Being fun is being unique. So shall be our company rules.
Pursuit after unique rules
never ends
Compensation & evaluation
On-a-Roll
Rolling a die every month.
Our staff can top up their regular wages through our fun dice-rolling – On A Roll. This is a chance to top up their basic monthly wage by rolling a die. Each month each employee's pay packet is increased by between 1% and 6% depending on the number they roll. They can’t actually lose anything, it just adds a bit of fun and unpredictability at work.
Smile & Fist
Zero yen “Smile Points”. Priceless.
Every month each employee gets another kind of special bonus: Smile Points. These recognize the value of something extra special they have done at work, which cannot be measured by money alone – such as acts of dedication, courtesy or support to colleagues beyond the call of duty.
Along with Smile Points, we have a Fist message to balance out. These are usually bitter, but gentle messages between colleagues to refresh a challenging mind.
Veggie Money
Freshen your mind and get energized with fresh vegetables.
Since Kayac’s “bowls” café sometimes needs farmhands to help harvest crops at our “bowls farm”, employees who volunteer to get their hands dirty are given Veggie Money, compensation in the form of food rather than cash. We also reckon that a day of fresh air and exercise refreshes the mind and feeds your creative powers too.
Performance evaluation
Semiannual full participation event – 360 degree evaluation.
Every half-year we conduct company-wide performance evaluation, which we call “360 degree evaluation”. This is not a conventional top-down evaluation, but completely open with unique multidirectional approach.
Each employee evaluates many colleagues, gets evaluated from multiple people, is able to respond to evaluation comments. The most important fact is that whole process is complete transparent to all employees. The main idea behind this system is to encourage self-observation and create an opportunity to gear up for next mid-term.
Workstyle benefits
On-the-move office
Have an internet. Work from anywhere. The world is our office.
As if we could make work even more like a holiday, every year one of our branches takes a couple of months or more to go abroad and work from somewhere completely different. Our On-the-Move Office has visited several countries including Italy and Hawaii. It is a fun and radical way to look at things with new eyes.
Working like “Ultraman“
Fight until the ‘color timer’ is up. Sprint over marathon.
Different life stages offer different work style environments. With ‘Ultraman’ workstyle one can set a strict time deadline, work really hard and highly concentrated till time is up. It just like an occasional sprint you take before the finish line.
Birthday off
Be thankful. Life is a precious gift.
Every employee is entitled to take a day off on his or her birthday. Spend this day with gratitude to life.
Creative perks
Manga style business cards
Every card is a piece of art.
KAYAC employees get personalized manga style business card. This is our gesture to show that everyone is equally acknowledged and fairly regarded.
Creative day off
Rediscover joy of creativity. One full day.
3/9 is pronounced ‘sankyu’ in Japanese, similar to English ‘thank-you’. That’s why we have designated March 9th as “the creative holiday”. Any employee can –pre-apply and take unscheduled day off to dedicate this day to creating something completely of their own interest.
It’s also a good chance to go back to basics and take an objective look at our business philosophy and principles.
Former team members
Cheer retiring employees with a warm farewell and a ‘present’.
Retiring members can choose to have a former employee card, and get presented with multiple recommendations letters from current members. We wholeheartedly wish a good luck for all.
Sharing vision and KAYAC culture
Company-wide semiannual camping
No partying. Just earnest thinking of company’s future.
Twice a year we organize a company-wide two-day camping, when everyone – directors, designers, programmers – literally everyone stop working and head to camping facility. There, we split into several teams to contest on given assignment and pitch our ideas. Winning team gets a bonus, for example doubling of On-a-Roll score.
Camping is a nice get-together to meet people from different teams and offices to share thoughts about KAYAC and reexamine sharing principles.
Intranet
Internal info-sharing. Ultimately open.
Our intranet, MINPO, is a handy spot for finding about various internal rules, submitting different requests. It often features introduction of new employees as well.
MINPO is an ever-evolving tool to make administrativia simple.
Episode blog
Reservoir of rare events and episodes at KAYAC
Episode blog is a corner within MINPO. Once in a while we voluntarily collect interesting stories, both failures and successes, to accumulate them as a treasure to share with newer KAYAC generations and remind ourselves of our beginnings.
Sharing vision. KAYAC certification test
Strengthening bounds via common vision and our original test.
We have arranged an original test to measure understanding level of company’s vision and guiding principles. The test is usually conducted after joining the company and some time passes, and also during mid-term evaluation weeks.
* The test was made possible with great facilitation assistance from e-communications Inc.
KAYAC awards
Honoring distinctive members.
Twice a year, we announce and honor distinctive employees – those who achieved outstanding results in work, ranked top for proposing buzz phrases, or were distinctive in other manner, such as being the first from bottom of On-a-Roll ranking.
Of course, all of the rules above are subject to change at any time. Just as KAYAC is quick and adaptive to changes.
