Sifted urges firms to adopt sales‑team‑style pay for all employees
Executive summary: Sifted published an article titled “It’s time to start paying all your staff like your sales team” advocating performance‑based compensation for all staff. The proposal signals a potential shift in compensation practices that could affect labor costs, employee motivation, and talent acquisition in startups and retail firms.
Who is involved: Sifted (media outlet), startup founders, HR leaders, and retail companies.
Likely next: Founders and HR teams may pilot or discuss variable‑pay models; the idea could spread through founder networks and industry forums.
The Sifted article argues that compensating every worker like a sales team—using variable, performance‑based pay—can boost motivation and align incentives across the organization. It frames the idea as a response to talent‑retention pressures in competitive startup and retail markets. While the piece is prescriptive, it highlights a growing conversation about reshaping fixed‑salary structures to reward output more directly.
Timeline
- — Europe’s ‘real’ founder factories: Klarna and Improbable (Sifted — EU startups)
- — It’s time to start paying all your staff like your sales team (Sifted — EU startups)
Analysis — what this means
Sectors affected
- retail
- European tech startups
Sources
- It’s time to start paying all your staff like your sales team — Sifted — EU startups
- Europe’s ‘real’ founder factories: Klarna and Improbable — Sifted — EU startups