How high salaries are driving Google staff to quit

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Reportedly, Google recently learnt this lesson the hard way, after it paid some of its staff members so much they became rich enough to quit.

Money matters. However much you may like to live in a world where you can trade food for smiles and buy shoes with hugs, that's simply not the case. Consequently, money is an important issue for your staff, and the salary you choose to pay them can make a big difference to their lives.

How much you pay your staff depends on a number of things, ranging from their value to the company, the industry average, and the available overall budget. In the eyes of your employees, more will always be better, and if the money is available due to company success you might want to reward your staff with large paychecks to show you appreciate their contribution.

However, as recent events at Google show, offering unusually high salaries can backfire. According to Bloomberg, one of the reasons Google's car project has been struggling to retain talent, is due to the "supersized payouts" staff members received. Since the payouts were based on the project's value, by late 2015 they were so big a number of veteran employees did not need the job security anymore, Bloomberg writes.

For company's looking to learn from Google's mistake, Bloomberg points out the company basically jumped the gun. Staff were rewarded with enormous sums of money after reaching key milestones in the project, while the ultimate goal remained years away. And while the money alone wasn't reason to leave, it took away people's financial incentive to stay, making them more open to other opportunities.

As with most things in life, it's all about finding the right balance. Salary increases and bonus payouts are great ways to reward staff and can help increase their loyalty to the company. Just make sure you don't go overboard. Or if you do, ensure you increase engagement in other ways so staff will keep coming back even if they don't need the money.

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