*Deliberately sensationalist headline designed to grab eyeballs.

We recently concluded annual reviews at nilenso, at the end of which, Sandy, who recently joined us, asked: “Why is our process the best we can have?”

This led to a lot of reminiscing about how reviews were conducted at other companies that some of us had worked at.

One example went like this: I ask people to review me. I don’t get to read what they said, or find out if they even bothered to write anything at all. Someone from my team (a senior, usually my boss) would look at all these reports along with HR, and hold a meeting with me. The meeting basically involved my boss giving me a summary of the above, based on his/her understanding/interpretation. …

Inspired by a recent(ish)* Basecamp article on the benefits they offer their employees; we decided to evaluate our own to see how we stack up. Not too badly, as it turns out. We’ve also (mostly) used their format. I hope they won’t mind, given what they say about imitation and flattery.

Nilenso Benefits

Salaries: We are currently based out of Bangalore, India and it’s always a terrible idea to evaluate anything here on the basis of “averages”. We do, however, try to pay competitively but also never forget that just money is simply not enough.

Transparent finances: We pride ourselves on being a completely open company, in every way. Everyone at nilenso collectively decides which projects we take on, and what our expenses for the year should be. We go out of our way to make sure everyone in the company understands how much money we’re making and how we’re spending it. Our books of accounts and finances are available for anyone within the company to take a look, at any time. …