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Talent Philosophy
This section at a glance
A high-performance organization is A-player centric (top 15%-25%), focusing resources to retain and promote top talent while exiting underperformers as fast as possible
Establishing a high-performance organization relies on
Defining and following a standardised approach to performance management that removes manager bias
Ensuring performance is a top CEO priority, with a dedicated team of smart operators reporting on it
Strengthening the link between performance, compensation and career trajectory
The essence of high-performance
In our experience, talent in a scale-up will fall into three buckets: A-players, underperformers, and above bar employees (average performers).
A-players, are those that truly push an organisation forward, delivering outsized results, above and beyond standard expectations for their role
Above bar (average performers) make up the bulk of the company, achieving what’s expected but not going much beyond that; churn among them is generally non-regrettable but some can be pushed to become A-players
Underperformers that struggle to meet expectations, and might be better suited for a different role; normally represent 5-10% of your workforce, but you should strive for zero-digit by transitioning them out of their current roles
The high-performance approach we promote is A-player centric. A small group of talented and hardworking individuals is what can drive a scale-up to the next level, as they generate exponentially more value than the average employee.
Identifying and retaining this talent is key - don’t be afraid to go above and beyond, even if this takes diverting resources away from average players. This also means holding a high talent bar and identifying underperformers as soon as possible.
Making it happen
We think the secret sauce to establishing a high-performance organization is made of three ingredients.
Treat performance like science, not art. We broke down performance into its component pieces and introduced standardised scorecards. Managers' judgement has much less room for subjectivity. Performance assessments become the result of easily explainable calculations that the CEO can double-click into.
We firmly believe performance is a direct CEO mandate. Talent is a force multiplier for the whole company. It shouldn’t sit under HR, but it should be a core priority of the office of the CEO. We recommend setting up a small performance team reporting to the CEO, staffed with capable operators.
Lastly, it’s important that you make performance matter, a lot. A high-performance culture relies heavily on incentives. Performance should majorly affect in a direct and transparent way most aspects of employee life: compensation, promotions, exits. In particular, we think it’s key to offer performance-based equity bonuses.