When Employees Set Their Own Salary: A Radical Experiment

Dr. Niklas Richter · 2026-07-16

What if your employees could decide how much they earn? That's not a hypothetical question for Jan Van Lishout. After a thirty-year climb up the corporate ladder at IBM, Progress Software, and a former Philips division, he reached managing director status. Then he walked away from it all. Nine years ago, Jan founded Qteal, a software consultancy in Belgium. No investors. No managers. No hierarchy. No business cards. And no internal emails—not a single one in nine years. In this episode, he shares how a self-managed company actually works, not in theory but in daily practice. ### The Problem with Traditional Management Jan's journey started with a simple observation: people don't need to be fixed. Systems do. Traditional companies rely on layers of managers, endless emails, and rigid structures. But what if you stripped all that away? At Qteal, decisions happen without anyone having the final say. Salaries are completely transparent, from the newest hire to the founder. Employees set their own pay and choose their own vacation days. Sounds liberating, right? But here's the twist: that freedom was the biggest challenge at first. ### The Fear of Asking for a Raise When Qteal first introduced self-set salaries, no one dared ask for a raise. Employees were so conditioned by traditional systems that they didn't trust the freedom. Peer pressure kicked in. If everyone sees what you earn, you might feel guilty asking for more. Jan calls this the "peer pressure of salary transparency." So how did they solve it? By making the system work for people, not against them. Qteal welcomes social inspections with open login credentials instead of closed books. They introduced a mobility budget seven years before it became law. The key is transparency, not secrecy. ### The Trap of Consensus One of the biggest pitfalls in a self-managed company is the trap of consensus. When no one has the final say, every decision can turn into a never-ending discussion. Jan explains how Qteal avoids this by focusing on clear processes and trust. If a decision needs to be made, the team moves forward without endless debates. ### The Future: Internal Crowdfunding Jan is building something even more radical for the future: an internal crowdfunding system. Employees will decide where the company invests its money using virtual Monopoly money earned from company profits. This gives everyone a stake in the company's success and encourages smart, collective decision-making. ### What You Can Learn Jan's story isn't just for software consultants. It's for every business owner who's ever wondered if there's a better way. Here are some takeaways: - **Fix systems, not people.** The structure is usually the problem, not the employees. - **Transparency builds trust.** Open salaries and open books reduce suspicion and increase accountability. - **Freedom requires courage.** Giving employees control over their pay and time can be scary, but it often leads to higher engagement. - **Avoid consensus paralysis.** Clear processes help teams move forward without endless meetings. ### Final Thoughts Jan's credo throughout the conversation is simple: people don't need to be fixed. Systems do. Whether you're running a startup or a large corporation, there's wisdom in questioning the status quo. Maybe it's time to rethink how you manage your team. For more episodes, visit the podcast website. Subscribe and leave a five-star review if you find these conversations valuable. *Special thanks to our partners: Teamleader and Victus Sales. Download their free sales guide at victussales.be/ondernemer.*