Why we decided to have an unlimited book budget at HeyOrca

HeyOrca has an Unlimited Book Budget! 

Yep – you read that right! Between February 1 and August 30, the Pod has received $3646.11 CAD worth of books and we’re still going strong. Currently, approximately 70% of the company has used the budget.

This budget might sound familiar if you follow companies in the SaaS space. Specifically, we took inspiration from Buffer’s book program. (I’m always impressed with what Buffer does to elevate their employee experience.)

Here’s why we started an Unlimited Book Budget at HeyOrca, how it works, and what we’re hoping to achieve.

The importance of promoting team member growth and curiosity

The Unlimited Book Budget (and our more general Growth Budget) has two main goals:

1. To promote personal and professional team member growth
2. To create a culture of continuous learning

The “personal and professional” part is key. It’s easy for a company to want to provide professional development opportunities as it’s easy to explain the correlation in the workplace. 

At HeyOrca, we like to invest in the entire person and not just who they are and what they do between 9-5. So, in addition to professional development, we also invest in our team member’s interests and passions.

Our unlimited book budget rules

Here’s how it works:

1. Buy *any* book - Yes, you read that right! All book expenses are covered, whether they're personal or professional. This includes physical books, Kindle titles, Audible audiobooks, and even subscription services.

2. Submit your receipt - Thanks to our Director of Finance Liana, team members will be reimbursed within 4 weeks of purchase.

3. Share the knowledge - This isn’t required, but if team members find a book particularly inspiring or insightful, they’re encouraged to share it in #pod-books or any channel really.

Is the budget truly unlimited? I know it’s easy to hear a company throw around the word “unlimited” and be skeptical.

The short answer? Yes! But, we do ask team members to be mindful of the company's resources by choosing books thoughtfully and avoiding excessive spending. We also don’t allow reimbursements for luxury or limited edition books intended solely for collection purchases.

Lastly, as part of our give-back culture, we encourage our team to purchase from local and independent bookstores.

Oscar’s reads

Curious what we’ve read so far? In no particular order, here are a few examples of books that our team members have bought:

• Scaling up Compensation – Verne Harnish and Sebastian Ross
• Financial Feminist  – Tori Dunlap
• Principles  – Ray Dalio
• None of This Is True  – Lisa Jewell (our first book club pick, run by our very own Noelle of @noellesbookshelf!)
• House of Flame and Shadow – Sarah J Maas
• Magnolia Parks Into the Dark – Jessa Hastings
• Atomic Habits – James Clear
• Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert
• Yellowface – R. F. Kuang
• The Mountain is You – Brianna Wiest
• Solito – Javier Zamora
• Elon Musk – Walter Isaacson 
• Influence – Robert B Cialdini 
• Psycho-Cybernetics – Maxwell Maltz
• Atomic Habits – James Clear
• Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
• Get Together – Bailey Richardson, Kai Elmer Sotto, and Kevin Huynh
• How to Build a Story Brand – Don Miller 
• This Is How You Lose the Time War – Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
• The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest) – Robin Hobb
• The Sword of Kaigen – M.L. Wang
• Happy Place – Emily Henry

How we’ll measure success

Based on the goals above, there are a few things that we’ll use to measure the success of our Unlimited Book Program:

Is the program used by the Pod?

The answer is yes! As you saw in the intro, between February 1 and August 30, 2024, we’ve gifted $3646.11 CAD worth of books to our team. Currently, approximately 70% of the company has used the budget (which is up from 50% just a few months back). 

We’ll continue to promote the program internally to make sure everyone who has an interest in reading knows about it.

Does the program contribute to the team’s personal and professional growth? And, does the program contribute to the culture of continuous learning?

These aren’t as easy to quantify as the first but the answer is still yes! 

First and foremost, we want the Pod to feel empowered, celebrated, and supported to explore diverse topics and interests. Here are a few examples of how we’ve seen this in motion:

1. The learnings from “The Design of Everyday Things – Don Norman” were turned into a lunch n learn to explore how we can innovate on design at HeyOrca.
2. Team members are sharing their book experiences, learnings, and recommendations in #pod-books.
3. We now have an official monthly book club (thanks to the hard work of Noelle).
4. The learnings from “Scaling Up Compensation – Verne Harnish, Sebastian Ross” have brought on leadership discussions on how we want to build compensation at HeyOrca as we scale up.
5. And more!

Summary

Like everything, this program is a work in progress but I’m really excited at the successes we’ve seen so far. 

Company culture and employee experience are very important to us at HeyOrca. If you have suggestions on how to make our Unlimited Book Budget even better, don’t hesitate to send me a message on LinkedIn. 

And stay tuned for an eventual “Oscar’s Reading List”.

‍