Why Polyvore Employees Give Away Their Bonuses

If someone gave you $500 to spend on your colleagues, what would you buy them?

At online shopping site Polyvore, that's not a hypothetical. To cultivate company culture, CEO Jess Lee instituted a simple and clever twist on employee performance prizes. Instead of giving top performers cash to spend on themselves, Polyvore awards winners $500 to buy anything they choose for their colleagues.

Past employees have spent the money on a foosball table, a food truck for lunch, a Scotch-tasting party, and a large beanbag chair, Lee told New York Times columnist Adam Bryant.

"Sure, it's easy to argue that the employees might prefer having the cash themselves," Bryant writes in a recent post on LinkedIn. "But for startups and other fast-growing companies, it's a smart approach that can help foster a company's unique culture."

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