初创公司CEO们分享王牌招聘秘诀
编者注：作为创业者来说，单单靠自己的力量是远远不够的。最理想的状态就是能够招募到一群志同道合的朋友或者员工来一同打拼。然而在雇佣员工方面，有很多的注意点。比如说，要遵循几个原则：首先是因事择人原则，即上面所说的志同道合；其次，就是公开、公平和公正原则，要给应征者平等的竞争机会；再次，竞争择优原则。当然，公司的招聘还要遵循效率优先原则，招聘活动要尽可能用低的成本找到合适的员工。
当下，最为流行的励志书籍之一就是Stephen Covey的《高效率人士的7大习惯》。这本书之所以能够吸引如此多的读者，是因为人们被CEO或者业务总监身居高位却如此的坚定和付出所震慑了。
以下就是CEO王牌雇佣准则的内容：
符合公司的发展要求
关注他们成功的原因是非常重要的。有些人会说，如果雇主不能招聘那些有能力的人来为其服务，他就不会成功。一家大型企业每年在组织寻找合适的潜在招聘对象的过程中都会损失成千上万美元。为了使得公司损失最小化以及利润最大化，CEO需要招聘合格的雇员。为了避免做出错误的招聘决定，他们需要寻求那些有对口技能和证书资质的人。如果候选人没有达到要求，那么雇主就不应该再将其考虑在内。而那些最成功CEO的招聘策略则可以给你启示，告诉你如何为自己的公司招兵买马。
绩效考核
对于你来说，招聘一位员工并且给他一定时间的试用期来考察能力是一个不错的做法。而此后他的去留都取决于在试用期内的表现。而另外一种检验雇员能力保守的方法就是让他独立完成一个项目。但是，还有一点很重要，那就是你要咨询一位精通劳动法的律师来确保你的雇佣合同中有关试用阶段的条款的可行性。
现实中没有十全十美的人
因为人无完人，所以你需要宽容个人的某些缺点。每一个个体都存在缺点，但是最重要的是招聘那些长处突出而缺点略少的人。为了达到这个目的，你可以把集体的共同意愿和理想分解成那些可调停、可选择以及值得拥有的部分。这样才能让自己清楚明白自己是否愿意妥协。
并且，在你面试候选人时，你还需要尽可能调整自己的态度，拿下领导的帽子，以免对员工太苛刻。所以说，记住打破某些固有习惯还是很重要的。
员工是你的镜子
Bill Unrue是InsureWell的CEO，他认为所招聘的员工某种程度上反映了雇主的特征。每一位CEO都必须意识到：雇员的内部或外部行为都是公司的外界反馈。Unrue说：“如果有两位有着相似资质的人需要做出选择，你一定要选择那个热情大于一切的。”在企业初创之时，无限的驱动力可以弥补某些技术上的缺陷。
听听Rockefeller怎么说
John D. Rockefeller是 Standard Oil 的创始人兼CEO，他有一句关于强调招聘顶尖人才的名言。他说：“我不信有什么还能比坚持更必要，更能带来成功。坚持可以战胜所有的困难，甚至是人类的极限。”且不谈论他们的技术如何，你只要招聘那些能够证明自己充满无限活力并且积极进取的人。
联邦快递（FedEx）CEO Fred Smith
联邦快递的CEO Fred Smith与Facebook的Mark Zuckerberg有着同样的信念，他偏向于公司的招聘要反映出领导人的原则。这是招聘那些为公司发展做出贡献的能力者的唯一途径。他说：“领导者站在前沿，不断地提高评判自己和接受评判的标准。”对于将来的创业家和CEO来说，招聘员工时做出正确决策是非常重要的。CEO必须要在面试过程中识别出顶尖人才。
Startup CEOs Share Their Number One Hiring Tip
One of the most popular motivational books of our time is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen Covey. The book has actually attracted large numbers of people who are amazed at how devoted and determined CEOs or business directors acquire and preserve such high positions.
The best cogs in the machine
It is important to note the reasons for their success. Some would say that a CEO cannot be successful if he or she does not employ the services of capable employees. A big organization loses tens-of-thousands of dollars a year in the course of choosing the right candidates to hire. In order to minimize losses and maximize profit in your company, there is a need for CEOs to employ qualified candidates. To prevent making the mistake of hiring the wrong employee, CEOs have to search for a candidate that has the qualities and credentials he or she seeks. If the candidate does not meet the requirements needed, that candidate should not be considered. Examining the hiring tactics of the most successful CEOs gives new insights into how to hire for your own company.
Test performance
It's a good idea to hire a person and put him or her on probation for some time, after which the candidate will be fully employed or laid off depending on his or her performance. Another conservative method to test prospective employee abilities is to create a project that can be completed as an independent contractor. It's important to note however that you should talk to a labor or employment lawyer to make sure your employment contract talks about the test period appropriately.
The perfect person doesn't exist
Since no one is perfect, you need to tolerate some weak points in individuals. Every individual has his or her own weak points, but the most important thing is to employ one whose strengths far outweigh any weaknesses. You can do this by breaking down your collective wishes, hopes and dreams into deal-breakers versus nice-to-haves. That's the best way to figure out where you're willing to compromise.
You also need to shift your priorities as you interview candidates to avoid being too rigid on your employees. It's therefore important to bear in mind that there are some deals that are meant to be broken.
Your employees are your reflection
Bill Unrue, the CEO of InsureWell believes that the employees you hire are a reflection of you. Every CEO must realize that all actions of their employees, both internal and external, are reflections of the company. "If you are choosing between two candidates with similar credentials, always go with the one who shows boundless enthusiasm--over other considerations, says Unrue." In business, a relentless drive can make up for quite a few lacking technical skills at the very beginning.
Listen to Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller was the founder and CEO of Standard Oil and his most famous quote puts emphasis on hiring top tier talent. He says, "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." No matter their skills, only hire people who have proven themselves to be relentless go-getters.
FedEx CEO Fred Smith
Frederick Smith, the CEO of FedEx has the same belief as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. He recommends that the company's hiring practices should reflect the principles of the leader. This is the only way to hire capable employees that have all it takes to contribute to the growth of the company. He elaborates:"Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves--and by which they are willing to be judged." It is quite important for would-be entrepreneurs and future CEOs to make good decisions when it comes to employing a staff. A CEO must have the quality of recognizing top talents during interviews.
Source:Inc
优秀人才喜欢什么样的创业公司？2016年招聘季可以准备起来了
本文作者Chad Halvorson为When I Work的创始人兼CEO
在所有成功的创业公司背后，总是有一支充满激情、目标明确的优秀团队在推动公司不断向前发展。每一个创业公司地拥有者都希望成功，因此不可避免地他们都会忍不住问这样一个问题：“如何才能找到最优秀的人才帮助我？”
为什么大家都求贤若渴呢？因为如果你能为顶尖人才创造一个理想的工作环境，你就拥有了拉拢最最优秀人才的机会——而这些人才可以助你实现创业理想，可以使你的公司声名远播。
那么，在未来到底要怎么做才能吸引为数不多的顶尖人才加入到你的创业团队？就目前而言，响亮的头衔，具有竞争力的薪水还有完美的合作环境都是吸引优秀人才的好方法。但是光有这些还远远不够。打破思维定势，你可以获得任何竞争对手所不具备的优势。下面我们就来了解一下其他吸引优秀人才的好方法。
提示：以下提到的建议并不一定都适用于你的公司。你不必照搬这些解决方案。之所以列出这些建议和案例，是为了给大家一个参考，打开各位的思路，从而找到行之有效的最佳人才吸引策略。你是创业公司的拥有者、创始人，你才是那个决定什么样的方案最适合你的公司和团队的人。
股权之外
股权是创业公司招聘的最爱。如果你的公司正处于发展早期，股权可以替你弥补在公司稳定性方面的不足。有风投支持的创业公司通常会给匀出所有股份的10-20%作为员工的福利。有的创业公司就做到这里，但你知道你应该为员工提供更多。
除了提供单一的金融股权之外，你还可以允许你的员工真正地投资公司产品或服务。优秀的员工乐于投入他们的精力，同时他们也更希望参与公司的发展策略。招聘杰出人才地时候可以许诺他们一些诱人的东西：新产品的开发，产品重新设计，乃至管理的机会。在创业公司领域，人员流动率很高——顶尖的人才希望可以在一开始就可以产生有力影响而不是光拿工资。通过一些简单地改变，在你的公司里营造出富有竞争力和远大抱负的氛围。
团队思考靠边站：顶尖人才通常喜欢独树一帜。不要强迫新员工接受公司的一贯风格，而是鼓励他们提出自己独特的见解。
培养独立项目：Google可能将不得不删减掉20%的模型，但是你不必这么做。给你的员工充分的时间培养他们的好奇心。个人创新力量永远不可预测！
放下繁文缛节：放在员工面前的障碍越多，他们越没有动力。简单合理的审批程序有助于把创意转化为实际成果。
价值观和透明度
物以类聚人以群分。如果你想让员工都诚实可靠，你需要在公司业务的各个方面都体现出你的价值观去。如果你不这么做，优秀的人才很容易在面试中就察觉到你公司空泛不切实际的价值观，有时候甚至不需要面试仅仅瞥一眼你的公司主页就知深浅。
比如这家出色的创业公司Asana，公司的价值观渗透到工作中的每一个环节。公司的名字来源于瑜伽概念“asana”，指的是一种可以帮助练习者重新感知幸福的姿势。Asana的价值观包括了沉思和平静，但又不仅限于言语——这些价值观体现在公司文化的方方面面。比如由家庭主厨准备的有机餐点和现场瑜伽都体现了该公司所想表达的价值观。越是优秀的人才越能够与公司内在信息达成共鸣，所以务必时刻展现你公司的价值观。
有的公司甚至会做更多。比如通过透明化的博客内容分享公司内部的工作情况。Buffer，Moz和Unbounce都是这方面的极好例子——如果你效仿他们的方法，你或许可以从招聘中获益匪浅。当Buffer在他们的博客上公布了员工的薪酬之后，他们立刻收到了大量的简历，是上一个月收到的简历数量两倍之多。正如他们的首席执行官Joel Gascoigne所说，“在过去我们从未能如此快速地找到优秀的人才。”当创业公司坦诚地传达自己的价值观之后，他们得到的是信任——无法用价格衡量的信任。
家庭福利
当潜在的员工考虑你的公司时，他们思考的不只是这份工作是不是最适合他们的职业生涯，而是这份工作是否有利于他们的所有生活。如果你真心渴求优秀人才，不要吝啬你的钱，从投资家人开始俘获他们的忠心。
一家位于旧金山的公司Paper G做了一项调查研究，发现创业公司通常会为员工提供健身会员卡、餐补，甚至在承诺带薪产假之前还有交通补贴。提供实质性的且有证明的父母福利可以对留住公司人才起到显著的积极作用。不信可以问问Mary Ellen Slayter。Mary Ellen是Reputation Capital的首席执行官，她想方设法用带薪产假留住了她的营销战略主管。Lee，就是那位主管，答应未来继续回来工作，“如果只是拿工资，那么我大可以心不在焉地工作或者干脆辞职离开，我完全不用在意。然而是我的团队，他们的团结一致，合作关心让我觉得在这里的每一天工作都无比美好。”
另外一家技术创业公司Treehouse LLC则从另一个层面表现出对员工家庭的照顾——这家公司一到周四就放假休息了！周五，所有员工都可以呆在家里陪着家人。公司的首席执行官兼创始人Ryan Carson解释道，“自从实行一周四天工作制后，招聘和人员保留都变得容易顺利多了！你简直想象不到。当有人在Google或者Facebook以及我们公司之间摇摆不定时，我们就会告诉他，‘我们这里一周只需要工作四天，考虑一下吧！’这一招屡试不爽，说是我们的招聘王牌一点也不夸张。毕竟，没有可以抵抗这种福利诱惑。”你会拒绝一个一周只需要工作四天的工作吗？当然不会啦！
因人制宜
Treehouse LLC的例子提醒了我们朝九晚五的工作时间制已成为过去。每个人都希望自己的工作时间能够适应自己的需求和利益。为什么一定要员工来适应你的工作时间要求而不是你去迎合他们的需求呢？把工作个性化作为市场营销和管理的一种技术，并且全身心地接受它，你会发现身边的优秀人才会越聚越多。
个性化的办公空间：有研究表明用植物或者照片装饰他们的办公空间的员工更加高产。Asana为其员工提供了1万美元用来创造设计他们自己的办公空间——不妨设想一下你的员工会怎么使用这笔钱装饰他们的办公空间？
工作地点独立性：Baremetrics，Zapier，InVision这些创业公司都十分欢迎分散式的团队，他们的员工可以在任何地方工作。如果你无法接受全职的远程工作，那么还可以尝试一下FullContact的做法。这家位于丹佛的创业公司为员工提供了“微远程工作机会”。FullContact的员工每年中可以有一个月的时间随便在哪里工作，并且FullContact还会送你到你想去的地方工作。在When I Work，我们同样用类似的福利吸引招聘全国范围内最优秀的人才。
弹性工作时间：如果你想招聘到高产高效的人才，那就把你的关注点放在他们交付的成果上，不要去计较他们的工作时间。然后你会发现你的员工保留率提高了，员工评估变得理想了，所以把无关紧要的指标放到一边去吧！
假如你能做到以上几点，你的公司在招聘市场上势必会变得更加具有吸引力和竞争力。既然你决议要吸纳当地最优秀的人才，那么你还应该保证你有能力留住这些人才。在HireArt的一份调查研究中显示，25%的创业公司反馈说约有一半的非技术人入职不到半年便离开了。如果你在渴求的人才之间培养一个开放的对话模式，并保持一个灵活的态度，我相信你至少可以在你的公司里更长久地留住优秀员工。
How To Attract Top Talent To Join Your Startup in 2016
Behind every great startup you've ever read or heard about exists a team of passionate, talented, and motivated individuals driving growth. The question most new startup owners ask themselves is, "how do I get the most talented people to help me?"
The fact of the matter is, by cultivating the ideal environment for top talent, you have an opportunity to compete with the best of the best in order to reign in the very best employees out there--the ones that can help you put your startup on the map.
So how do you do it? How can you attract top talent to join your startup in 2016? Yes, there are some obvious ways to reign in the best talent: hefty titles, uber-competitive salaries and awesome collaborations. But there's a lot more to it than that. By thinking outside the box, you can gain the edge over just about any competitor. Here are some ideas on how to best approach attracting top talent.
Note: not every solution mentioned below will be right for your company. Don’t feel like you have to offer or implement everything you read here. The purpose of presenting these ideas and examples is to provide you with a complete picture and get you thinking about what you can realistically and feasibly offer at your company for your employees. As an owner or founder, it’s up to you to decide which solutions work best for you and your team.
Beyond Equity
Every startup hire loves equity. If you are in the early stage of your growth, equity can help you compensate for the stability talent would find at a established company. Venture-backed startups typically offer employee equity out of the 10-20% of the total shares of the business. Some startups stop there, but you shouldn't.
Instead of solely offering financial equity, allow your talent to truly invest in your product or service. The best employee are happy to pitch in with labor, but they really want a hand in strategy. Recruit talent by giving them something big: a new product development, a design reboot or even a management opportunity. In the startup world, turnover is high--top recruits want to make a big impact from the beginning rather than paying dues. Foster this ambition by making simple changes.
Let Go of Group Think: Top talent usually has an independent streak. Don't make new hires to drink the company kool-aid, and instead ask them to contribute their unique perspectives.
Nurture Independent Projects: Google may have axed its 20% model, but that doesn't mean that you should. Give employees time to nurture their curiosities. Who knows what can come from individual innovation?
Down with the Red Tape: The more roadblocks you place in front of talent, the more frustrated they become. Streamline approval processes to allow for greater ease between ideas and their fruition.
Values and Transparency
Like attracts like. If you want talent with integrity, you need to embody your values in every aspect of your business. If you don't, the best hires will sniff out your company's hollow values in an interview, or even at a first glance at your company's blog.
Asana, a productivity startup, does a tremendous job embodying their values in every level of their work. The founders pulled the company name from the yogic notion of "asana," which refers to postures that restore one's sense of wellbeing. Asana's values, which include mindfulness and equanimity, are not just words--they are present in every aspect their community culture. Perks like shared, organic meals prepared by a homechef and on-site yoga are meaningful embodiments of Asana'sstated values. The top talent for your company will always resonate with your deepest message, so make sure to let your values shine (we link to ours right on theWhen I Work Careers page to make sure that they are front and center for anyone interested in coming to work for us).
Some companies take their mission a step further, embracing transparency blogging as a way to share internal workings. Buffer, Moz and Unbounce are great examples of this marketing approach--if you follow their lead, you could reap rewards during recruitment. After Buffer posted employee salaries on their blog, they received more than double the applications than they had the month prior. As their CEO Joel Gascoigne said, "We've never been able to find great people this quickly in the past." When startups embody and demystify their values, it nurtures trust--something you can't put a pricetag on.
Family Benefits
As potential employees consider your company, they will think about whether it's in the best interest of their whole lives not just their work lives. If you want to recruit the best talent, put your money where their hearts are by investing in families.
A survey from the San Francisco-based Paper G found that startups often offer gym memberships, meals and even subsidized transportation before committing to paid parental leave policies. Offering substantial and documented parent benefits can help corral and keep talent in your company. Just ask Mary Ellen Slayter. As the CEO of Reputation Capital, Mary Ellen went above and beyond to give her director of marketing strategy a paid maternity leave. Lee, the director, said about coming back to work, "If my job was just a paycheck, it would have been easy for me to mentally check out or leave altogether. It's my team of committed, caring coworkers that make me excited to have this job every day."
The tech startup Treehouse LLC takes family-friendly to the next level by closing its doors every Thursday evening. On Fridays, employees stay home with their families. As chief executive and founder Ryan Carson told the Washington Post, "It makes recruiting and retention so much easier. It's almost funny. When someone is considering us or Google or Facebook, we say, 'Well, are you going to work a four-day week there?' It's almost like our amazing ace up the sleeve. It's just something nobody can beat." Would you turn down a four-day-a-week job? Probably not!
Personalization
As Treehouse LLC shows us, the age of the cookie-cutter 9-5 is over. Everyone wants a job that accommodates their needs, strengths and interests. Why not mold your expectations instead of expecting your employees to mold to you? Embracing job personalization as a marketing and management technique will entice (and keep) the best talent around.
Personalized Office Space: One study showed that workers who could personalize their office space with plants or pictures were 32 percent more productive. Asana gives its employees $10,000 to create their own workspaces--imagine what your employees could do with that kind of money?
Location Independence: Startups like Baremetrics, Zapier, InVision embrace a distributed team, and their employees can work from anywhere. If you're not able to offer full-time remote work, follow FullContact's lead. This startup based in Denver offers mini-remote opportunities instead. Their employees can work wherever they want for one month of the year, and FullContact will help them to get there, too! At When I Work, we also offer this perk as a way to attract and hire the best people from around the country.
Flexible Hours: If you want to attract productive talent, value their deliverables rather than their hours on the job. You will increase your retention rate and shift your employee evaluations to powerful, rather than irrelevant metrics.
Taking each of these steps makes your company more appealing from the outside. Now that you're on your way to bringing in the best talent in town, you have to make sure you don't lose them faster than you can say, "You're hired." In a survey by HireArt, 25% of startups reported losing 50% of their non-technical talent within the first six months of work. If you cultivate open dialogue with talents and maintain a posture of flexibility, you can reverse the statistic--at least within your company.
Source:Inc
解决科技行业多元化问题的关键在于留住员工
科技行业的多元化对话往往更关注于“交流途径”，让更多少数族裔的员工跨过这道门槛。不过，这只是第一步。第二步、也是最为关键的一步是，让他们留下来。如果具有不同背景的员工不能给公司创造一种包容性和友好的环境，那么公司就没有必要耗费资源来聘请这样的员工了。
“这并不是说你不应该重视招聘，而是说你不仅要重视招聘，还要把精力放在留住员工上面，这就像你正在填满漏水的水桶一样。”Paradigm 的首席执行官乔利·埃莫森（Joelle Emerson）告诉我。
Paradigm 是一个专注于多元化问题的咨询公司。目前 该公司正在与一些高速发展的公司合作 ，例如 Pinterest 和 Slack，用以培育并保留多样化的工作场所。这是因为，如果企业不能有效留住背景不同的人才，那便是对金钱和资源的大量浪费了。事实上，根据美国进步中心（Center for American Progress）的 研究 ，招聘和雇佣新员工的成本通常在员工年薪中占到 20%。
Twitter 工程部经理莱斯利·米莱（Leslie Miley）是位黑人，他告诉我：“我认为，即便不是更重要的一个问题，但留住员工也很重要，因为你不想挖掘具有不同背景的员工。因为如果你拥有了背景不同的员工，这便和你的文化有很大关系了。不想拥有这种员工的企业，将永远无法增强自身的多元化。这听起来很简单，但是真的很有趣，有些公司还没弄清楚这一点。”
米莱谈到，流失这样的员工可能意味着几件事。一是表明公司的企业文化没有意识到员工多元化的重要性，二是说明公司有“害群之马”，让员工在这里呆不下去了。
“事实上，我之前遇见过这样的情形，在我的职业生涯中，有人只会给有色人种创造让人寒心的环境，”米莱说道。“例如有这样一家公司——但我不会说出这个公司的名字——当他们意识到问题的时候，一切都太晚了。”
虽然米莱并未指名道姓提到 Dropbox，但我敢打赌，他指的就是 Dropbox 前员工安吉利卡·科尔曼（Angelica Coleman）遭遇的情况。科尔曼称，由于 Dropbox 工作环境对女性不友好，她最终离开了这家公司。
根据《哈佛商业评论》实施的 一项调查 ，女性离开科技公司的比例是男性的两倍。最常见的原因就是工作环境，例如得不到晋升、工作时间长以及工资低等。
埃莫森表示，若想解决员工留存问题，一个办法就是确定你的公司是否可能存在这种问题，做到这一点并不难，通过对员工进行调查即可。这种调查应该问员工几个问题，如他们打算在公司工作多长时间，他们如何看待公司的多元化和包容性问题，他们是否看到获得晋升的机会等等。若想让具有不同背景的员工们明白他们会有晋升的机会，那就是确保公司有少数族裔背景的人在领导岗位上。
埃莫森指出，企业还必须意识到，具有不同背景的员工留存率高，并不意味着企业做的任何事情都是对的。员工有可能会出于经济方面的考虑被迫留在公司里，而不是因为他们真的很享受在那里工作。“如果人们并没有离开，企业有时可能自我感觉不错，但事实并非如此，”埃莫森说。
团队任务管理平台 Asana 是与埃莫森有合作关系的另一家高增长型创业公司，该公司已经认识到多元化员工的留存重要性，但它并没有试图通过建立一套有效的机制，将员工留在公司里。
Asana 人力资源部门主管安迪·斯托（Andy Stoe）说：“我们并不是依靠我们作为‘北极星’的自我价值，让我们各司其职，相反，我们还试图打开‘黄手铐’（golden handcuff），这样员工会出于合理的考虑留在 Asana。”
斯托所说的“金手铐”是指各种公司福利，比如说股票期权及其他丰厚的奖励等，旨在鼓励员工不要离开公司。Asana 尝试放松“金手铐”的束缚，改变标准的劳资协议条款，令其适用于公司新的股票期权规定。
以前，Asana 员工离职后，只有三个月时间来执行股票期权，过后即丧失期权。如今，从 Asana 授予其股权之日起，员工将有 10 年时间来执行期权，即便他们任职未满 10 年就离开了公司。
最终，科技公司必须对两个问题进行深入思考，一是创造哪种工作环境，二是如何能让背景多元的员工寻找和获得晋升的机会。此外，企业还必须要知道激励员工留下来的原因是什么。是企业包容、健康的工作环境，还是说员工手腕上的“金手铐”？如果是因为后者他们才留了下来，那么企业就必须做出改变了。
Hacking Diversity In Tech By Emphasizing Retention
Conversations around diversity in tech often focus on the “pipeline” and getting more people from underrepresented groups through the door. But that’s just a first step. The next, most critical step is retention. There’s no point in a company using its resources to hire a diverse people if they’re not going to offer them an environment that is both supporting and nurturing.
“It’s not to say that you shouldn’t focus on [hiring], but to focus on that and not focus on retention, it’s like you’re filling up a leaky bucket,” Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson tells me.
Paradigm is a consulting startup that focuses on diversity. It’s currently working with high-growth companies like Pinterest and Slack on fostering and retaining a diverse workplace. That’s because if companies can’t effectively retain diverse people it’s a huge waste of money and resources. In fact, the cost of recruiting and hiring a new employee is typically 20 percent of the annual salary for that person, according to the Center for American Progress.
“I think that [retention is] as important if not more important because you don’t want to churn out diversity,” Twitter Engineering Manager Leslie Miley, who is black, tells me. “Because if you churn out diversity, that says a lot about your culture. Companies that do churn out diversity will never be able to increase their diversity. It sounds very simple, but it’s really interesting to see that some companies haven’t figured that one out.”
Losing diverse employees could mean a couple of things, Miley says. It could mean either that it’s a culture that doesn’t recognize diversity matters, or it could be that there’s just a bad apple driving people out the door.
“I have actually seen that previously in my career where one person can create an environment that is just chilling for people of color,” Miley says. “There’s one example, but I won’t name the company, by the time they realized that there was a problem, it was too late.”
Even though Miley didn’t specifically call out Dropbox, my bet is that he was referring to the situation with former Dropbox employee Angelica Coleman, who says she left the company because of its unsupportive environment.
Women leave tech companies at twice the rate of men, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review. The most common reason is the working conditions (e.g. no advancement, number of hours, low salary).
One way to combat retention issues is by determining if your company is at risk of them, which can be accomplished through surveys, Emerson says. These surveys should ask employees things like how long they plan to be at the company, how they perceive diversity and inclusion in the company, and if they are aware of opportunities for advancement. And one way to signal to diverse employees that there are opportunities for advancement is to ensure there are people from underrepresented backgrounds in leadership roles.
Companies also need to recognize that a high retention rate of diverse employees doesn’t necessarily mean the company’s doing anything right, Emerson says. People might be forced to stay on at a company because of financial reasons, not because they actually enjoy working there. “If people aren’t leaving, companies sometimes make the assumption that everything is fine, and that’s not always the case,” Emerson says.
Productivity startup Asana, another high-growth company that Emerson works with, recognizes that retention of diverse employees is really important, but it tries not to create mechanisms just to keep people at the company.
“Instead we rely on our own values as the north star, and literally hold ourselves accountable, Asana Head of Recruiting Andy Stoe says. “We also try to remove the ‘golden handcuffs’ so people want to stay at Asana for the right reasons.”
The “golden handcuffs” Stoe is talking about are the benefits, like stock options and other deferred payments, that aim to discourage people from leaving the company. Asana has tried to loosen the handcuffs by changing the standard terms that apply to the company’s new stock options.
In the past, employees had just three months after leaving Asana to exercise their options before they were forfeited. Now, employees have 10 years to exercise those options from the date Asana grants them, even if they leave the company before that time.
Ultimately, tech companies need to be thoughtful about the kind of work environment they create, and how they enable diverse employees to seek and attain opportunities for advancement. Companies also need to be aware of what is incentivizing people to stay. Is it because of the company’s supportive, nourishing environment? Or, are employees staying because of the golden handcuffs around their wrists? If it’s the latter, something needs to change.
来源：techcrunch
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