Category: Corp Culture

With all the talk about recruiting and finding talent, it’s easy to forget that employee turnover is a real challenge and that strong employees always have multiple job offers. Of course, the best thing to do is create a great culture that not only attracts awesome people but also retains them.

Here are a few thoughts on employee turnover in a startup:

• Always reach out and understand why a team member is leaving through an exit interview or an informal conversation
• Discuss the employee that is leaving with other key team members and find out where they stand
• Work hard at proactively building career paths so that team members understand the opportunities ahead
• Continually maintain relationships with potential hires as well as recruiters
• Startups that are growing fast and creating new internal opportunities often have lower turnover
• When a key employee leaves in good graces, throw a party and recognize them

Employee turnover in a startup, as in any business, is a real challenge. The best thing to do is to build a great corporate culture and strong relationships with team members.

What else? What are some more thoughts on employee turnover in a startup?

Recently I was over at a friend’s new office. As expected, the office had fresh paint, carpet, and new furniture. Only there was a common, and serious, furniture mistake: nice desks and cheap chairs. Wrong. Chairs should be nice and desks should be cheap.

Whether it’s an old door turned into a desk (Amazon.com style) or something simple from IKEA, as long as the desk is sturdy, that’s all that matters (yes, Geek Desks are cool). Desks should be cheap and sturdy, nothing more. Now, on the other hand, chairs should be nice. Sitting on something for hours on end really affects productivity. Lumbar support, backs independent of the base (so you don’t lean back and have the bottom of the chair go with you), and adjustable arm rest heights are key. Used Herman Miller Aerons and Knoll Generation chairs come to mind in the ~$500 range (new are much more expensive).

Entrepreneurs would do well to invest in nice chairs and save money with cheap desks.

What else? What are some more thoughts on nice chairs and cheap desks for startups?

The ATDC has a great interview with Craig Hyde, the CEO of Rigor, titled Strong Company Culture is Good for Employees and Business. Rigor was named the #1 best place to work in Atlanta by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and is one of the fastest growing companies in the Atlanta Tech Village (Disclosure: I’m an investor in Rigor). One of the most important things entrepreneurs struggle to understand is that companies with a great corporate culture don’t have a great culture because of good benefits. I know of several companies that offer great perks but people don’t enjoy the culture.

Here are a few thoughts on the idea that corporate culture isn’t defined by benefits:

• Culture is defined by the core values of the people at the company
• Strong cultures have the most aligned core values across all the team members (not everyone is best friends)
• Great benefits are usually a sign that the company cares about its people, but alignment of core values is more important
• Many companies don’t have great benefits yet still have a great culture

The next time you hear about a great culture, find out what makes it great. The answer, as expected, is that it’s all about the people.

What else? What are some more thoughts on the idea that corporate culture isn’t defined by benefits?

Back in 2009, we made it our stated goal at Pardot to be one of the best places to work. Excitedly, we applied to be a best place to work with the local business newspaper, had employees fill out the anonymous surveys from the third-party administrators, and waited patiently for the results. After six weeks the results came back and we weren’t even considered to be a finalist. We had failed on several categories, with the most prominent being employees not understanding the future of the company, specifically their roles and career paths.

Startups are inherently unstable and have limited visibility. So, then, how do career paths fit in? Here are a few thoughts on career paths in startups:

• While it’s difficult to predict the future, it’s possible to outline the company’s desired scale and size over time, assuming things go well, and to plan out potential roles and positions
• Managers should meet with team members and talk about career interests at the quarterly check-ins such that potential career paths and timelines are well understood
• Individual contributor roles and managerial roles should be treated with similar weight such that all the emphasis isn’t on becoming a manager (many companies have roles like Distinguished Engineer or Director of Strategic Accounts, which are individual contributor roles for high achievers with significant experience)
• Multiple career options should be available whenever possible (e.g. as the company grows, there will be more specialization, and more opportunities to “own” certain areas)

While career paths aren’t fixed and perfect timelines aren’t available, entrepreneurs would do well to lay out an operational vision for the next three years and team members should be able to see an opportunity to progress within the company. Career paths are important and team members with better career path visibility enjoy greater satisfaction.

What else? What are some more thoughts on career paths in startups with limited visibility?

Several years ago we had an employee that wasn’t working out. Team members kept coming to me and lamenting that this person wasn’t getting things done and didn’t meet our culture standards (positive, self-starting, and supportive). Only, in my interactions with him everything was great, he did quality work for the tasks I asked of him, and appeared to meet the values. Then, it dawned on me: I was being treated differently since I was the CEO.

Here are a few thoughts on being treated differently as a CEO:

• Ideally, the culture will be strong enough to weed out people that aren’t a good fit, regardless if they change their style around the CEO
• CEOs can be their own worst enemy by making requests to team members that aren’t direct reports and confusing organizational priorities
• If team members never push back on the CEO’s decisions and recommendations, the culture lacks the healthy debates required for a successful business
• When a CEO notices they are being treated differently, it’s important to acknowledge it and talk about why it’s important to have consistency with how people are treated

CEOs are treated differently, but healthy cultures actively discourage it and encourage team members to treat everyone the same.

What else? What are some other thoughts on CEOs being treated differently?

Early on in my startup career I thought corporate retreats were a waste of time. I just wanted to stay heads-down and crank away at the items on my to do list. Only after experiencing great retreats with EO and YPO did I come to understand the real value.

Here are a few thoughts on corporate retreats in a startup:

• Hire an outside facilitator (find one that is EO or YPO certified) as they are worth the cost (if money is available to do so)
• Find the right balance between work time and fun activity time (depending on the group, I’ve found 60/40 works well with 60% work time)
• Always get outside the building, and preferably outside the city, so that the usual distractions aren’t present
• Come with an agenda and make sure that the goals are accomplished
• Decide on a cell phone policy and enforce it (e.g. turn off all phones and leave them on the middle of the table)
• Give homework in advance to set the tone and get the team thinking about the key topics

Corporate retreats are a great way to bring the team together, strategize the future, and align everyone.

What else? What are some other thoughts on corporate retreats and startups?

With the continued chatter about Yahoo’s policy change last year where employees are no longer allowed to work from home, and HP following suit, I’ve had a few entrepreneurs reach out over the past few months asking about work from home strategies. Before talking about working from home, the discussion needs to focus on the company’s core values and how it operates. Personally, I’m interested in a culture of people who are positive, self-starting, and supportive with a results only work environment (ROWE) structure.

Here are a few considerations regarding working from home and startups:

• More working from home requires more communication and planning, so allocate time accordingly
• Working from home doesn’t imply a ROWE structure, but a good way to move towards ROWE is to allow more telecommuting
• Crystal clear expectations for employees, including results, makes it easier to assess if the employee is meeting his or her expectations, regardless of working in the office or at home
• Tools like Google Hangouts are so good now that people working remotely can participate in meetings with a great deal of effectiveness
• Physical, face-to-face interactions and rapport-building is still important, so people that work remotely or from home all the time should plan for getting together at least once a quarter

More recently, discussions have emerged about holocracy and startups with 100% remote employees and no managers. My takeaway is that having a culture that encourages people to do their best work wherever they are requires a strong alignment of core values and often starts with the hiring process. Working from home works for many companies, especially ones with a strong culture and clear expectations for their team members.

What else? What are some more thoughts on working from home and startups?

Last week I was talking to an entrepreneur who shared with me that they have a big goal they’re striving to hit by the end of the year, and if they achieve it, they’ll have an amazing company-wide reward. It reminded me of my failed experiment trying a similar thing. Back in 2006 we had this name-brand prospect that was going through a big RFP process. On the RFP it listed several required features that we didn’t have but were on our roadmap. You know where this is heading — I worked hard to rally the team to crank out these features and told the entire company that everyone would go on a cool cruise if we won this deal.

After two months of furious work, and incremental clarification questions for the RFP, we were told that we didn’t make it to the final round of vendor selection. Ouch, not even a finalist. I had expended a ton of personal capital and now we had lost the deal (even earlier than expected). Without the deal we weren’t in the position to go on the cruise. Morale was down. I wasn’t going to make this mistake again.

Going forward, we decided to implement quarterly celebrations so that we’d regularly celebrate our progress as a team, regardless of specific deals. There are still times when it’s important to push extra hard, but they should be relegated to things that are more controllable, like a new product release for the largest tradeshow of the year. Big team rewards make sense, but ensure there’s some level of control with achievability.

What else? What are some other thoughts on big team rewards for winning a deal?

As corporate culture is king, and three leading companies have published entire guides to their culture, it’s important to talk through an example hiring process. At Pardot, we spent years refining our hiring process, and were never finished. Here’s the core of the process we developed:

1. Start with an applicant tracking system (e.g. Workable, Greenhouse, or Jazz) and require all candidates to apply through it
2. Have an HR manager, office manager, or someone on the team do a phone screen for any candidates that meet the requirements with the goal of screening for culture fit (especially attitude)
3. Require a written assessment of the candidates that pass the phone screen (I like a two-page essay and technical test)
4. Bring in the candidates that pass the written assessment to meet with the hiring manager and a few members of that team (always require unanimous decision among interviewers when hiring)
5. When there are multiple great candidates available bring the leading candidates back in to meet with the hiring manager and a separate set of team members
6. Invite the candidate(s) that pass all steps to interview with the founders of the company and a separate culture check team purely for the purpose of assessing culture fit
7. Send out a job offer to the top candidate by way of the hiring manager and have one of the founders also send an email expressing their excitement for the person to join the company (closing the candidate is extremely important and shouldn’t be taken lightly)

Bonus: offer a $10,000 referral fee for anyone who brings in a candidate that’s hired for a tough-to-find position.

This seven step process helped us scale Pardot beyond 100 employees and build an environment that was rated the #1 place to work for multiple years.

What else? What would you add to a culture-oriented hiring process?