As Martin Hellawell steps down after 12 years at the helm of Softcat, he reflects on the work culture which has underpinned the reseller's success.
"Yep," said Hellawell casually. "The starting salaries in sales are around ￡20,000 for people coming into basically their first job. You look at other IT resellers and it is not uncompetitive. I'm sure there are a few that offer a bit more, and a few that offer a bit less. There are higher salaries in other non-sales roles.
"We want people to see the fruits of their success and be rewarded by it, energised by it and incentivised by it. They will earn a percentage of the profit of their sales. If they do well, they will be rewarded fantastically well. We don't want people to be without that incentive and reward mechanism in place."
Hellawell said Softcat wants people to get a buzz from their success and the money they make the company.
"We do not have any caps on earnings - people can earn a large amount of money if they do well for the company. That system has worked well for us and in our environment, but I don't think it would work well in every environment," he said.
"Depending on which discipline they are in, sales staff have to get over a certain amount before they start earning commission once they are established inside Softcat. However, that is a relatively small amount."
He does have some objection to the notion that staff are expected to work long hours. "When you said that, I thought about arguing against it," he said. "The culture I inherited was actually quite striking in the way that at closing time at Softcat, which is normally six in the evening, the office empties really quickly.
"Management encourages people to leave the office really quickly. So compared to other places I have worked, I would not say it is a particularly long-hours culture. When people start in the company and they try and get themselves established by doing preparation on accounts to call, they will use time before and after work. That will only be in their first year to 18 months.
"These days we do have quite a large services workforce and a lot of them are on the road. They might have to get to a customer by nine in the morning and will have some travel time to do that. Given the nature of that job, it might require long hours. However, by and large for people who are established in the company, we are actually very good at encouraging them to stop working and get out."
Hellawell said he is more interested in people working productively than working long hours.
"Some people might talk about the long hours they work, but they seem to spend half their time dawdling, chatting and going on Facebook. To me, that is not long hours, that is you choosing a certain pace. Instead we encourage people to be productive in the hours they are working."
In terms of the third major pattern from the Glassdoor reviews, high staff turnover, Hellawell admits that this can be the case, but only for certain employees.
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