Season 2 - Episode 8: Fighting Employment Remorse
It’s Episode 8 of season 2 and the finale of our Startup TakeOff series! We conclude the series by getting at “Employment Remorse”; that is, helping your new employees buy into your super-early startup. You want to believe they’re as “into it” as you and your Co-Founder but they’re going to take some convincing. Oh, and don’t forget about their family or friends either.
Background Story
Dave again. I remember how deflating it was when our culture failed the first time. We lost both the staff we had hired and were back to zero. And it was solidly our fault - we were a mission-less, culture-less, pretty boring workplace. We didn’t put in the day 1 effort to win over the new staff.
Chris and I genuinely confronted whether or not we wanted to hire people. It just didn’t feel natural - we couldn’t get them interested. We’d work in a cave, and thought they would too. On the second go around, we knew we had to do it differently. We knew that we had to win the battle in and out of the office for our employees’ buy in. We knew we needed to fight “employment remorse”.
Outline
They Won’t Care as Much as You. And that’s OK: At the start, the base level loyalty that your employees offer you is that you were the best job they could get. If they could have gotten a better one, they would have. Nothing wrong with that, but be realistic that they don’t care as much as you.
Onboarding is Crazy Important: If you don’t put in the effort to onboarding, it’s that you’re missing out on actually building something special.
Mastery - Progression - Autonomy: The keys to getting more buy in and reducing employee churn, is these principles. Transparency is key in helping getting them onboard.
Busted Myths
Myth: Employees will be as motivated and excited about your business as you. Wrong. Don’t buy the interview-persona.
Learnings
At the start, the base level loyalty that your employees offer you is that you were the best job they could get. If they could have gotten a better one, they would have. Don’t take that the wrong way. I’m sure you’re doing something cool. And that’s just rational behaviour from anyone looking for a job. But it also means that new employees are the least loyal, requiring a full-court press of activities to get them to buy in.
Onboarding matters. In the HBR article “Onboarding can Make or Break a New Hire’s Experience” states data from a Gallup survey that
“…poor onboarding can leave your employees with lower confidence in their new roles, worsened levels of engagement, and an increased risk of jumping ship when they see a new, more exciting position elsewhere…”
And that
“companies that implement a formal onboarding program could see 50% greater employee retention among new recruits and 62% greater productivity within the same group. Additionally, according to Gallup’s onboarding report, employees who have a positive onboarding experience are almost three times as likely to feel prepared and supported in their role, boosting their confidence and improving their ability to perform their role well.”
Were forthcoming (no surprises) about expectations: Mastery progression autonomy. (from Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink). Lower salary start, clear(ish) path forward, planned raises if doing well. Master important skills, progress in the company and in the role, become increasingly autonomous. More of these three meant more success -money, benefits, etc.
We understood the reality of the informal “2 year time limit”. The career game piece. We were upfront, if they wanted to move on or had dreams of being somewhere else, we wanted to help them get there. Ironically investing in them helped them invest in the business.
Summary
Employees won’t be as into as you are - at least not at first
Onboarding is tough and generally done poorly. Doing it right, especially early, has a material benefits for your startup
Be forthcoming. Mastery, Progression, Autonomy.
Literally buy in for them, win the family, build a culture you like
Data And References
Onboarding Can Make or Break a New Hire’s Experience
by Sinazo Sibisi and Gys Kappers
Harvard Business Review - April 05, 2022
https://hbr.org/2022/04/onboarding-can-make-or-break-a-new-hires-experience