Few people talk openly about their salary - our culture is characterized by secrecy - "people don't talk about money". In conservatively structured companies, employees are usually paid according to hierarchy level. Salaries are not transparent, are treated confidentially and negotiated individually - sometimes there are clauses in the employment contracts that you are not allowed to talk about it. These non-transparent structures promote an "elbow culture", where in the end each person looks out for themselves and has no way to evaluate their own salary based on fairness and in the overall context.
Salary negotiations are often a burden - unpleasant and stressful for all parties. At score4more, we take a different approach: we want to encourage personal responsibility and have developed a transparent salary grid for this purpose. This is evaluated in a continuous process and examined from different perspectives. In addition to the salary structure for various positions, the grid also shows the virtual shares (shares in the company) that each person receives when they are hired.
To develop the grid, we went on a search and found pioneers in the field of self-organized management: einhorn Kondome, the consulting firm The Dive, the magazine "Neue Narrative" and the marketing agency Buffer.
We were inspired by the approaches of these pioneers and used parts of their frameworks to structure ours and make initial considerations.
Foto von Paul Felberbauer auf Unsplash
The following basic principles have emerged from this, on the basis of which we have derived concrete structures, processes and actions:
We publish the salaries of all employees internally, including management and C-level employees, so everyone can see transparently what their colleagues earn. Salaries are determined with the help of a salary grid during the hiring process - this is also published internally and may be challenged.
The salary grid was developed on the basis of benchmark reports and is oriented towards standard market salaries in the startup sector. It differentiates between seniority, i.e. between junior, mid and senior level. In a hiring plan, we defined in advance which roles we will hire in the next 6-12 months. These roles are now stored in the salary grid with concrete numbers. Another criterion was that the differences between the salaries should be reasonable to avoid large salary ranges. In addition, we determined a minimum salary (based on cost of living, etc.), which is 35,000 euros per year and applies to entry-level employees coming directly from university or training.
The salary is determined when a new employee is hired based on previous relevant work experience and the expected impact for score4more. The salary grid is evaluated and adjusted annually.
The salary grid may be challenged - all employees have access to it and may put it up for discussion and enrich it with their ideas. It is important not to negotiate from an individual perspective, but to think holistically for the entire company. Teams can take this grid and jointly review whether their salaries are set correctly and propose a new and adapted framework.
We are also currently working on a peer review process for the individual negotiation of individual salaries. Salaries are not to be determined top-down, but managed decentrally - taking into account personal needs, fairness to teammates, and considering score4more Finance opportunities.
We want to start from a paradigm of abundance - there should be enough for everyone, each person should live in abundance to enable a sustainable lifestyle. When the company is doing well, everyone benefits - we adjust salaries after the funding rounds. The participation of all employees in our Virtual Share Program also ensures that everyone shares in score4more's success in the long term.
Foto von micheile henderson auf Unsplash
