Let's call for a truce. War for talent is over!

• I have a huge attrition challenge. Employees leave in less than 10 months.
• I am not able to retain top talent. They quit.
• I need A players and I am struggling to hire.

Welcome to start-ups. If you are a founder, you think HR is the problem. Period. 

But I have news for you: this is not actually true. HR also turns out to be a huge bottleneck here but that's a story for another time. I suggest that you come down from being a founder and go through the hiring process as a candidate, and you’ll find that the answers emerge with more clarity. Here, let me help you.

Acceptance: Let's accept that we play in an over-crowded market which has a huge supply constraint and works on a pull model, one where talent is definitely not readily available but most importantly, a market where we are just another name to the candidate. Expecting someone to stay with us longer is an error on our part.

Consider this: did your investor write a 7-digit check on day one? Have you stayed with your first investor forever since? Candidates tend to act in ways similar to that of investors. Investors take multiple series, many months, numerous pivots and 'n' number of deliberations before they finally sign on the dotted line. This too is done over a period of time and not everything comes at series A. 

Let's accept the fact that we will remain a stepping-stone for quite sometime. Acceptance is key here. Once we accept this, we can build on few measures to handle this challenge better.

If you can hasten up something, On-board them in a jiffy:

This is not just specific to your HR team but worldwide; HR folks typically like to spend large chunks of time on two events. The first is induction and the other is performance review. Why? We have been told that this is the right - and only - way to do it, right from our college education to best practices across the globe.

Enable your new hires to know about work, technology and processes before they join you. This could be some sort of homework. Once they join, orient them to your culture. Spend 2-3 days. Not a day more, not one less.

Every professional (well, most of them) knows what they have to do. Don't spend too much time on induction. Save it up. Make them productive from day 4.

If you can drop something, let it be the probation period:

Why do we need a cool off time? If you have hired right, these folks can do the right things. Probation periods are consolation periods to showcase your ability, not the candidate's.

Set expectations at the time of offer. Do not hold anything back. Make full salary commitments. Be clear on bonus plans. Drop the probation period!

If you want to redesign something, read what Charlie Munger has to say on Incentives:

“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.”

Incentives work like magic, but make sure to not overdose on them. The right mix of a good incentive plan where the actual intent is to reward the employee will go a long way in building trust. The key is in having the intention to pay.

I once had an incentive offered to me to reduce my payroll costs on a monthly basis. I quit this org within 6 months of joining. At another org, I had incentives for showing-up. Here too, I quit in a very short time. At a third org, I was told clearly that the employer prefers to pay and it was my job to earn it. Here, I stayed a long time.

Want to reduce something? Let's look at the notice period:

Like you, everyone is willing to pay and buyback notice period. What's the point? An employee, whether currently with us or not will continue to speak well about us, if the experience with us was good. Moreover, the last thing you need is someone serving the notice period with discontent. Let me make it clear. If the employee prefers to serve, let it happen.

But there is a catch. You can only have a short notice period if you have clearly defined goals, which you measure in not less than 3 months. If you have eternal goals (read: inspired by vision), notice period reduction simply won’t work.

If you want to encourage something, send your employees for interviews:

Give a day-off, set up a cooling period in monthly intervals, ask your employees to go and attend interviews elsewhere. To build something open, we need to be open at first.

When culture becomes transparent, employees can read your good intension, which kills barriers of communication and inhibitions to approach you, the founder.

?Well, who is the winner?

No one will be able to win this war for talent. The least we can do is be safe by calling for a truce and stock up our supplies to live another day!