# 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.
