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Incentives at GitLab

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The following incentives are available for GitLab team members. Also see our separate page on benefits available to GitLab team members.

Discretionary Bonuses

Discretionary Bonuses per Team Member

The number of discretionary bonuses given divided by the total number of team members, in a given period as defined. The discretionary bonuses per team member target is > 0.1. This analysis can be found on the People Group Dashboard.

Discretionary bonuses are measured in BambooHR, as are the number of team members, in a given period as defined.

  1. Calculate the number of the discretionary bonuses per month
    • Pull the "Bonus" Report from BambooHR.
    • Add the report to the metrics spreadsheet. Remove all data for bonuses other than discretionary bonuses and those not within the last rolling 12 months.
    • Populate the Last Rolling 12 Months Expense Table
  2. Determine the percentage of bonuses granted for the Company
    • Using a pivot table, add in the count per month as well as headcount as of the last day of the month.
    • The formula will convert this to a percentage.
  3. Determine the spread of bonuses granted by Division
    • Using the report filtered in the first section, generate a pivot table around the number of bonuses granted by division for the metrics month currently under review. For example, on July 1st you would be looking at the June metrics.
    • Pull the headcount report to add in the number of people in each division for that month.
    • The formulas will determine the percent per division on bonuses granted
    • Review the delta of the percent of headcount granted a bonus and add it to the Prior Change Column.
  4. Outline any large deltas and note any takeaways for review at the next monthly metric meeting for People Ops.

Discretionary Bonuses for Individuals

  1. Every now and then, individual GitLab team members really shine as they live our values. We especially like to celebrate the special moments that exemplify the behavior we want to see in all GitLab team members.
  2. We recognize this through the #thanks channel, and sometimes also through a discretionary bonus.
  3. Anybody can recommend a discretionary bonus for a GitLab team member to the GitLab team member's manager using the Nominator Bot for a $1,000 at the exchange rate. The exception is that direct reports cannot nominate their manager or anyone in their management chain for a discretionary bonus.
  4. We are fixing this amount at $1,000 thoughtfully and purposefully. We want the focus to be on the value and the behavior, not on the perceived monetary impact to GitLab. This is about recognition.
  5. A general guideline is that 1 in 10 team members might receive a discretionary bonus each month. This can vary greatly as we don't give out bonuses just to hit a quota, nor would we hold one back because a certain number had already been awarded.
  6. There is no limit to the frequency with which someone can receive a bonus. If someone deserves a bonus a day after being nominated for one we should do a second one.
    • Note: If you received the same nomination twice (for the same person and the same reason), you must reject one. See more details in section for multiple discretionary bonuses
  7. As with other bonuses, only active GitLab team members can be nominated to receive discretionary bonuses. Should a nominated team member leave GitLab, they will not receive a discretionary bonus. It's at the discretion of the manager if they still want to publicly recognize the team member's behavior for the nomination.
  8. Only individuals in good standing with the company are eligible for discretionary bonuses (I.E. not currently undergoing underperformance remediation). If a team member receives a discretionary bonus nomination during a period of underperformance remediation, managers should wait until the underperformance remediation period concludes successfully before determining whether to admit the discretionary bonus request.

Valid and Invalid criteria for discretionary bonuses

Discretionary bonuses are to celebrate team members that live by our values. To make sure we are recognizing the right behaviors, below are some criteria to help you decide if a bonus meets the requirements for approval. Also in the nomination you are asked to elaborate on how this nomination is meeting the criteria.

Valid bonus criteria

Invalid bonus criteria

Examples of a valid discretionary bonus

Examples of invalid discretionary bonus

Any bonus submitted that does not include clear and valid reasons for submittal may be denied and the nominator / manager will be asked to provide further content and details.

Multiple Discretionary Bonuses

If you received the same nomination twice (for the same person and the same reason), you may reject one. When you do this, please reach out to the team member who submitted the nomination to explain, and include the other nominator's name in the #team-member-updates announcement.

For example:

Process for Recommending a Team Member for a Discretionary Bonus

Note: Kindly use Nominator Bot for discretionary bonus requests instead of BambooHR.

Nominator Bot Process

Any GitLab team member

  1. Go to Slack and type /nominate
  2. Slack will open a dialog and ask you for some details about the nomination. Use the motivation text field, to write a few sentences describing how the GitLab team member has demonstrated a specific GitLab value in their work. Please make sure you have viewed the valid and invalid criteria listed above. Don't forget that the nomination request should tie to our values and be detailed enough to ensure that the nomination meets the criteria. You can select the values it applies to.
  3. If applicable, please be sure to include any relevant issues or merge requests that support the nomination.
  4. Once submitted, the bot will send this over to the manager to kick-off the approval flow.
  5. If at any point in the approval flow the manager or the manager's manager has a question about approving the bonus they can reach out to the manager and/or nominator for more context. If they have remaining questions they can reach out to their People Business Partner
  6. Once everyone has approved the bot will report back to you with the good news. If it's rejected we ask the person who rejects, to reach out to you. That is not done by the bot.

Manager Process

  1. The Nominator bot will send you a Slack DM asking to approve or reject the nomination.
  2. When you decide to approve, all you need to do is click the approve button. The bot will take care of the next steps (sending it to the second level manager and the People Connect team).
  3. When you decide to reject, click the reject button. The nomination will be updated as rejected_by_manager. The bot will ask you to reach out to the nominator as to make sure they understand why the nomination was not approved.
  4. When everyone else has approved, the bot will reach out to you so you can share this with the team member and share it in the #team-member-updates Slack channel.

People Connect Process

  1. The Nominator bot will send a Slack DM on #people-group-nominator-bot asking to approve or reject the nomination.
  2. Approve the request within #people-group-nominator-bot and ensure the date and amount transferred properly to the BambooHR profile.
  3. Notify Payroll of the bonus by updating the proper payroll google sheet based on entity.
    • United States: "Payroll Changes", Contractors: "Non-US contractor bonus changes", Everyone else: "Monthly payroll changes for non-US international team members".

Note: If you received the same nomination twice (for the same person and the same reason), you may reject one. When you do this, please reach out to the team member who submitted the nomination to explain, and include the other nominator's name in the #team-member-updates announcement See more details in section for multiple discretionary bonuses.

Approval flow

graph TD; A[Nomination] -->|Bot logs and sends to manager| C; C{Manager} C -->|Reject| D[Bot logs]; C -->|Approve| F; F{Manager's Leader} F -->|Reject| H[Bot logs]; F -->|Approve| L; L{People Connect} L -->|Reject| M[Bot logs]; L -->|Approve| N[Bot logs and sends to BambooHR];

Working Group Bonus

  1. Sometimes a working group strongly displays GitLab Values over a period, project or situation. For this case, we have group Working Group Bonus.
  2. As with individuals, we recognize those who make up that group through the #thanks channel and sometimes through a Working Group Bonus.
  3. Anybody can recommend a Working Group Bonus through the managers of the individuals involved for $100 per person at the exchange rate.

Process for Recommending Working Group Bonus in BambooHR

Any GitLab team-member

  1. Write a description of how the working group has demonstrated a specific GitLab value in their work.
  2. Email that sentence to the managers of the individuals, suggesting a Working Group Bonus, and set-up a 15 minute Zoom meeting with all the managers to discuss your proposal. Note: The alignment with managers can also be done asynchronously in a private Slack channel.
  3. Remember that the manager(s) may or may not agree and they have full discretion (with approval of their manager) on whether their reports get a bonus. Don't forget that you can also use the #thanks channel to recognize people, as well.

Manager Process

  1. Sign in to BambooHR.
  2. For each team member, select the team members to which you want to give a Working Group Bonus.
  3. In the top right hand corner, select Request a Change > Bonus.
  4. In Bonus date, enter today's date.
  5. In Bonus amount, enter $100 (this is a fixed value; we don't vary the amount).
  6. In Bonus type, select Working Group Bonus.
  7. In Nominated By, select the person who's nominating the person for a group bonus.
  8. In Bonus comments, enter a one-sentence justification that details how the team demonstrated one or more of our values in this specific instance.
  9. Do not enter a value in Comments for the Approver(s).
  10. Select Submit to send the bonus requests to your manager for approval.
  11. Repeat the previous steps for the remaining team members you want to give a Working Group Bonus.
  12. After approval, copy and paste the justification and URL into the GitLab Slack channel #team-member-updates to recognize the teams outstanding efforts (after informing the team directly). Be sure to also @ the people in the team receiving the bonus so they're notified of the posting. Remember, a Working Group Bonus is for recognition, so be sure to take this final step.

Approval Process:

  1. The Manager's Manager receives an alert from BambooHR and can approve or deny.
  2. Once approved, the request is sent to People Connect to process the bonus in the applicable payroll and notify the manager via email.
  3. Notify Payroll of the bonus.
  4. Per the email from People Connect, the manager will notify the team member of the bonus and will announce it on the GitLab Slack channel #team-member-updates. The announcement should include the “who” and “why” of the bonus.

Communicating Discretionary Bonuses

As a general rule, the nominated team member's direct manager should be the only person who communicates discretionary bonuses. The manager will receive final notification via BambooHR or the nominator bot (depending on where the nomination process was initiated) and will know when the nomination has gone through all levels of approval.

The exception to this rule could be for working group bonuses if a single person nominated a group. If the nominator would like to announce on behalf of the group, they should:

Discretionary bonus reporting

On a quarterly basis there's a review of the discretionary bonuses data. This includes: # approved per manager, # rejected per manager and any trends on the reason for rejection. This way we can act on any trends and ensure an efficient and consistent process across the whole organization.

GitLab Anniversaries

At 10:00 UTC on Thursday of every week, PeopleOps Bot slack bot will send a shout out on the #team-member-updates channel congratulating all team members who celebrates a hire date anniversary that week. Visit our GitLab Anniversary Gift section for more information about the gifts.

Real Examples of Real Team Members Who Received Bonuses for Doing Great Things

Referral Bonuses

Chances are that if you work at GitLab, you have great friends and peers who would be fantastic additions to our Team and who may be interested in joining our team. To help us grow with exceptional people, we have Referral Bonuses that work as follows:

We encourage and support diversity and frugality on our team and in our hiring practices, so we will offer the following referral bonuses once the new team member has been with the company for 3 months. We will award the highest cumulative dollar amount as outlined below:

The following is an example of a cumulative Referral Bonus:

Add-On Bonus for Select Underrepresented Groups

An underrepresented group describes a subset of a population that holds a smaller percentage within a significant subgroup than the subset holds in the general population. The accepted definition of “underrepresented minorities” from the National Science Foundation and other major research institutions focuses on racial and ethnic groups whose representation in a profession is significantly below their representation in the general population. While any non-majority group in the workplace is a “minority”, they are not considered to be “underrepresented” unless they meet this definition.

We offer an add-on referral bonus for the following groups:

How to make a referral

For information regarding the program details and team member eligibility and understanding, please visit our guide in the Hiring section of GitLab's handbook.

If a team member has been referred, the People Connect team will review team members' self-identification data in BambooHR including Gender, Ethnicity and Veteran status to determine if the team member qualifies as belonging to a select underrepresented group. The People Connect team will edit the referrer's referral bonus as applicable. People Connect will confirm the bonus amount when it is entered into BambooHR and will process the bonus.

Document a future bonus in BambooHR

  1. Go to the team member who referred the new team member in BambooHR
  2. Under the "Jobs" tab
  3. Under the "Bonus" table, click "Add Bonus"
  4. The bonus date is 3 months from the new team member's start date
  5. Enter the bonus amount, dependent on above
  6. Enter the bonus type to be a Referral Bonus
  7. Enter a note stating that this is a future bonus (this will be changed once the bonus has been paid)

Notification to Process a Bonus

  1. BambooHR will send an email to People Connect on the date that the referral bonus should be paid for processing through the applicable payroll system.
  2. Notify Payroll of the bonus by updating the proper payroll google sheet based on entity.
    • United States: "Payroll Changes", Contractors: "Non-US contractor bonus changes", Everyone else: "Monthly payroll changes for non-US international team members".
  3. Once the bonus has been processed, change the note in BambooHR from "future" to "paid".
  4. Reply all to the email confirming the bonus has been processed in BambooHR and payroll.

Temporary Add-on Campaign additional tracking for payout

  1. Talent Acquisition Manager will track all referrals set to hired in time period of Add-on campaign.
  2. Talent Acquisition Manager will notify People Connect by Slack or email, the first of the month that aligns with the referral new hire's 3 month employment at GitLab.
  3. People Connect will follow steps outlined above

Visiting Grant

As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our team members, GitLab is temporarily suspending the Visiting Grant program until further notice. We continue to monitor the situation and will update this information and the travel policy accordingly.

This means that at this time we ask team members to refrain from booking travel that would normally be covered under the visiting grant. This includes local events and co-working days that don't require long-distance travel. In the event you had previously planned a visit, please cancel it and attempt to maximize any credits for future travel or refunds that you may be eligible for.

For those team members who have already completed visits, please expense your visit per the instructions below.

GitLab is an all-remote company with GitLab team-members all over the world (see the map on our Team page. If you want to visit other team members to get to know them, GitLab will assist with travel expenses (flights, trains, and ground transportation to and from airport) for a total of up to $150 for every team member that you visit and work with. Please note lodging is excluded. To be clearer, if you meet 2 GitLab team members during your visit, the maximum limit of your visiting grant could be $150x2. You don't need to work on the same project or team, either, so long as you discuss work for at least part of the time you're meeting. Before booking any travel using the travel grant budget please discuss your proposed travel with your manager. We encourage team members to utilize the travel grant, however in some cases - for example, a team member has performance issues related to their role - the visiting grant would not be applicable.

Note that meals and local travel while visiting are not typically covered for anyone as that wouldn't really be fair to those being visited. It may be acceptable to cover a meal, however, if the meeting is pre-announced to other people in the region to encourage as many of them to attend as possible and there are four or more GitLab team-members attending.

There are many regular meet-ups of GitLab team-members in many cities. We have a shared calendar to view the schedule. Subscribe to it, make use of the visiting grant, and join meet-ups near you (or far away!).

Douwe and Robert took advantage of the visiting grant when they traveled to 49 different colleagues in 20 cities, in 14 countries, on five continents, in 6 months. Inspired by them, Dimitrie went on a similar journey and provided a great template. Also, check out tips on working remotely while abroad.

To claim the grant, include a line item on your expense report or invoice along with the receipt of your flights, trains, and/or transportation to and from the airport with a list of the team members you visited. The expense report may be submitted during the first month of travel or up to 3 months after your trip has concluded. That said, if it's more frugal to book and expense your travel further in advance, please do so.

Significant Life Event Grants

As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our team members, GitLab is temporarily suspending the Significant Life Event Grant program until further notice. We continue to monitor the situation and will update this information and the travel policy accordingly.

Recognizing that GitLab Team Members may wish to share significant events in each other's lives, such as weddings or civil partnerships, GitLab will assist with travel expenses to attend these events. This grant works the same way as the Visiting Grant, except the reimbursement limit is $300 per team member you visit at an event.

Sharing your Visiting Grant stories

If you're a GitLab team member who has traveled and utilized GitLab's Visiting Grant or are planning to do so soon, consider sharing your story! You can submit your experience using the GitLab Visiting Grant Story Submission Form. If you've made use of the Significant Life Event Grant, please check with the team member who invited you to their event if they are comfortable with you sharing their story first.

These stories are useful in showing the world how we stay connected as a geographically diverse team. This is important as we recruit the world's best talent to join us, as well as encouraging colleagues to take a leap, explore a new culture, and visit a team member in a new locale. They may be shared on GitLab's social media platforms, on hiring portals such as Glassdoor, or on the GitLab blog.

Each quarter, 3 GitLab team members who submit Visiting Grant stories will be randomly selected for a $50 voucher for the GitLab Swag Shop!

GitLab Ultimate

Every GitLab team member can request the Ultimate tier for GitLab.com. In case a team member has separate private and work accounts on GitLab.com, they can request it for both. This incentive does not apply to groups owned by GitLab team members (Group-level Ultimate features such as epics will not be available for Ultimate GitLab team-member personal accounts, for instance).

In order to request this benefit please submit this form. Your account(s) will be upgraded to the Ultimate tier within 30 minutes of submission. If you have questions about this process or don't see this upgrade after 30 minutes please reach out in the #it_help GitLab slack channel.

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