Talent Acquisition + Culture

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From experiences of working with high growth setups, having a clear talent code (what kind of talent we need, how it aligns with business strategy, how would we measure the key attributes of talent objectively, balancing it well with technical proficiency, experience & key behavioural attributes, with a strong focus on key behavioural traits as must haves is the key).

Key points for basing the talent code on behavioural attributes (aka Critical Behaviors), especially in a high growth setup - How it unlocks anywhere from 20 - 40% performance value at grassroot level:

  • Infact, in the setups that I have been with, a high performer would contribute anywhere from 1.75 - 3x of average performer, similarly, a high potential would be 1.2 - 1.8x of average, which in itself would unlock anywhere from 20-40% of current standards. Few references: Impact of 100x talent & why Steve Jobs was a genius in spotting 100x talent
  • Getting talent which behaviourally aligns with moving the needle appropriate to business phase & firm stage creates a strong push - pull mechanism to middle management, keeping the grid constantly moving with constructive criticisms & healthy competitions
  • This behavioural premise holds true for both, Talent Acquisition & Culture (existing team). This would not only create a sync & parity across entire funnel for same expectations, but drives similar expectations with existing teams as well, where a substantial value unlocking would happen.

Critical Behaviors - The underlying fabric to building high performance teams & shape culture

  • Critical Behaviors form the basis of identification of Good talent v/s. Average (at all levels), extending to current teams to showcase these critical behaviors. These would be the Lead drivers & indicators to get to desired outcomes. In an early stage, an Engineer's role is very critical, for it being a Founding Engineer role, the goal needs to be quickly figure out the MVP & ship it before time to get next level of iterations. This can be a make or break for the startup (Here's a good read on role clarity for Founding Engineer role)
  • Key premise of Critical Behaviors is to define right set of behaviors, nudges with practices, measures & metrics, and incentivization to showcase these observable behaviors with reference points
  • Basis the product phase & organization phase, the critical behaviors would change. Here are few examples of the same:
Critical Behaviors basis Product stages & Talent archetypes
  • Post determining the critical behaviors, they need to be broken down to observable behaviors, with a differentiation what it means & what it does not mean - this would drive elemental level clarity to entire team of what are they expected to do more of & what should get restrained. Below is sample behavioral guide to the same

Here is an example for couple of Critical Behaviors that we created as framework for Pre-Profitability phase:

Critical Behaviors

Priority

What to do on daily basis

What it does not mean

Ownership & Accountability (Key trait to get things done)

1

  • Consistently does what he/she has committed to do

  • Specific about what he/she wants when working with other team members

  • Owns the problems, does not pass the buck

  • Blames others when he/she has not delivered

  • Vague about what he/she needs people to do–leaves them confused

  • Passes problems on to colleagues or manager


Problem Solving (Key trait for driving Effectiveness & working independently)

2

  • Creates relevant options for addressing problems/opportunities identified

  • Identifies and evaluates the advantages/benefits associated with the options identified

  • Keeps guessing, taking stabs in the dark & just trying things out

  • Restraints from getting out of current knowledge horizon / comfort zone. Embracing ignorance, accepting what we don’t know matters, not what we know

Collaboration & Communication (Key trait for driving team/POD effectiveness)

2

  • Frequently offers support and help to colleagues and other teams

  • Helps colleagues with advice, encourages them to ‘have a go’

  • Focuses only on own goals or KPIs

  • Takes a back seat in team meetings – contributes little

Bias for Action (Key trait for increasing sprint velocity)

 

  • Keeps taking calls & committing to it, irrespective of whether it’s a challenging situation or not

  • Is comfortable taking risks. Taking action means that sometimes you don't have all the answers and have to take a risk

  • Keeps overanalyzing the situation, making room for analysis paralysis & delyaing the action

  • Get in to risk averse mindset & does not enxourage taking risks

Going Above & Beyond (Key trait for moving the needle above expectations)

 

  • Gets things done–resolves issues straight away

  • Consistently completes work to a high standard

  • Regularly volunteers to go above and beyond /delivers extra

  • Avoids dealing with things–allows them to escalate

  • Cuts corners or compromises standards to save time

  • Finds excuses to avoid work–or does the bare minimum

Having a gamification to it, not only improves the buy-in. Anybody can reward these to anybody in the org (basis efforts, results, outcomes). Tech infra requirement of Karma app

  • Leaderboards on Weekly & Monthly basis, Recognitions & Shoutouts across all the PODs/Teams & Orgs. Critical metric of Karma points awarded & earned of Ownership & Accountability, Problem Solving, Going Above & Beyond. For TA, the interviews would be structured, panels would be calibrated to identify these behaviors & validate across multiple levels.

 Few KPIs to look out for (More KPI's that I generally refer to for building high performance workplace):

  • Quality of Hire score (Critical Behaviors + Skill proficiency), 
  • Referral rate
  • Onboarding Score, 
  • P0 - Critical roles ETA,
  • New reqs v/s. Backfills
  • Pipeline conversions %, Fulfillment estimation v/s. Actual timelines