Dear Christophe
First of all, Happy New Year!
Also, thank you for your comment and the time you invested to reply.
Please note the following points:
- Talking about salaries is a taboo we want to break. We believe that transparency should be used as a tool to build trust, showing employees that the company is not trying to hide anything untoward or shortchange them and that they are trusted to work to the best of their ability with all relevant information at their disposal.
- Peer pressure is not groupthink. Groupthink is the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group (resulting typically in unchallenged, poor-quality decision-making). Our salary adjustment process involves the individual advice of other members. In many cases their personal opinions vary among them. In other words, by allowing other group members to give their personal feedback on a salary petition enforces indirectly the personal responsibility of the person that seeks a salary adjustment.
- Not all employees have the same exact salary. This has never even been considered.
- Peers may not be the best to judge someone´s value to the company but in many cases neither the CEO or managers are. In any case, everybody has the right to know what other people think about his work and the value they perceive he adds to the business. This is the base for a creation of a business environment where everybody is open to criticism (give and receive). Conflicts become constructive, trust is built and people feel their opinions count. Thus they feel more engaged and motivated.
- A person overestimates their own qualities and abilities, in relation to the same qualities and abilities of other people. This is a cognitive bias called illusory superiority. So, in most of the cases, people believe they deserve more salary than they actually receive. As I reckon here our salary bill is probably about 10% above what we would be paying without transparent and self-chosen salaries. But this is a cost the company chooses to assume as employees are more satisfied and motivated.
