If your company isn’t able to meet the salary “ask” of a key team member, would you write a personal check from your own bank account?
Seems like a crazy idea, but I’ve done it. I wrote a $5,000 check to an employee in a last ditch effort to keep them at the company.
For the first time, I’m sharing the story… and the result.
The Setting
One of my young superstars managed a team of five individual contributors. Naturally a proactive do-er, his skills had grown by leaps and bounds during his four years with the company. Unfortunately, multiple years without any raises or bonuses company-wide put him in a position where he was seriously underpaid relative to the market. During the annual review season, he told me that he needed $XXXK of salary or he was going to have to move on.
This particular year, I was given a pool of money that I could allocate for raises across the team – plus another pool for bonuses (neither for myself). I proposed a large raise for this young leader and sweetened it with a large grant from the bonus pool.
But even then, I was $8K short of his completely reasonable ask.
The Offer
After mulling it over for a few days, I decided to ‘go for broke’.
I sat down with him and talked him through the numbers. I was honest about the shallow company raise/bonus pools. I showed him that his proposed raise and bonus was much larger than the overall pool.
And I admitted to the $8K shortfall.
But I argued this was funny money – he wasn’t going to take home $8K. Instead, based on his tax bracket, he would be taking home slightly less than $5K.
I then passed him an envelope with a check written from my personal bank account for $4,800.
I told him how much I valued his contributions and that I hoped he would give me another year to work toward his target salary. At the same time, I told him that IF he was going to leave anyway, that he please NOT cash the check. Even more, I asked that he tell me soon so that I could allocate the limited raise and bonus funds elsewhere.
He looked genuinely gobsmacked.. At that point, I stepped away and waited for his decision.
Did I do it because I was a saint who cared about fairness? God no.
I did it for entirely selfish reasons. I recognized that keeping this employee was worth $5K of my own money. If he left, hiring a replacement would be a multi-month detour from doing work that I enjoy. And if we had to hire externally, that person wouldn’t be fully functional for roughly a year… even more time away from doing work that brings joy.
I also gambled that some bonus would be coming my way in the coming months so I wasn’t going to put my own finances into a deep hole.
Part of me wondered if I was going to be called into HR and told that I did something inappropriate (these days, it seems like almost anything out of the ordinary could be an HR violation).
The Aftermath (Ominous Sounding?)
Several days later, he asked to meet with me.
Sitting down together, he thanked me for taking this extraordinary step to try to keep him on-board. He also admitted that it kind of freaked him out.
He told me that he still enjoyed the work, the opportunity to travel internationally and the time with peers, staff, and agency colleagues that peppered his day. He pledged to remain for the coming year and work toward further growth.
AND he returned the personal check uncashed. Whew!
In Summary
How do you keep the best and brightest folks who will become the next generation of leaders?
Start with all the non-monetary levers at your disposal. International travel was a motivator for almost everyone. Working on cutting edge projects for others. Engaging with the Golden State Warriors (Oracle Arena) for the sports fans. Promotion by title, responsibility and leadership for the brightest stars. But at some point, money still matters.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done to keep a star employee engaged?