Twitter already lost a number of top leaders in January this year, and it's taking measures to limit the drain of executive human resources personnel.
One way in which the company aims to stop the high-profile exodus from happening again is by significantly increasing employee compensation packages. Meritorious employees can get as much as $200,000 as a cash bonus. The rewards start from $50,000, which is not too shabby, either.
The Wall Street Journal spoke to insiders who say that Twitter uses a variety of incentives to motivate select employees. For example, the company offers restricted stock to reinforce the loyalty of its workers. The award system is not restricted to high-ranking employees, as juniors also are subject to the generous offer.
Over the previous year, Twitter's shares dropped by an unforgiving 60 percent. The quality and quantity of stock that reaches employees depends on when the workers joined the company. Sources who wanted to remain anonymous said this is a way for the company to compensate for the plummeting value of the shares.
Another reason for the increased benefits is that successful Silicon Valley companies such as LinkedIn and VMware are strengthening their equity packages, forcing Twitter and others to keep up.
Twitter caters to its 320 million fan base, but it seems a bit landlocked. The company recently introduced Twitter Gaming, a gaming hub aimed at polarizing the community of players who use the social media platform.
In spite of the addition of new features, the company fails to grow at the (exponential) rate that it desires.
Purported rumors about drastic changes to the platform surfaced, hinting that even the famous 140-character limit could be abandoned. There was talk of embedding timeline updates, but the risk of alienating frequent users caused the company to cancel critical modifications.
Not only did Twitter lose four executives at the beginning of 2016, but the company's editorial director, Karen Wickre, also packed her bags. She was in charge of the ecosystem's public-facing content, such as Twitter accounts and blogs.
"Developing, retaining, and recruiting top talent is critical to Twitter's business success and building shareholder value," Twitter declared in a statement.
In October last year, Twitter gave the boot to as much as 8 percent of its workforce in order to keep the company more focused.
