Pay above the local market
We set pay above the going rate in each talent market, on purpose. It is the simplest way we know to get the strongest people to pick up when we call, and to keep them in your seat.
How it started
Nobody planned a company. We were comparing notes.
We had worked at different agencies, in different countries, in recruiting, account management, training and payroll. Life put us in the same rooms, and people who have had the same job end up talking about it. So we talked.
The stories matched a little too well. An employer's rate went up every year while the person in the seat hadn't had a raise in two. Good people quit the week they learned what the client was being billed for them. When a hire didn't work out, the client was mostly left to deal with it. The logos changed from story to story and not much else did.
It was unfair in both directions, and that was the part that stuck with us. Employers were overpaying. The people doing the work were underpaid. The agency in the middle was doing fine.
After enough of those evenings, complaining started to feel like a decision in itself. We knew how the work gets done, where the money goes and which corners get cut. We could keep watching or we could build the agency we would have been proud to work for. We formed Contractanaut.