Compensation & Benefits

Creating and utilizing an engineering career path

A startup realized that their ad-hoc responses to career growth weren't enough and began researching career paths from other companies. After collecting a dozen paths, they created their own with six positions, four qualities per position, and one to three sentences per quality. They received feedback from their most experienced engineers and rolled out the path with a presentation. Lessons learned include understanding the problem, finding a starting point, avoiding "Not Invented Here," training managers and engineers, and working with HR.

Turning a team around

When taking over a team of 60 engineers, the VP of Engineering noticed a lack of motivation and excellence. After observing interactions and having one-on-one conversations, it was determined that external factors such as a lack of purpose, goals, and challenges were causing the problem. To address this, modern tools were implemented, hiring practices were strengthened, job bands and compensation ranges were established, teams were reorganized, and the strongest people were put into influential positions. As a result, motivation and efficiency increased, and the team was better differentiated. Lessons learned include building relationships, ensuring a sense of purpose, challenging the team, and maximizing talent.

Why I Made My Company’s Compensation More Structured

Pilot has implemented a new compensation process that eliminates negotiation components and rewards employees based on their skills. The company has also taken steps to ensure that employees are not discriminated against based on their location, by benchmarking salaries to the most expensive country they are comfortable hiring in. The key lesson learned is to focus on creating a fair compensation scheme that does not rely on negotiation skills.

Hiring Rapidly and Time Efficiently

This article outlines the steps taken to rapidly hire engineers while maintaining quality. The author front-loaded the design, coordination, and preparation of the hiring funnel, set up hiring teams, and treated the hiring process as a product. Three metrics were used to measure success: percentage of hires from referrals, time taken to make a decision, and face-to-face interviews to hire ratio. The author also reduced the interviewing process to four hours and in one session. Lessons learned include the importance of treating the hiring process as a product, not letting quality fall to the wayside, and understanding that every hiring process is unique.

Saying ‘Not Right Now’ Instead Of ‘No’ to Pay Raise Requests

A design intern was offered a full-time position, but asked for more money. The company decided to not cave in to the request, but instead laid out a series of goals for the intern to prove himself. After 6 months, the intern had met those goals and was given the pay raise he had asked for. The company also learned that their cutting-edge and fast-paced environment helps them attract and retain junior employees.

Measuring the Morale of a Team

It is important for leaders to measure the morale of their teams in order to ensure productivity and good code. This can be done through frequent check-ins and one-on-ones, anonymous surveys, and tools such as 15five. Building an open and trustful relationship with employees is key to understanding their morale, as well as tracking data to identify trends over time.