Transparent salaries and finances: what have we learned?

Six months ago our team at our UX company switched to transparent finances. We are not as cool as the Buffer guys, so our finances are not open to the public yet, but anyone in our team can see all the numbers and contracts we have. Yes, everyone sees how much the other team-mates earn, how much we get from our clients, how much we have in the bank, and where the money goes. No secrets at all, there's no taboo topics anymore.

When I first told my friends about our plans to go transparent some of them asked me if I'm crazy. But for us in the studio it was an obvious step. We were working hard together to build the best design team in the CEE region. Hard work needs trust. And it's really difficult to build trust when you have secrets.

Here are a few things I learned when we switched to transparency.

Speak with everyone. One-on-ones are important.

I spoke with every team member privately before we opened up our files. People don't like to talk about sensitive topics in front of the whole team, but they tell their opinions when there are just the two of you. So I took the time and sat down with everyone, and it was worth it. After the one-on-one meetings I get to know my team-mates preferences and motivations better.

People need financial education

It is not enough to make your financial data available. People have to understand those numbers. So we had a hour-long talk about the basics of our finances to make sure everyone understands how the company's finances are working. We give this lecture to every new employee too.

Equal salaries are scary

I thought that in a small team, where everyone is fighting hard for the same goal and everyone puts in the same effort, everyone should get rewarded equally. But people expect big differences. It was a bit strange for me, but they really do. It is especially scary for the top players.

They see they get the top salaries, and they don't see the next ladder. You need a clear growth plan to make sure they understand how the company will grow, what they need to do to make that growth happen and how they will benefit from that. Otherwise they will feel they can't develop themselves within your company.

The first time they meet with the laws of the labour market

As I wrote, people expect differences in salaries based on seniority. When you show them the spreadsheet with all your coworkers, they realize there's an other important factor: the profession. It was surprising for some guys that people on the same level, but in different roles get different salaries. It was the first time they met with the laws of the labour market: the guy who is hard to replace brings home more money. Just because he or she chose a better profession.

The results

After all the whole process was easier than I thought. We had to give a small raise to one of us, but that was all the effect we had. And finally we have a honest team, with no secrets at all.

There is an important debate going on about gender issues within the tech community. We are very lucky to have some very talented women in our team. Now they can be sure that we never had any gender-based differentiation in salaries. And we are proud of this. Transparency is a good tool to achieve gender-equality in the workplaces.

So that's it. If you have any question or feedback, please write to us in the comment section below.

Further Reading: bitcoin circuit is it a scam