At IGN, Employees Use A "Viral Pay" System To Determine Each Others' Bonuses

Ever feel like you know better than the executives who the star performers in your organization are? IGN Entertainment's "viral pay" program puts the power over rewards in employees' hands.

Most companies hand out bonuses at the end of the year, and many of them do so as a form of profit sharing. But IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corp. that creates content and communities for gamers, has developed an innovative system where it's the employees themselves who help decide how much of those profits should go to each worker.

It's called "viral pay," and here's how it works: Twice a year, in January and July, IGN creates a basket of tokens (called "Tokens of Appreciation") based on how much profit there is to share. It distributes the tokens among employees and has them give their tokens--which are worth $1 each--to whatever other employees they want, as recognition for a job well done.

So, for example, if there's someone in ad sales who went above and beyond to help you on particular campaign, you might toss some tokens their way. Of if there's a developer who you think always comes up with great ideas about how to solve particular engineering problems, you might send them a little token love as well. Employees can give all their tokens to the same person, but they usually divide them up among several people.

There are only three rules to the program, Greg Silva, IGN's vice president of "People and Places" (HR and facilities), tells Fast Company: You can't award any tokens to yourself, all tokens have to be given away, and IGN's president (the organization's chief executive) isn't eligible.

"The purpose is to reward super-performers with super-pay," Silva says.

The program was started two years ago because employees wanted a role in helping to identify and reward star performers. "Our employees were saying 'It's great that the managers know who's super-effective and contributing the most, but, quite frankly, we know better, so let us reward and recognize our peers.'"

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[Source: Fast Company]