I never thought that I would be promoting an HR document. But Valve is one of those companies set on changing the world. Amazon started through book selling, Valve focused its early efforts on gaming. It’s only the beginning. Not only are they more profitable per employee than Google and Apple, they’re helping re-define the worker-company relationship.
They’re insane: they hire the best people, and trust them to do their jobs. There are no departments, no management, no authoritarian oversight. Employees are encouraged to join whatever projects they want, and encouraged to start their own if they think the company is missing something. All desks have wheels, and there is no assigned seating. Workers move around based on project needs to join their teams. Anarchy feeding capitalism.
Crazier still, salaries are based on performance. Throughout the year, employees get rated by their team members and coworkers. Each year, the top rated employees will collect the top salaries.
As a gaming company run by engineers, their methods aren’t for every company. But it is refreshing to see a company go so far with such an open and unconventional style.
Link to the full Valce Employee Handbook:
http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf
