Hear The T̶a̶l̶e̶n̶t̶- People – Ep. 2: People Ops Pressure In Lean Startups with Jess Larsen
Over the last few years we’ve seen so many startups scale up and even scale down, always putting pressure on the people ops team, that we wanted to talk about this pressure with the fabulous, Jess Larsen. Currently Jess is Head of People at BEAM, where she leads the people strategy of this Berlin-based startup incubator/company builder. She knows a lot about people ops and startups so the chat was effortless! (See below for the chapters)
Hear The People is hosted by Glenn Martin, founder & director of Never Mind The Job Spec, and me, author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, facilitator, mentor and speaker.
Video Chapters
01:28 Who is Jess Larsen?
05:26 People pressure in lean startups
07:12 Who do startups hire first?
13:00 Where the people ops team adds value
17:00 The people aspect is the hardest!
18:20 Why the people function exists
19:36 TA & people departments have a reputation problem
20:21 Jess’s advice to people ops in startups
21:30 Networking matters
24:00 When should startups think about compensation & benefits?
27:00 Attracting talent as a startup – flexibility & real development
29:50 Before recruitment
31:30 Hey founders, employees won’t be as motivated as you. Fact.
33:10 Some people are not rockstars and that’s ok
35:25 That founder question that will rarely get the reply you want
39:11 Hardest thing about high growth trajectory
40:26 Alternatives CIPD for HR in startups – AIHR Data
41:11 Design thinking workshops (Glenn plugs me!)
42:14 Plugging Bee Heller’s work
43:06 Do you hiring freeze or just tone it down?
48:20 Are we listening to our own hype about employer brand?
49:58 Employer brand vs talent brand 55:33 Neurodiverse hiring in startups (in 2 mins)
