The really cool thing about being at a startup as a director is that I get to be involved in some pretty important decisions about how we run the company. July was the month of sorting through some of the benefits side of things – we got the ball rolling with health insurance and 401(k) plans while discussing how to make our pay structure scalable.
As Director of Finance, a lot of what I do ends up blending in to the HR realm — which I’m totally cool with since HR is where I thought I’d be working post-MBA. I have had many lengthy discussions with the Director of Admin, who is in charge of HR and the administrative components, and our Vice President, who oversees various aspects of keeping the business running smoothly (and continually improving it).
I led the way with setting up retirement plans for our employees and it was fascinating to see how our decisions were guided by the culture we have and want. For one, it’s important to us to treat our people well and compensate them for a job well done. So when we were presented with the option to have “golden handcuffs” and only allow full vesting of contributions after 6 years, I balked internally. Six years?! I thought, That’s an awful long time in this day and age of employment.
Upon discussion with the company president, we were in agreement – there was no need for this vesting period. We want people to get their money now and not have this carrot dangling over them. If that’s a key reason for them staying and not much else, it’s not a good reason. They should get the money they put away without these conditions and feel free to leave us if it is no longer a good fit for them.
I’m pleased to be working with people who share a similar philosophy to mine about treating people well and not making them jump through hoops.
On another note, now that I’ve been on this side of the equation, learning what it means to administer a retirement plan, it makes me all the more perplexed as to why my former company never set one up. When I was interviewing, I had asked about it and was told they were going to set it up. After three years there, it was still not on the radar and one of my colleagues who had joined nearly at the beginning told me he had been told the same. It never came to fruition and we would sometimes sarcastically joke about it or roll our eyes over it. I always thought that perhaps it was very costly or a burden to manage, but it doesn’t appear to be either. In fact, it’s far less of an investment in our people than healthcare costs. Now that I have more context around the situation it really doesn’t make sense to me why I never did get that 401(k) I wanted, but I’m happy to be able to offer it to our employees here.
In reading it, I’m still not sure I’ve gotten much out of it and I’ve only got another 50 pages to go. There’s been a lot of random background stories and detailing of this and that technology that they or their acquaintances pioneered, but hardly much mention of the HP way other than some quick references to their rewarding pay scheme, dedication to quality and innovation, and decentralized structure. Perhaps it’s because what they were doing at the time was completely revolutionary, but now I find that these strategies are more commonplace and certainly nothing too exciting. I was hoping for a better collection of sage advice that I could soak up, but instead I find certain ideas reinforced, but not much else.
