Ask HN: HR policies for a young startup?
Hey there,
We're a small startup going from 4 to 6-8 people, and we're trying to professionalize. What HR policies should we have in place? * PTO/vacation rules * Clear and simple issue escalation that handles the case where an associate has a problem with their immediate manager * A clear policy against discrimination that ties into that issue escalation and assures that facts and impressions are documented * User privacy and security controls; for instance, the rule that prevents rando associates from poking around production databases, or from logging in as arbitrary users; also, the rule that keeps the dev team from using prod data as testcase datasets * The 2FA and user laptop encryption rule. At Matasano, we had a "probationary" period for new hires during which they needed permission to remove laptops from company prem, which was concluded by a formal audit. Matasano handles almost nothing but hazmat, so think of that as one end of the spectrum. * Expectations about off-hours work, and about what kinds of things are OK if they show up in your associates Github account and what kinds of things aren't. * Whatever rule you want to create about employees representing you on their Twitter accounts. * The rule that says people need to be press-trained before talking to reporters. There are more, but by the time I got to "Twitter accounts" I was scraping the bottom of my brain for more examples. * PTO/vacation rules For this make sure that everyone understands if the vacation rolls over, how it is accrued, etc. Not just that you get 10 days per year. Roll-over, buy back, use or lose, etc. Did Matasano do much onsite work? Seems one way to handle the hazmat is is to bring a laptop imaged with necessary tools then wipe it clean before returning to base. A fair amount, yes, and some clients did set up processes like that. But the real purpose of the probation system was just to ensure that every team member truly understood the security policy. I work for a 30-employee company that only hits your first bullet point, but I wish it hit a lot more. Policy number 1: Never hire HR people or create an HR department. Policy number 2: The core team is everything. Anyone else is just there to help out. I'm probably an extremist. So take my comment as more of a personal opinion. But be very very careful with HR departments in a tech company. Most of us hate them. Most of us think they are useless. And most of us hate interacting with HR during job interviews or even during day to day activity. Yes, you need people that manage personnel bureaucracy. But they should act as an invisible helping hand. Not as an intermediary between employees and the leadership. And more importantly, avoid including HR in hiring decisions. Because they are biased, just like everybody else. They are going to pick people that they like. Not people you and your team like. Plus, they usually have no idea what the job is about. So all they do is make uninformed assumptions. Sure, they can sit in on the talks and give you opinions about personality and whatever. But never ever be included in the decision chain. Hiring decisions should be made by the CEO/CTO and the affected team. Otherwise you're just going to get heartless boring relationships between random people that are just waiting to find a better job. HR's primary purpose is to protect the company from lawsuits. So of course employees hate them; they hate you too. You are the potential enemy. They're not useless overall, they're just not useful to you. That's so fucked up on so many levels, I wouldn't know where to start. But it does explain the current job market and ridiculous office politics. Treat your employees like enemies and they will do their best to act like ones. A lot of things can be put in place to head off issues in the future. 1) Ensure you're in compliance with local labor laws in your area and that required signage is displayed. 2)Leave policies, including maternity/paternity, even if you don't have any female employees and no one is thinking about having kids yet. Jury duty, bereavement, etc 3) Equipment purchases by staff 4)Work from home policy It's a lot easier to put this stuff together when it's not heat of the moment and based on favoritism. If these things are put in place it will also show incoming people that these are items someone has thought about and you aren't just winging it. I'm an HR Professional and would be happy to help you. You can reach me at rvpolyak@gmail.com.