. In the SF Bay Area, there is no way you are going to hang on to good experienced people for $145k.
I think it is more wishful thinking by the execs: "hey these are our salaries - take it our leave it." Of course the execs negotiate their compensation yearly.
I used to work for a company that made bonuses general knowledge within a department. They held a staff meeting and merit bonuses were given and the reasons why were discussed. They also maintained a department ranking and that was posted as well. It didn't really bother me, but I was almost always in the top 3 amongst 25 to 30 sys admins. What wasn't broadcast were the perks and $$$ given by the end-user groups we supported, and again I supported stock traders and private banking groups who had cash to throw about, so I am convinced I was getting significantly more than almost all of my colleagues. I miss the money these days but not the stress and corporate B$, not to mention having time off. 24 hour on-call gets old pretty fast.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
But why is the title bar to this story red?
That happens automatically when a ship decloaks.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly, salary transparency has nothing to do with salary negotiation. Knowing everyone's salary doesn't mean you still can't negotiate your salary. In fact, usually after it's all public, people start negotiating.
The only reason we don't have it is threefold. First, most companies disallow it because keeping salaries secret benefits them. Second, it's cultural - people would rather talk about their sex lives than money (this is an American thing). Third, it's rooted in the fear that if everyone knows what they're paid, they may face a salary cut because they may be overpaid compared to everyone else.
#3 is a false belief - it turns out employees don't feel like someone is overpaid and call for their salary to be cut, but rather they are underpaid and begin negotiations for a raise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
In short, open salaries actually encourage salary negotiations.
You helping somebody does not make you more competent than the person you help - it just proves that he can get the infromation he needs. Get off your high horse.
too bad all of their positions has stupid non market names so correlating salary among the industry norms is near impossible.
Diversity Guardian is the kind of hire you make when you're spending other people's money and of course being a start-up that's precisely what they're doing. Wankers.
The ones offering $122k to entry-level programmers are probably in SF. That extra $20k either covers the cost of driving your car for an hour and a half from someplace with only moderately insane housing prices or covers the difference in the cost of an apartment up in the city, at your option....
I would strongly disagree with your comment about inability to hang onto experienced people at $145k. That's more than adequate to live comfortably in the Bay Area unless you're burning your money frivolously. And once your salary exceeds the amount you need to live comfortably, you're not likely to change jobs just to make a little more. Instead, other factors become your primary considerations—good coworkers, job satisfaction, commute satisfaction, adequate time off, etc.
In other words, if your company can't retain experienced people at $145k, maybe you should consider moving your company off the peninsula down to the South Bay or even over the hill so that it is a reverse commute. Allow more telecommuting. Hire more people to bring workload down. Add company shutdowns on Thanksgiving week and between Christmas and New Year's. Give everyone an extra two or three days of paid vacation every year. Get rid of managers who don't play well with others. And so on. You'll find your retention rate improves markedly.
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