<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"What if you gave your newest employee access to the same information about your company as you do one of your VPs?  That's the idea behind the inner-workings of Square, and one that is contributing to the mobile-payment company's success.\n\"Whether it's your first day, or third year at the company, you're given the same amount of information and opportunity to contribute,\" Kyle Zink, director of experience at Square, told Mashable. \"We want you to be as valuable and effective as you want to be, as soon as you're ready.\"\nZink, who came to Square from a career at Google says that, while Google was transparent with its employees, he was shocked at the level of transparency at Square. \n\"What surprised me most is how we maintained that transparency with 450 people.\"\nAsk Anything\n\nEvery Friday at Square the company holds \"Town Square\" meetings where the staff welcomes new members and gives updates on what's been launched throughout the week. The meetings are attended by the entire staff (remote employees dial in via video chat), including founders Jack Dorsey and COO Keith Rabois.\n\"They make a very concerted effort to attend every Town Square,\" says Zink. \"One of them is always there. I cant remember a time that both of them have been out.\"\nEmployees at Square are encouraged to ask anything they want at Town Square; Questions from employees are compiled throughout the week using Google Moderator. Everyone has the opportunity to vote up questions that they would like to see answered and, without fail, the top three will always be addressed during the weekly meeting. \nOnce an answer is given, the floor is often opened for additional questions related to the topic, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and everyone has their questions answered.\nPiece of the Pie\n\nEvery employee owns a piece of Square and, while the size of that piece varies from employee to employee, Zink says he thinks that ownership in the company helps build the company culture and promotes collaboration.\n\"We are all owners of this company. We all feel like owners of this company.\" \"I trust when Jack talks about Starbucks, or we show a technology that hasn't been shown to the world, that people will keep it to themselves.\"\nAfter every meeting at Square a note is sent out to all employees with information about who attended the meeting, action items from the meeting, and what was discussed. Any meeting that's held at the company, whether it's about product changes or potential acquisitions or partnerships, is public knowledge. And if an employee has a question about what went on in a meeting he or she was not a part of, that person can just respond to the email thread and ask.\nStand Up\n\nWhile the office has a number of cubical-style desks, there are also a number of stand up tables scattered throughout the office.\nThose stand up desks add to the level of transparency in the office, simply because they encourage employees to gather around them and talk about projects \u2014 even projects they aren't personally assigned to. \n\"You can walk up to anyone and ask a question,\" says Zink. Dorsey and Rabois also eat meals at standing tables.\nEveryone at Square is encouraged to collaborate in common areas and employees are often inspired to get involved in projects with others.\nFor instance, during the planning stages for Square's gift cards, Zink and Dorsey had a conversation around a stand up table about QR code technology. A designer who also happened to be at the table went and designed a QR code for them to use, showed it to Dorsey, and a few hours later was walking it around the office to get feedback from others.\nDisplays around the office reveal Square's real-time numbers.  Anyone can walk around the office and know the health of the business (and take action to make it better).\nCarrying on to Customers\nZink says Square's transparency is something it tries to extend outside of its office. Unlike other services, Square charges businesses a flat rate, allowing them to know up front what using the service will cost.\nCurrently, Square users can opt to pay either 2.75% per swipe on transactions with no monthly fee, or a flat $275 per month with no fee per transactions. \nThat pricing, and the availability of the Square card reader, makes it easy for individuals to grow their small business. Square also gives businesses the data it collects on its sales for free.\n\"We want a small business to have as much knowledge about their company as possible,\" he says.\nWhat do you think about Square's decision to be so transparent in its office? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.\nImages courtesy of Mashable, Square"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/01/04/square-office-culture/>