Nick Ellingson, Startup Ambassador at WTIA recently had the opportunity to virtually connect with HR professionals Mikaela Kiner, CEO of Reverb, and Microsoft Executive and startup veteran, Erika Berndt. 

Nick posed questions sourced from the WTIA Founder Cohort to get the scoop on startup HR and best practices for the current situation.  Below is Part 1 of the conversation. Click here to read Part 2.

How do you embrace HR without losing the company and founders’ culture?

Mikaela Kiner: 

When people think of startups or founders they think of scrappy, agile, fastmoving, etc., and when they think of HR they think of the opposite- policing, bureaucracy, and slowing people down. So the way that we think about HR is actually enabling organizations to do what they do really really well. A lot of that comes from their people practices: making the best hires, creating your mission, vision, and values. Those things are enablers and I actually feel like they go hand in hand with startups. 

When HR is done well it can really accelerate the growth of a startup. It’s all about how you focus on HR and if you focus on it as a source of stability, creativing opportunities, helping employees understand how they can bring their best self to the table, how you as leaders want to recognize and reward people when they are doing a good job, then that’s the focus. Yes, there’s always going to be some room in HR for risk mitigation, but I would argue that is good for companies. You want people treating each other with respect and dignity. That’s why there needs to be some policies in place around anti-harrassment, and anti-discrimination because those are simply bad behaviors that you don’t want in your company. HR can be friendly if you view it in the right way. 

Erika Berndt: 

My first thought was, if you make your culture a priority, particularly your mission, vision, values, then HR should really come in to support the culture and hold the founders, leaders, and employees all accountable to those cultural standards while embodying them themselves. HR should infuse the mission, vision, and values into the day-to-day business operations. 

The other thing is when founders embrace HR and communicate it as an enabler, and something that is good for business and actually promotes growth and value to the organization. If founders can come in with that kind of mindset, I think that is helpful in maintaining culture. Coming at HR from an angle of bettering operations and increasing optimization will help your company run better, and help your employees do better.

When does a company need HR? When do you need to hire someone internally?

Mikaela Kiner: 

We’ve worked with companies under 10 people, and I think the question is related to the complexity and potential growth of your organization. If you’re small and you’re going to be relatively small for a while, you’re probably good for the time being.  Once you’ve grown to 10, 15, or 25 employees it’s probably time to formulate that infrastructure and get everything in place to make sure everything is top notch. 

Once you hit those employee milestones, a company like mine (Reverb) is great to bring in to review current practices and help set everything up. We view it as everything from culture to compliance. We will help you assess everything and figure out which HR priorities to take care of now and what can you ignore for 6 to 12 months. We can come in and do that and then go away until you get bigger. I like to say for companies 25 and growing, if you haven’t consulted with someone in HR then you really should because there is a lot of pent up demand. There’s probably a lot of HR stuff that you haven’t thought about. If you’re stopping at 50 employees, you could probably get by with a consultant who’s helping out once or twice a week. You start getting above 50, it really makes sense to have an HR person internally. Often an accountant, recruiter, or office manager can take on basic HR tasks before you need someone full time. 

Erika Berndt: 

If you’re at the point where you’re feeling like you might need HR, you’re probably ready. I’ve seen companies wait until their office manager is overloaded, and they kinda don’t know what to do. When you get to the 50 point, you’ve got things like FMLA, and some other laws that kick in at 50 employees where you need somebody who knows what they’re doing in that space. 

Mikaela Kiner: 

Another question to consider is: who is doing the HR job and is it the very best use of their precious time?  Often it’s the COO, CFO, or Founder doing the work, which is not the best use of their time.  I spoke with one founder who downloaded 10 different employee handbooks to learn how to write one themselves, and I said that we could do that for them in a few hours.  I asked him, “Wouldn’t you rather be out there getting business vs. writing handbooks?”? We don’t want founders doing all of that leg work because we already have the tools and templates. We can do it so much more efficiently than you can on your own. 

What tips do you have for managing people during a crisis?

Erika Berndt: 

The first thing is, give people the benefit of the doubt. Our brains are confused. I’ve been reading some articles that said we’re in stress response right now and that’s not when we do our optimal thinking. That’s where we’re in survival mode and our prefrontal cortex doesn’t operate as it normally does. Many people are experiencing levels of stress and uncertainty they never have before and possibly hardship. We’re trying to adjust to a new normal, even a month in. 

Give your employees some structure such as a daily check-in. For example, a daily standup is a really good idea just to give people structure.  A weekly happy hour or e-learning session where you’re all learning and collaborating together builds community and camaraderie. Maybe even some new content that’s kind of light just to put in some semblance of structure for people is really helpful there. Ask your employees what they need from you. None of us are psychic. None of us have a crystal ball. Ask people to tell you what they need. 

Also, still set expectations of what you need in terms of deliverables, timelines, meetings. Etc.. Again this reinforces structure, which I think can be really healthy. You’re still running a business at the end of the day. People still have to produce. Just make sure you’re really aligned and in sync with your teams on what you expect. 

Mikaela Kiner: 

We’ve been talking a lot about leading with empathy. We don’t necessarily know what is going on with people. Whether it’s someone living alone and feeling isolated, or someone who has kids and is trying to homeschool them. Every single person has their challenges right now, so be empathetic. Everything takes longer. Realistically I just don’t think we can expect as much from ourselves. This isn’t just working from home, there’s a lot more going on.

Related to the current situation – how do you go about laying off people that you may want to bring back once things return to ‘normal’?

Mikaela Kiner: 

I feel like all of this language has been introduced that wasn’t around a month ago in reference to furloughs and standby and shared work. The good news is there are mechanisms in place to do this. A furlough is basically saying, “Hey we don’t have anything for you in the next four weeks but we hope and intend to bring you back at the end of that period and will be checking in with you.” A furlough or a temporary layoff is the best way to do that. I think everyone understands what’s happening with the economy, so if you do have to lay people off make it really clear that you value them and this is only because of things that are outside of our control.  You may even mention that “if and when we get back to full speed we would welcome you back with open arms.” 

What are one or two things that seed stage founders don’t know about HR but probably should?

Erika Berndt: 

We’ve talked a lot about culture. I think one of the things to know is that culture is up to everyone. It starts with the founders and leaders. Culture can’t be dictated, it has to be demonstrated. It’s about the behaviors you bring into your company. The mission, the vision, the values that you set; it’s tangible, it’s intangible. 

The other thing that comes to mind is that HR has changed a lot in the last 15 years. When I was first starting out my career, there was a buzz phrase, “does HR have a seat at the table?”. I don’t see us having that conversation as much anymore. We’re not just paper pushers, we’re the people who can be more strategic and help you in everything from your hiring and your decision making and your culture. I’ve seen the way HR has evolved as we’re thinking partners. We help other executives think through the people, the culture, the operations. 

Mikaela Kiner: 

I think people should know that HR is not an adversary. Which also comes from that old school, policing mentality that HR used to have. I would say that we’re on your side, actually we’re on everyone’s side. We’re on the side of the founder, the leader, the CEO, and every person in the organization. People think there’s some inherent tension in that, and they think you’re just here to act for management. I actually see if differently because things that aren’t good in your company aren’t good for the organization as a whole. When HR has to get involved, we’re not just taking the side of management, we’re taking the side of the organization to say what is good and healthy, and what is going to reflect best on you as a leader and your culture. Sometimes that means consequences for bad behavior. The thing I love most about this job is partnering with leaders and helping them fulfill that mission, and create that culture they want to see in their organization and bring that to life.