Talent & Leadership

Why do you work? Why do you work at this particular job, in this particular company? The answers to these questions will be as varied and numerous as individuals within a company.

In an ultra-competitive talent market, it becomes more important than ever to know why your teams continue to choose your company, and to understand and appeal to what they value most. While compensation is undoubtedly the biggest factor in why we go to work, there is hopefully much more that forms the full picture of why we do what we do. It could be health benefits that dependents rely on, unlimited time-off policies, or progressive parental policies that match up with the family planning horizon. Most likely, it is a combination of these things.

What we know for sure is that people, and teams, value different things. And what they value, and what they need, evolves over time. That is especially true in today’s environment when many organizations are adapting to a workforce that is increasingly diverse, distributed and in demand. There are challenges with this new environment, such as different levels of access to benefits and resources across the globe. However, there are also opportunities, including an opportunity to customize your total rewards package in a way that keeps teams happy and engaged.

What do I mean by total rewards?

A total rewards program is key to the employee experience. When done well, a total rewards strategy elevates that experience, enhances the brand and creates value for the company in reputation and esteem. When done poorly, it dampens the employee experience, reflects negatively on the brand and breaks down that value creation.

The total rewards universe is broad and includes everything from compensation and benefits, to diversity and community impact, and everything in between. Below are eight primary areas that should factor into a total rewards program, and in-turn your employee experience.

There is no shortage of rewards available for consideration. The key is to thoughtfully manage the process of finding the rewards that match your business strategies and the desires of your employees.

Customizing total rewards for the remote workforce

Remote work itself can be a key differentiator in your employee value proposition. However, the reality is that more and more companies are offering remote work, even post-pandemic. It’s simply not the differentiator on its own that it once was. In fact, we now see employees demanding it, and many employers are making remote work a cornerstone of their culture and talent strategy.

Here are few of the ways that companies can do more than just make remote work an option, and instead make it a part of your total rewards package.

Prioritize mental well-being and teletherapy benefits

The NFP 2021 US Benefits Trend Report indicates that more than 1/3 of Americans have displayed clinical signs of anxiety, depression, or both since the coronavirus pandemic began. Not only is this a substantial public health issue, it also has a major impact on the success and health of organizations. By addressing mental health concerns, and more holistically well-being, companies can:

• Improve morale
• Increase productivity
• Aid in employee recruiting and retention
• Lower absenteeism and increase engagement
• Lower employee health risks
• Improve economic competitiveness

With a remote workforce, it can be more challenging to gauge mental well-being within your workforce. When you see people in-person every day, it’s far more likely you’ll pick up on bruises from an abusive relationship, or smell alcohol on someone’s breath, or sense when a once chatty co-worker is depressed or anxious because they’re dealing with stressors at home. While we might get a window into someone’s home environment through a Zoom call, there is a lot that isn’t seen through a webcam. Offering mental health benefits, and encouraging people to use them, can help.

The availability of resources can vary greatly across the globe. Luckily the number of companies offering telehealth and teletherapy benefits has exploded, which can help equalize the benefits offered across your entire population. Text-based mental health coaching, virtual therapy and psychiatry have increased exponentially and that’s a trend that we believe is here to stay.

Be thoughtful and transparent with your comp philosophy

Compensation is foundational to our working relationship. It’s also challenging. It’s easy to just look at the market or the competitive situation and say, ‘we will pay at the market rate or slightly above’, however, not everyone can or wants to do that. Compensation needs to be viewed through a strategic lens and be accompanied by a philosophical framework that reflects the employer’s culture and strategy. For example, a company in the early start-up and growth phase may choose to pay above market in incentive pay to motivate their team to reach growth goals, and pay at market in base salary, and offer a less robust benefits package.

This becomes more complicated with a remote workforce as there are different considerations on how to pay. It’s important to reevaluate your current compensation philosophy and ensure it still allows you to attract and retain talent in the new environment. There isn’t a one size fits all approach. For example, Google has created a calculator that allows employees to see how their pay would change if they switch to working remotely permanently. Facebook and Twitter also cut pay for remote employees who move to less expensive areas, while others such as Reddit and Zillow are keeping pay constant regardless of location.

Even if you have had a remote workforce for many years and don’t change policies, the focus on this issue may be raising questions within your team. Be transparent about your company’s philosophy, and how it fits into your total rewards package. You can find more on compensation approaches for a remote workforce here as you evaluate next steps for your company.

Offer a home office stipend or co-working space

Creating the perfect home office environment can be expensive. Providing a stipend or reimbursement program to allow your team to purchase the furniture and equipment they need, as well as the decorative or personal touches that make them feel productive and energized, can be powerful and support employee engagement.

An allowance toward a shared office or membership for a co-working space may also help solve some challenges for remote workers. Providing an additional physical workspace for those who may not have suitable space within their home (or who just need a change of scenery) can go a long way in improving productivity and enhancing creativity. It can also help foster connections and relationships between co-workers.

As with many remote work benefits, flexibility is key. Some companies may find employees prefer a stipend, while some might find it works best to arrange a co-working space on a team’s behalf – especially for companies that have large cohorts of remote employees in specific locations.

Create mentoring programs

Most people crave connections with their team. When employees don’t come into an office every day, mentoring programs can create this connection. They can also reinforce and enhance your culture, and develop skills needed to make your company successful. A strong mentoring program can also foster diversity, equity and inclusion and develop leaders of the future.

Mentoring programs have also been shown to increase retention, particularly among high performers. When designing your mentor program, look for matches across departments, functions and locations to enhance communication and understanding throughout your remote workforce. This article on how to build a mentorship program that actually works will give you a few ways to get started.

Communicate total rewards early and often

A reward that is unseen, unfelt or unused is not a reward at all, it’s an opportunity missed. This is why it’s critical to communicate your total rewards package to your employees in a way that is timely, relevant and personal. Total rewards microsites, regular emails and webinars are just three examples of useful tools that provide employees with access to the information they need.

Depending on the resources within your company, this may be a project for HR, internal communications or even your entire leadership team. You can find more ideas to get started in this article on why digital benefits communication is a must-have for your hybrid workplace.

Bring it all together

When your total rewards programs are integrated with each other, your employees’ needs and desires, and your organization’s mission, vision and culture, you will create an unforgettable, employee experience that will allow you to recruit, retain and engage top talent.

As you consider your total rewards for your remote workforce, think about the following areas:

• Do you know what your employees value?
• Are you intentional about your total rewards and how they work together?
• How do you monitor and measure the effectiveness of your total rewards package?
• How do you communicate this to current and prospective employees?

An early investment in total rewards will help you attract and retain the talent you need to grow, succeed and reach your ambitious goals down the road. Even if you don’t have an HR team, spending time now to understand what your employees need and desire beyond just compensation will go a long way in creating an impactful program to engage and reward your employees for the future.

Establishing a board of directors is more than just an obligation — it can be your secret weapon. A well-architected and well-managed board gives founders access to a broader network, proven operational advice, and entirely new ways of thinking. And while anyone can technically start a board, making it successful requires careful thought and intention.

There are plenty of articles, books and memes out there about how to run successful public and non-profit boards, but not as much candid advice on what does and doesn’t work for boards in the private sector.

So we sat down (well, Zoomed actually) with two of the most talented board builders and members we know — Allison Pickens, founder & investor at The New Normal Fund, and Ryan Denehy, founder & CEO at Electric — to hear their first-hand stories and tips.

Below are a few highlights from that conversation, but I’d encourage you to check out the full conversation here.

Forming and norming

The process and timing for forming a board will look different at every company. Some founders form a board immediately but treat it more as an advisory group for years. Many wait until they take capital and create a more formalized board as part of that process.

There’s no one answer, but the consistent advice from Allison and Ryan is to first carefully consider the capabilities, experience, and personalities that will compliment you and your executive team as you grow the business. When evaluating board members, especially independents, spend time assessing how your team works and what experience is missing on the team. Perhaps this is your first company and you need more operating experience. Or you want to add a customer to ensure the Voice of the Customer is front and center. Or you need industry-specific expertise and connections. Or you want to see how a potential new executive thinks before bringing them on board.

When evaluating board members, especially independents, spend time assessing how your team works and what experience is missing on the team.

That said, the devil is in the details. Bring on board members you can feel confident working with throughout the good times and the bad. The members of your board should serve as an extension of your team and share a passion for your company’s mission. As Ryan so eloquently put it in the webinar, the last thing you want is to end up with “a group of part-time bosses.”

Aim to keep the number of board seats small at the beginning. This could mean keeping the board to just you and a co-founder. Or the founders, your investors plus an independent. An independent board member can provide a fresh, unbiased perspective to your board and help diversify your dialogue in meetings to spark new ideas.

An independent board member can provide a fresh, unbiased perspective to your board and help diversify your dialogue in meetings to spark new ideas.

Diversity should be top of mind when it comes to board makeup, both from a gender perspective but also race, ethnicity, abilities, sexual orientation and those with non traditional board backgrounds. While many board members will have a background in finance, product and operations, consider how valuable it would be to have a Chief People Officer or Chief Marketing Officer at the table when making business shaping decisions — especially in today’s environment.

It’s a founder’s fiduciary obligation to the business to ensure a diverse range of thinking. In our conversation, Allison recommends looking at diversity across your board and executive team as a whole, when architecting for diversity. Having a board and leadership team that reflects society as a whole sends a powerful message, from the top down, that diversity, equity and inclusion is part of the company’s DNA.

It’s a founder’s fiduciary obligation to the business to ensure a diverse range of thinking.

Finding diverse candidates in your existing network might not be easy, but there are entire organizations dedicated to presenting minority board candidates to the companies that need them. Organizations like All Raise, theBoardlist and Athena Alliance, can serve up a list of potential candidates “on a silver platter”. Work with them. Don’t be a hero.

Once you’ve assembled the best minds, aim for minimal overhead and avoid multi-layered committee structures in the beginning. If you’re a $5M startup, you probably don’t need an audit committee right away. However, at a certain scale, a compensation committee might make sense to instill discipline around pay and equity, especially at the more senior levels.

At a certain scale, a compensation committee might make sense to instill discipline around pay and equity, especially at the more senior levels.

There may come a time when a member has contributed all that they can to your business, and that’s okay. Remember, this is supposed to be a collaborative, beneficial professional relationship, and as the company evolves, so should your board. To ensure you have the room to restructure your board in harmony with the needs of the company, you may want to implement term limits for your board members or establish a mutual check-in date. This gives you and each board member the opportunity to align on expectations and the grace to make changes for the sake of what the company needs at that time.

Creating an environment to engage, not direct

The notion of big, formal, multi-day, in-person board meetings are becoming less common, especially in light of the pandemic and the pace of business today. Allison and Ryan anticipate that as things progress, there will always be a place for both virtual and in-person meetings. However, those in-person interactions make a huge difference when it comes to trust and engagement.

There will always be a place for both virtual and in-person meetings. However, those in-person interactions make a huge difference when it comes to trust and engagement.

Organizations differ greatly in how frequently they meet. Most meet at least once a quarter, while some in the earlier stages of a company might meet every 6-8 weeks. Aim for shorter meetings, no more than 3 hours for virtual sessions, with a big focus on the prep materials. Those prep materials might range from a 70-slide presentation with data and program highlights to a simple well-structured memo. To cultivate a productive meeting, send meeting materials to board members 3-6 days in advance so they have time to adequately prepare and come with questions.

Your board needs to know how your business is performing, but also understand the high-level narrative of what’s happening in the business — where you’re going, why, what opportunities are ahead and what challenges are you facing. Don’t underestimate the power of storytelling at the board level.

Don’t underestimate the power of storytelling at the board level.

Board meetings can also be used as a catalyst to force thinking within the executive team. Shifting your mindset from “what do I need to present”, to “what do we need to accomplish”, will shape your board meetings to be about more than oversight and governance, and create a forum for exchanging ideas, recalibrating goals, and debating big decisions.

One way to ensure you get to those meaty discussions in board meetings is to communicate regularly with your members outside the formal meeting. Establish a cadence that works for you. It’s a smart investment of your time that will not only make conversations go more smoothly during the meeting, but also enrich your relationship with the board.

Navigating board conflict

Managing conflict and make-or-break decisions aren’t a matter of “if,” but “when”. The tough conversations are inevitable. Every sticky decision won’t be a matter of intensely polarizing opinions or full-contact conflict, sometimes the more challenging conversations come from lukewarm opinions or indecisiveness (especially behind the shield of a group call).

In either of these situations, it can help to speak with members individually before and after meetings to understand their perspective. Initiating 1:1 conversations with board members, asking pointed questions and listening deeply can give you a more complete picture to make a better decision. Getting a deeper understanding of people’s opinions or concerns may in some cases sway your original stance on a subject like a potential acquisition or expansion area. In other cases, it might cement your decision but give you context to getting detractors on board, or least comfortable with, moving forward.

Initiating 1:1 conversations with board members, asking pointed questions and listening deeply can give you a more complete picture to make a better decision.

Allison also suggests using your independent board members to help navigate these tricky conversations. Given their “neutrality” in the situation, they can be a very useful perspective across the board. Pun intended.

While we only scratched the surface of board best practices in this 45 minute webinar, the stories and tips Allison and Ryan shared provide some great food for thought for those looking to hone their skills in this area. Because there’s always room for improvement.

Have a listen here, or if you have other questions or comments on this topic hit me up on LinkedIn.