PERQ Approach from PERQ on Vimeo. Scott Hill and Andy Medley were first coerced by the pallid waves of recession in 2008 to conduct a harrowing round of layoffs at their Indianapolis-based marketing company, Perq. That was one terrifying experience they never wanted to repeat. Along these lines, they chose to take a stab at something a bit radical by asking fellow employees to begin thinking from the organization’s revenue as though it was points tallied on a scoreboard.
Learn from PERQ’s Culture
Essentially, Perq wanted its employees to think of their business as a game. What the two co-founders saw in this “gamified” mode of business was: goals, numbers and accountability. With the scoreboards, which are sticking out around the office along with a monthly financial meeting, now every employee at Perq is able to track his or her ’score’ or revenue. Perq’s annual revenue for the year of 2013 topped $30 million. Speaking of layoffs, the possibility is equivalent to seeing a…. Here’s how it all works.
#How it all began:
Perq first adopted playing games in the office as a fun and sound approach to remind their staff that they consider business as a healthy game. In Scott Hill’s words in an interview with Inc. Magazine “If you look at great teams in any sport, they all work hard, are all very driven toward their goal, they put the team before their individual pursuits, and they have fun doing it. We think a team in business should operate the same way.”
How did your representatives respond when you initially actualized the methodology?
Perq’s senior management first started sharing their financial figures on the scoreboard to their very first hires. They believed that millennials that are entering workforce in this year, want to be a part of something bigger and not just come home at the end of the month with a paycheck and a promotion. These are the kinds that want to learn and be a part of the difference. Thus by sharing those financials, Perq’s earlier employees were getting a chance to be a part of a bigger game, where they could learn and see the difference being made.
You keep scoreboards in the workplace that demonstrate the organization’s advancement. What are the things that you show? How regularly do you overhaul them?
Perq’s had their scoreboards tied up at one of the busiest areas of the organization. They displayed top three goals that they had for the first six months, and in the event that they hit two out of three goals, they’d get an additional day of PTO. Apart from that, Perq displayed departmental goals each quarter and had them updated every month. The company additionally had quarterly bonuses based on financials, which is currently appended to their gross profit generation. The organization updates them on a daily basis just so everybody can perceive how they were getting along progressively. To make it more amusing, they adopted various mechanisms such as rules, different ways to track progress, goals and rewards.
What sway has this had on spirit?
The difference the game made was clear: work environment was often best described as “winning” when goals were catching up to the numbers on the scoreboards and “losing” when their workforce was frustrated if otherwise. Making employees frustrated was obviously never on the minds of the co-founders. What they were looking for was building a great company, accomplishing their goals and making an impact in the community. When they are winning, they chose to celebrate and create even more fun. People at Perq’s understand that the ‘fun’ has to be earned. In fact, it makes spotting those unpassionate individuals who are just in for a paycheck quite easy.
Does it make rivalry between divisions?
Perq has been fortunate enough to not witness any interdepartmental rivalries; however, there is a ‘natural healthy competition’ that exists. A healthy tension that exists between high-performance team where everyone is pushing each other and strive to be better.
How do your representatives respond when things are going extraordinary? Is it accurate to say that they are searching for raises?
Open-book administration doesn’t result in somebody to accept less money; it simply empowers both the organization and employee to get all the more out of their time together.