This all looks excellent. I'm not sure about the debt management part though.
First of all, something about your math just isn't right:
"All employees who want to sign up to the programwill have a percentage of their debt paid off each fortnight. So instead of getting$70,000/year they might get $23,000/ year and be debt-free in the next 4 years."
Why would I spend a total of $188k to pay off an average of $24k in student loans in 4 years? I mean, I know that interest rates are a bitch and all, but that's a bit much. Plus, I don't know where you guys are located, but $23k/year in San Francisco isn't a whole lot. I understand that these are probably all hypothetical numbers, but you might want to choose numbers that are a little bit less scary.
Another thing:
"If groups of employees live, work and party together our hope is that they will love their entirelifestyle, not just their work."
...I don't think it's necessary to be that intimate with my coworkers. In fact, it could arguably be bad to encourage people to be that close. A workplace needs some level of conflict to discourage groupthink, and it's much easier to disagree with someone you're paid to do a job with than someone who's your best friend and roommate.
I agree with j_baker -- I was thinking that this document was kind of nice until I got to the part where everyone has to take a holiday together. No matter how you tweak this, what it means is that the company is impinging on the employee's personal life and leisure time.
Another thing to remember is that there's a difference between personal and work relationships. You can (and should!) have great work relationships with people who you have little in common with, personally.
Definitely agree with these points. I will make it more clear that these would be optional things that the company put on rather than mandatory corporate events. I would hate those.
Agreed. I haven't thought the numbers through properly at all. Essentially I just like the idea of helping our employees out more than your average company by trying to get them into a strong financial position. I will need to do a lot more research into this area.
"My hope is that our employees never, ever feel patronized, belittled or small."
Anyone applying to your company after having read that pile of patronizing crap are probably genetically incapable of feeling patronized or belittled.
(Seriously, I don't think I know a single highly qualified person who wouldn't quit the same day if you showed up and told them that this is how the company will be run from now on, and half of them would punch you in the face on the way out.)
I don't think you really added anything to the thread by posting that. Would you care posting why you thought it was patronizing and how you would improve it?
It sounds like one way to make money working there would be for debt-free employees to assume some debt at less than 5% interest so that the higher real wage and 5% top-up payments kick in. There are some interesting ideas here with the exception of section 4 which sounds like a cult. Not everyone wants their workplace to function like a commune.
Very good point. Need to work on the numbers more carefully but I hope you agree with the intention. Section 4 is definitely the least carefully thought out but probably the most well-intentioned. Right now Happy feels a bit like a commune as lots of students come to our Tiki House and enjoy our parties and help with the project. I guess I'd just love to maintain that vibe if at all possible.
Tyler thanks a lot for submitting this! A bit of background: I've written this for my Human Resources class at UCSB and as a way to think about how I want to grow my new company, Happy.
Absolutely. My inspiration all along has been Tony Hsieh. Such an incredible entrepreneur. I am just adding a few more ideas I have about creating a happy company culture.
I think most talented employees care about freedom and flexibility, including freedom to not have to worry about things which are necessary but not interesting.
Being forced to do something which isn't a major benefit to the company would be close to a deal breaker (e.g. filing TPS reports), regardless of salary, unless you had other options. Whereas doing something unpleasant which is clearly important (coming in on christmas morning to fix a security problem) is painful, but much more acceptable.
Really, what seems to work the best is to offer "sensible defaults" for most things, and then let employees make their own choices if they wish. Stuff like offering a budget to buy your own desktop/laptop/phone, but "a lot of people like the 15" MBP HD, and we have a couple already configured if you'd like that". Having social events on the weekends, after work, etc. where employees are invited, but certainly not mandatory. (for this, informal usually works better, especially if some people are clueful enough to try to build links across departments, like the engineers also inviting people from sales).
Awesome Paolo. I'm just starting with this venture too so I'd love to hear how it goes for you. What idea/startup/company are you working on at the moment?
I currenty own a consulting web agency that also has its own revenue websites (what's the correct name for those? lot of smallish site that have revenues with either ads, subscription or e-commerce).
Just as Google nowadays doesn't have a single idea but rather a lot of projects I believe this is a model that can work in a company that's doing 1/2 consulting and 1/2 its own smallish projects.
There's just 4 of us now but we're always looking for people, especially if they recognize themselves in a document like this one.
Thanks mkramlich. I am just putting a few ideas out there for criticism to see if they could work so that when I have the revenues to support them I can make it happen.
First of all, something about your math just isn't right:
"All employees who want to sign up to the programwill have a percentage of their debt paid off each fortnight. So instead of getting$70,000/year they might get $23,000/ year and be debt-free in the next 4 years."
Why would I spend a total of $188k to pay off an average of $24k in student loans in 4 years? I mean, I know that interest rates are a bitch and all, but that's a bit much. Plus, I don't know where you guys are located, but $23k/year in San Francisco isn't a whole lot. I understand that these are probably all hypothetical numbers, but you might want to choose numbers that are a little bit less scary.
Another thing:
"If groups of employees live, work and party together our hope is that they will love their entirelifestyle, not just their work."
...I don't think it's necessary to be that intimate with my coworkers. In fact, it could arguably be bad to encourage people to be that close. A workplace needs some level of conflict to discourage groupthink, and it's much easier to disagree with someone you're paid to do a job with than someone who's your best friend and roommate.