E-PAY
Sharing in success at QXL.com
Are the reward rules being rewritten in the fast-moving internet economy? Are companies that have embraced the internet revolution reshaping the reward management landscape? The latest edition of the monthly magazine Employee Benefits unpicks the remuneration package on offer at online auction house QXL.com, one of the UK's foremost cyber brands.
QXL.com, with its 150-strong workforce in Britain and Europe, is pretty typical of dot-coms in that it offers a fairly narrow range of benefits. It has little time for the notion of flexible benefits or status-driven perks. Nor is it interested in anything that is deemed administratively complex — such as company cars — while the government's new all-employee share scheme gets pretty short shrift, in the Employee Benefits case study.
Perks and benefits are not a big story here. Far from operating dazzling compensation and benefits packages, QXL.com extols the virtues of a simple benefits package, with the emphasis very much on share options.
Simple benefits package
When it came to devising the remuneration package, Robert Dighero, QXL.com's chief financial officer, sought to keep overheads low but still provide useful benefits.
As Employee Benefits explains: It has faced a constant tension between the need to do things well and the need to act quickly . So, it is just not practical to set up complicated systems and hierarchies.
Share options for all
The defining feature of QXL.com's reward package, as in most internet companies, is the offer of seemingly lucrative share options to all recruits. But these options are not give-aways, says Dighero. The exercise price is set at market value at the time of grant, so the employee will collect nothing if the business stands still — only an increase in value makes the options worth anything.
For Tim Jackson, QXL.com's founder and non-executive director, internet-style options are a way of turning employees into owners, allowing them to make a real investment in the company even if they do not have cash to buy shares when they are recruited.
The QXL package
salaries set at or below the median level offered by other employers
share options granted on joining the company, further grants on anniversary and review dates
non-contributory group personal pension scheme
life assurance for all staff, four time salary
permanent health insurance for all employees
holiday entitlement of just 20 days
subsidised gym membership.
Source: Employee Benefits, May 2000.
Want to know more?
Title: Everything to play for , Employee Benefits, May 2000.
Availability: contact Employee Benefits, tel: 020 7970 4000, or email: employee-benefits@centaur.co.uk