Julius

The Power of Non-Monetary Benefits

On September 28th, my dog, Julius, died.

I still don’t believe it. A part of me thinks someone is playing a tasteless joke – “Surprise, Ness! You’re so gullible.” – and Julius would come out, Gentle Giant that he is (was), give me two kisses before nestling in his bed.

But he won’t. And it isn’t.

When we went to the vet that Thursday, I was expecting a UTI. Maybe liver damage from his anxiety meds. I wasn’t expecting the words “any moment could be his last.” On the ride home, I messaged my team quickly, curtly.

Julius has cancer. […] Tomorrow is his last day so I’m going to enjoy it.

Julius on his Got Me Day Jan 2nd 2023

And we did. The best Last Day at the beach spent rolling in the grass & splashing in water. Today, two weeks later, Mica asked me how I was doing. And I starting crying. I am numb. I am empty. It’s a pet – my head knows it’s just a pet – yet when the tides of grief subside, I feel empty. Grief. Empty. Grief. Empty. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

What I also realized, in some corner of my mind that never quiets, is had this happened but 18 months before I would have had to, on top of it all, be concerned with explaining myself, apply for leave and be worried with my performance at work.

Now, with the responsibility of being The Owner, I have this privilege of agency in moments like this. Moments when Life just happens and even though you love your work, you care about your team, you want to be productive – you just can’t. Grief. Empty. Repeat.

No one works for free. That’s called volunteering so let’s not kid ourselves that base salaries are not important because they are. No one is gonna love your company as much as you do. As a small business, vying for talent, competing for loyalty is where non-monetary benefits hold more weight then you may realize.

When you only take the economics into consideration with compensation, you have high control over the end results but less alignment with how your workforce is behaving. In his talks on Cents & Noncents, Brian Hall discusses how non-monetary benefits that are created with meaningful purpose – especially those that align with the values and purpose of the company – those incentives push our teams to behave & stay loyal to firms in the long run.

“All I care about is money. Pay me. Pay them. And that’s what matters.” Alright but this isn’t about you or me or Taro-san as individuals. This is about organizational behaviour i.e. how we work as social creatures within a group. Remember, people run companies not companies run people. Neglecting the Human Factor then by just focusing on the bottom line is myopic and the consequence is that while you are rewarding the quantitative outputs of your team, you aren’t nurturing the qualitative.

During one of our first team meetings, Mica and Charles, Kujaku first hires, laughed over how they loved the package details listed in the JD. Impressed they even read that far, I asked them which benefit resonated the most with them. “DNTTM Day” they both chimed (which stands for DO NOT TALK TO ME Day – Caps and all).

I was stunned, recalling how I added that benefit as a humorous afterthought. How often when I check-up on new hires at my clients’, they lament their inability to Get Shit Done. So, now that I am The Boss, why not give them a day where they can shut the world out to work, shut out even me? And so, I added it to the list. If nothing else, it’s funny.

There are a wide variety of ways you can give to your team, leveraging the flexibility of a small business to be a bit unorthodox. Pet Bereavement is one gaining momentum and one I (selfishly) champion. DNTTM Days are another and at the end of this post is a list to get you noodling.

One key value we have at Kujaku is genuine trust. I trust my team to know when to ask for my input and when to tell me “Not to Disturb”. And DNTTM Day reflects that value within our current team while simultaneously attracting others that share in that mindset. These two weeks I’ve been going through the bare movements of The Manager but my team showed up. Delivered. Performed. Despite my absence, my consistent Grief. Empty. Repeat. state, they stepped-up when they easily could have sat back.

The hesitation you may have in such non-monetary benefits comes from who you don’t want to hire; those that don’t have your values, tempo, vibes that you as The Owner get to choose and foster. And I get you – it’s scary. But do you want to set your standards – and your policies – to the very individuals you hope to avoid in the first place? Or to a standard based on the talent that humbles you with their awesome-ness?

Grief. Empty. Repeat. Until it won’t. Julius will always be around as will the grief of his absence but at some point that will change too. That’s the beauty of Time.

And working within a place with people that give that to me.

Is there a cool, unorthodox benefit y’all have at work? We would love to learn about it!

NON-MONETARY BENEFITS

#yardsticks #bereavement #Nonmonetarybenefits #pets #talentattraction #packages