Self Set Pay And Culture Of Empowerment

Self-set pay means that individuals are responsible for setting their own remuneration l, typically within parameters set by the company which employs them. GrantTree, a company which I started, requires for people to complete six months’ worth of monthly self-assessment and follow particular, external feedback has driven processes when setting their pay. This type of setup is both challenging, because of the degree of responsibility it requires, and very empowering.  

There are numerous links between self-set pay and team empowerment. Firstly, this type of remuneration setup places the individual in a position of strength. It treats them like the adult they are, deeming them capable of correctly identifying their value in the workplace (and in the job market in general). This means a lot of responsibility but if your people are already making important decisions on behalf of the company, why shouldn’t they be in charge of evaluating their own performance and input too?

Consequently, self-set pay empowers people to be able to gauge how much they are worth wherever they choose to work in the future. This is a transferable skill that is super important and useful in any workplace. And so, once a person has worked for you, they will be able to argue for appropriate and fair pay wherever they go.

Setting your own pay, at least at GrantTree, entails understanding the broader business perspective and how your salary fits within different budgets and the overall company spend. Because of this, it empowers those selecting their salary to learn about budgeting and cash-flows. This skill set is something typically reserved for entrepreneurs. It will most certainly empower your people when it comes to understanding the financial and strategic dynamics of a business. Perhaps it could even give them the confidence to start their own companies one day. 

On top of the above, setting their salary with peer-to-peer feedback mechanisms in place empowers people by putting them in charge of actively seeking feedback from their peers. This is definitely a skill that’s not as widely trained in business environments as it should be. Strong teams everywhere thrive on being able to deliver and receive feedback, particularly in the context of improvement feedback. 

Lastly, making people responsible for decisions concerning their pay also puts them in charge of defining exactly what their job is and where it is going. In other words, it puts them in charge of curating their career progression other than leaving it to someone else in the company (such as a manager). Because of this they are going to be more engaged in their job and likely have a more positive impact. 

There are numerous ways in which set their own pay empowers people. The important thing to consider is that implementing this fundamentally shifts the usual power balance where the company decides how much its employees are worth and tells them with little (if any) opportunity to influence the judgment. With self-set pay the people are actually - and finally - in control of their time and resources. They are fully trusted and typically ready to return that trust through their commitment to the role and to the business as a whole.

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