Continuous Salary Reviews

Salary reviews are quite a topic, we all love them, and at the same time they can be daunting, stressful and time-consuming.

Used wisely they are an amazing tool to keep the team fairly rewarded, engaged and excited. When poorly performed they become a huge hit on team morale and a factor in people rotation.

At Boclips we have been experimenting with different approaches for a while and we feel quite happy with our current one, we’d love to share that with you.

Fixed Yearly Reviews

Yearly salary reviews have been the norm for me and most of my colleagues, usually aligned to the company’s schedule. It makes sense from an organisational point of view, particularly when teams get bigger and bigger.

Boclips is not such a big company after all, and the tech market is quite hot at the moment. So we wanted to try something different to remain competitive and to learn as we go.

Although yearly reviews seem to be quite common we thought there were a few flaws with this process:

• For newcomers there’s always a bit of a hassle for the first review, they may get a smaller one. They may get none at all. Or they may go all in, depending on the company policies.
• Tech moves quickly, and one year is a long time. If employees aren’t fully satisfied with their current salary there’s a chance they’ll start looking somewhere else.
• Tracking goals and professional development in yearly slots seems quite a long time for agile companies in which reducing iteration cycles is paramount — If we try to make our feedback loop smaller and smaller in all areas of the business, why not try the same here?

Continuous Reviews

To us, continuous reviews mean employees will have regular checkpoints tailored to their own agenda in which we’ll get a chance to talk about money. It also means, as a company we are open to study individual circumstances as they come and go.

Continuous reviews are all about fairness and market awareness. But also, it is about empowering managers to reduce bureaucracy. It is about giving people ownership and the power to make things happen.

Let’s talk about the foundational blocks of continuous reviews as we envision them:

Building a Solid Relationship

It all starts with one-on-ones (1o1s).

1o1s are the forum for employees to share their views and for the ‘company’ through the role of the manager to support, guide, help and inform. 1o1s are the secret sauce for “no-surprises”. The secret sauce for feeling heard, understood, and empowered. The secret sauce for fairness and transparency.

The report-manager relationship is a precious one. We believe managers are there to support reports, building an honest and open relationship free of hierarchy. It is not about being best buddies or dictating what to do/not to do:

• it is about making clear, the wellbeing of the report is your top priority
• and the success of the company follows right after, in that order

With this in place, at Boclips, we love setting goals that come from both the report and the company. We’ll use this to support salary conversations, but more importantly, it’ll help get professionals to their next level.

Twice a year fixed checkpoints

At Boclips, we decided to try out a six months cadence that starts when the employee starts.

A salary check every six months individualised per employee may feel like a bit too heavy admin-wise, but it doesn’t have to be that much of a hassle if:

• There’s clarity upfront about what’s possible and what’s not
• The CFO/HR department or whoever has financial authority sets the boundaries and trusts managers
• The salary review is understood as a natural consequence of professional growth rather than an isolated event on its own
• Likewise, salary reviews are not taken for granted
• 1o1s gather clear progress evidence to build up a case driven from goals that benefit the report and the business

The Probationary Period

I used to think about the probationary period as an insurance policy companies took to fire employees if they didn’t like us. It always made me cringe a bit, and it made me feel assessed all the time — like a lab-mouse in a maze.

These days we like to think of probationary periods in a different way. It is our shared and safe playground in which two equals (the employee and the team), willingly decide to give each other a chance because they believe it may work out.

And as in every willing and shared decision, the must-do is clear communication. We keep the feedback flowing so if a decision has to be taken, it doesn’t come as a surprise — that’s what we offer and what we ask back.

It happens sometimes, that a rare gem is hired, and they accept a salary below their market value. This is why we keep an additional salary checkpoint after the probationary period.

If the salary is not fair, we tackle it after three months, rather than making professionals wait for a year taking advantage of the initial honeymoon.

Wrapping Up

Continuous salary reviews encourage managers and reports to have laser-focused one-on-ones that are actionable and revolve around goals and achievements.

A shorter cadence means more opportunity to iterate and adapt, hence, more chances of getting it right.

All in all, it is not that much about the practices but the principles. Continuous reviews are yet another way of honouring our principles.