# People Strategy Reference Hiring, retention, performance, and remote/hybrid frameworks for each growth stage. --- ## Hiring Strategy by Growth Stage ### Pre-Seed / Seed (1–15 people) **Who you're hiring:** Generalists who can do multiple jobs. Specialists are a luxury you can't afford unless the specialty is your core product. **The test:** Could this person be the 5th employee at a startup and thrive? If they need a defined role, clear process, and a manager — not yet. **Sourcing at this stage:** - Founder networks first (highest signal, lowest cost) - Angel List / Wellfound — self-selected for startup risk tolerance - Referrals from existing employees (offer a referral bonus from day 1) - GitHub / Dribbble / published work for technical roles - Avoid: Big job boards, recruiters (unless technical retained search for C-suite) **Interview process (keep it lean):** 1. 30-min intro call (culture/motivation fit, comp alignment) 2. Take-home or live work sample (2–4 hours max, paid for senior roles) 3. 60-min deep-dive with founders 4. Reference checks (3 calls, not emails — you want the real story) **Offer timeline:** Decision within 48 hours. Top candidates have multiple offers. **What to get right:** - Written job scorecard (outcomes expected in 30/60/90 days) — not a job description - Equity range disclosed in first conversation - No exploding offers. Pressure tactics lose good people. --- ### Series A (15–50 people) **The hiring shift:** You need some specialists now. First management layer emerges. First "culture carries" — people who reinforce what you want to become. **Critical hires at this stage (in priority order):** 1. VP/Head of Engineering (if founder isn't technical) 2. Head of Product 3. First dedicated recruiter (when you're hiring > 10/year) 4. First Finance/Operations hire 5. Head of Sales (when product-market fit is real) **Building the recruiting function:** - First recruiter should be a generalist with hustle, not a specialist - Set up an ATS (Ashby, Greenhouse, or Lever) before you need it — not after - Create interview scorecards for every role - Track: time to fill, offer acceptance rate, source quality **Common mistakes at Series A:** - Promoting top ICs to management without management training - Hiring "brand name" executives who've never operated lean - Over-indexing on experience, under-indexing on trajectory - No onboarding process → 90-day regrettable turnover **Job scorecards (required for every role):** ``` Role: [Title] Reports to: [Manager] Start date: [Target] Why this role now: [Business case in 1-2 sentences] Outcomes (90 days): - [Concrete deliverable 1] - [Concrete deliverable 2] - [Concrete deliverable 3] Outcomes (12 months): - [Strategic impact 1] - [Strategic impact 2] Competencies (top 3 only): - [What, why it matters for THIS role] - [What, why it matters for THIS role] - [What, why it matters for THIS role] Comp range: [Base] + [Equity] + [Benefits summary] ``` --- ### Series B (50–150 people) **The scaling inflection point.** Tribal knowledge breaks. Process matters now. Culture requires deliberate investment. **What changes:** - Recruiters become specialists (technical, GTM, exec) - Manager training becomes non-negotiable - Performance management needs structure (not just "we'll know it when we see it") - Onboarding needs to scale without founders in every session - Comp bands become essential — people are comparing notes **Hiring velocity benchmarks (Series B):** | Function | Avg time to fill | Avg interviews | Benchmark offer acceptance | |----------|-----------------|----------------|---------------------------| | Engineering IC | 35–45 days | 4–5 rounds | 80–85% | | Engineering Manager | 45–60 days | 5–6 rounds | 75–80% | | Sales IC | 25–35 days | 3–4 rounds | 85–90% | | Sales Manager | 40–55 days | 4–5 rounds | 80–85% | | G&A (Finance, HR, Ops) | 30–45 days | 3–4 rounds | 85–90% | **Internal mobility:** By 50 people, start tracking internal promotion rates. Target: 20–30% of manager+ roles filled internally. If it's < 10%, your career development is failing. --- ### Series C+ (150+ people) **Professional management era.** Founders can't know everyone. Systems and culture carry what personal relationships used to. **HR function maturity required:** - Dedicated HRBPs per business unit (1:75–100 employees) - L&D budget (1–2% of salary budget minimum) - Succession planning for all VP+ roles - Structured calibration process for performance reviews - Total rewards strategy reviewed annually with board --- ## Retention Programs That Actually Work ### What drives retention (in order of impact) 1. **Manager quality** — Gallup: 70% of team engagement variance is explained by the manager. Fix managers first. 2. **Growth trajectory** — People leave when they can't see their next role. Career ladders are retention tools. 3. **Compensation competitiveness** — Being at P25 on salary is a slow leak. Audit annually. 4. **Mission/product belief** — Especially for senior ICs. They want to work on something that matters. 5. **Team quality** — "I stay because of the people I work with." True at every level. 6. **Flexibility** — Location, hours, autonomy. Low cost, high impact. ### What doesn't work (but companies do anyway) - Pizza parties and ping pong tables - "Perks" that substitute for salary - Annual reviews with no action on feedback - Forced fun events - Vague "culture improvement" initiatives without specific behavior changes ### The 30-60-90 Onboarding Framework Structured onboarding cuts 90-day turnover by 50%+. **Days 1–30: Learn** - Complete admin setup (day 1, before lunch) - Meet all key stakeholders (scheduled by their manager, not on the new hire) - Understand: business model, current priorities, team processes, how success is measured - No deliverables expected. Learning is the job. - Weekly 1:1 with manager: "What's confusing? What do you need?" **Days 31–60: Contribute** - First real project (scoped to be completable) - Present findings or work to the team - Identify one process that could be improved (observation only — don't fix yet) - 30-day check-in: formal feedback from manager **Days 61–90: Lead** - Own a deliverable end-to-end - Offer one specific improvement recommendation with data - 90-day review: mutual assessment — manager on new hire, new hire on onboarding - Set 6-month goals ### Stay Interviews (underused, high ROI) Run with every employee once per year. Not their manager — HR or skip-level. **Questions that surface real risk:** - "What's keeping you here?" - "What would make you consider leaving?" - "What's one thing your manager could do differently?" - "Is your role what you expected when you joined?" - "What career path do you want? Are we helping you get there?" - "Are you fairly compensated? Do you know how you'd get a raise?" **Act on answers within 30 days or don't ask.** Unanswered feedback is worse than no feedback. ### Exit Interviews — What to Actually Learn Skip the happiness survey. Ask these: - "When did you first think about leaving?" - "Was there a specific event that triggered your decision?" - "What could we have done to retain you?" - "Where are you going and why?" (What does the other offer have that we don't?) - "Would you recommend us as an employer? Why or why not?" Track exit themes by manager. If one manager's exits cite "micromanagement" three times — that's data. --- ## Performance Management ### The System That Works **Continuous > annual.** Annual reviews with no mid-year touchpoints are theater. **Structure:** - **Weekly 1:1s** (30 min): blockers, priorities, relationship - **Monthly check-ins** (1 hr): progress against goals, feedback exchange - **Quarterly reviews** (formal): written self-assessment + manager assessment + goal revision - **Annual calibration** (rating + comp): cross-manager calibration session, then individual conversations ### Calibration Sessions **Purpose:** Prevent manager bias. Ensure "exceeds expectations" means the same thing across teams. **Process:** 1. Managers submit preliminary ratings independently 2. HR facilitates 2-hr calibration with all managers in a function 3. Managers must justify outliers (top and bottom) 4. Ratings adjusted for consistency 5. Managers deliver final ratings with rationale **Distribution guidance (enforce with calibration):** - Exceptional (5): < 10% — if everyone's exceptional, no one is - Exceeds (4): 20–25% - Meets (3): 55–65% - Needs improvement (2): 8–12% - Underperforming (1): 2–5% ### Managing Underperformers **The most avoided management task. And the most damaging when avoided.** High performers notice when underperformers are tolerated. They leave. **The 4-step framework:** **Step 1: Diagnose before acting** (Week 1–2) - Is this a skill gap (can't do it) or a will gap (won't do it)? - Skill gap → training, clearer expectations, different role - Will gap → direct feedback, clear consequences, then PIP **Step 2: Direct feedback conversation** (Week 2–3) - Specific: "Your last 3 sprint deliveries were 40% incomplete" - Not: "You're not meeting expectations" - Document. Send written summary after every feedback conversation. **Step 3: Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)** Required when: two rounds of direct feedback haven't produced change. PIP structure: ``` Name: [Employee] Manager: [Name] Date: [Start] Review date: [30/60 days out] Current performance issues: - [Specific, observable behavior with examples and dates] - [Metric not met: target X, actual Y for Z weeks] Required improvements: - [Specific, measurable outcome 1] by [date] - [Specific, measurable outcome 2] by [date] Support provided: - [Training, coaching, additional resources] Consequences if not met: [Role change / separation] Check-in schedule: [Weekly with manager + HR] ``` **Step 4: Exit or role change** - If PIP milestones not met: proceed to separation - Don't extend PIPs indefinitely — it's unfair to the employee and the team - Offer a graceful exit where possible: "This role isn't the right fit. Here's a package and a reference." **What not to do:** - "Quiet manage out" without clear feedback (legally risky, unfair) - PIP as a formality before termination (if you know you're firing them, just do it) - Tolerating underperformance "because we're understaffed" (it makes understaffing worse) --- ## Remote / Hybrid Strategy ### The question isn't "remote or not" — it's "what kind of collaboration does our work require?" **Work type taxonomy:** | Work type | Remote-compatible? | Hybrid compatible? | |-----------|-------------------|-------------------| | Deep individual work (coding, writing, analysis) | Yes | Yes | | Async collaboration (code review, doc review) | Yes | Yes | | Synchronous problem-solving (debugging, design) | Yes (video) | Yes | | Relationship-building (onboarding, new team) | Harder | Yes | | Executive alignment, strategy | Harder | Yes — quarterly in-person | | Sales (enterprise, relationship-based) | No | Depends on market | ### Making Hybrid Work (Not Just a Policy) **The failure mode:** "Hybrid" = go to office on Tuesday/Thursday, but no one coordinates, all meetings are still Zoom anyway. **What actually works:** 1. **Anchor days with purpose** — Office days should have things that require the office: workshops, team rituals, whiteboarding sessions. Not just "presence." 2. **Async-first culture, not async-only** — Document decisions. Write things down. Use Loom for walkthroughs. Reduce "quick sync" meetings. 3. **Equal experience for remote participants** — If some are in the room and some are on video, the remote folks are second-class. Either everyone's remote or set up rooms properly. 4. **Manager standards for remote teams:** - 1:1s are non-negotiable (video, not async) - Over-communicate on priorities (people can't absorb hallway context) - Write down decisions (remote employees miss casual office decisions) - Recognize work publicly (Slack shoutouts, all-hands wins) ### Remote Compensation Philosophy (pick one, be explicit) **Option A: Location-based pay** Pay based on where the employee lives. Lower cost in lower-cost markets. Harder to hire in high-cost cities. **Option B: Role-based (location-neutral)** One band for each role regardless of location. Simpler, more equitable. Higher overall payroll cost. **Option C: Zone-based** Define 2–3 geographic zones (e.g., Tier 1 cities, Tier 2 cities, international). Set bands per zone. Common at mid-stage startups. **The wrong answer:** No stated policy, and every offer is negotiated individually. Creates pay equity problems fast.