Paying People to STOP Working So Hard

Last year I wrote a Compensation Café article titled: “How Much Money to Do a Job You Don’t Want?”  To summarize, no amount of compensation is enough if you truly hate your job. Today’s article is a different take on a similar concept. On July 10, 2012 Bart Lorang, the CEO of FullContact, announced via his company blog that the company was going to pay employees to take their PAID vacation.  That’s right, the company is going to give it’s employee $7,500 to get off the grid.

Of course, there are a few rules.

1. You have to go on vacation, or you don’t get the money.
2. You must disconnect.
3. You can’t work while on vacation.

There are guiding principles

1. Guiding Principle #1: It’s Really Important to Disconnect.
2. Guiding Principle #2: We’ll Be A Better Company if Employees Disconnect.
3. Guiding Principle #3: Everyone at FullContact Deserves a Nice Vacation.

The blog entry was irreverent and many “corporate” communications people would never have let it be published (it includes a few swear words and a picture of some employees’ bare behinds). But, it was in the CEO’s authentic voice and style. He made it clear it was an experiment, and said that the $7,500 figure was based on a nice vacation to Mexico for a family of four. The following is a great quote from the post: “Perhaps it is a sense of ownership or desire to feel needed, but in many company cultures (especially startups), there is often a misguided hero syndrome that encourages an “I’m the only one who can do this” mentality.”

Not a ton of science. Not a ton of (intentional) pomp and circumstance. But, it resulted in more than a TON of impact.

The posting went viral on multiple media sites and later blog entries claim that the company had more than 3,000 applications in the next three weeks! Lorang even posted the process they use to hire people during this flurry. So 3 rules, 3 guiding principles and 3,000 applicants, seems like a successful program already.

Consider alternative uses for $7,500.

1. A 7.5% bonus for someone who makes $100,000
2. About 850 stock options for a company trading at $25 a share
3. A $625/month raise for an exempt employee

All of the above suggestions are not insignificant. In fact, any of the above may work at your company as well as paid time off worked for FullContact. But, can you actually make them happen? Can you make them happen quickly? Will your employees have the immediate and visceral impact shown by those at FullContact? As FullContact clearly states, this is an experiment. It may not work as hoped. It may only happen once. What I find refreshing is that they took action and made it applicable to all employees regardless of pay level.

What does this tell us?

1. It turns out that people love vacations and a companies who care about them
2. Communication is sometimes as simple as communicating (Lorang does so frequently on all sorts of topics)
3. I need to take more vacations.

I am sure it tells us far more, but I wanted to stick to the theme of threes and get on to taking the next three hours off. If there something your company could do for a similar amount that would have the same impact? Please share!

Dan Walter is the President and CEO of Performensation an independent compensation consultant focused on the needs of small and mid-sized public and private companies. Dan’s unique perspective and expertise includes equity compensation, executive compensation, performance-based pay and talent management issues. Dan is a co-author of “The Decision Makers Guide to Equity Compensation”,  “If I’d Only Know That”, “GEOnomics 2011” and “Equity Alternatives.” Dan is on the board of the National Center for Employee Ownership, a partner in the ShareComp virtual conferences and the founder of Equity Compensation Experts, a free networking group. Dan is frequently requested as a dynamic and humorous speaker covering compensation and motivation topics. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter at @Performensation and @SayOnPay

Comments

[Jacque Vilet]

Courageous and bold initiative. Same idea that John Sullivan posed in his recent article: http://www.ere.net/2012/08/20/bold-and-outrageous-hr-practices-that-may-indicate-your-approach-is-too-conservative-part-1-of-2/

[Sarah Dryden]

Great article, Dan! I couldn't agree more that taking a vacation only really happens when you disconnect.

[Andy Klemm]

Dan:

That is likely a bit of a rare company. I remember a survey some years ago that indicated bosses were unaware about and didn't care if employees took vacation. So, the stay at work types were wasting their efforts.

My person experience bears this out.

Andy

[Dan Walter]

Great article on the importance of time off.

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/09/more-vacation-is-the-secret-sa.html

[options trading]

Great ! What a company and clever manager ! Take vacation and enjoy, and if you feel in need of some more money you can always turn to deal with options.