Altschuler, Glenn C. All Shook Up How Rock ‘n Roll Changed Americ.docx

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Work 40 (2011) 21–28 21
DOI 10.3233/WOR-2011-1203
IOS Press
Key issues in human resource planning for
home support workers in Canada
Janice M. Keefea,b,c,∗, Lucy Knightd, Anne Martin-Matthewse
and Jacques Légaréf
aDepartment of Family Studies and Gerontology and Nova
Scotia Centre on Aging, Mount Saint Vincent University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
bMount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
cNova Scotia Centre on Aging, Mount Saint Vincent University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
dMaritime Data Centre for Aging Research and Policy Analysis,
Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada
eDepartment of Sociology, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC, Canada
f Département de démographie, Université de Montréal,
Montreal, QC, Canada
Received 7 December 2009
Accepted 22 February 2010
Abstract. Objective: This paper is a synthesis of research on
recruitment and retention challenges for home support workers
(HSWs) in Canada.

Participants: Home support workers (HSWs) provide needed
support with personal care and daily activities to older persons
living in the community.
Methods: Literature (peer reviewed, government, and non-
government documents) published in the past decade was
collected
from systematic data base searches between January and
September 2009, and yielded over 100 references relevant to
home care
human resources for older Canadians.
Results: Four key human resource issues affecting HSWs were
identified: compensation, education and training, quality
assurance,
and working conditions. To increase the workforce and retain
skilled employees, employers can tailor their marketing
strategies
to specific groups, make improvements in work environment,
and learn about what workers value and what attracts them to
home
support work.
Conclusions: Understanding these HR issues for HSWs will
improve recruitment and retention strategies for this workforce
by
helping agencies to target their limited resources. Given the
projected increase in demand for these workers, preparations
need
to begin now and consider long-term strategies involving
multiple policy areas, such as health and social care,
employment,
education, and immigration.
Keywords: Home care, recruitment and retention, compensation,
working conditions
1. Introduction

Recruitment and retention of home support work-
ers (HSWs) is of increasing interest to home support
agencies, governments, and national organizations in
Canada and other developed countries. HSWs provide
paid, non-professional services such as personal care,
∗ Address for correspondence: Janice M. Keefe, Mount Saint
Vin-
cent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3M
2J6, Canada. Tel.: +1 902 457 6466; Fax: +1 902 457 6226; E-
mail:
[email protected]
housework, and meal preparation to individuals with
demonstrated need in their homes, and are the largest
occupational group in home care. It is estimated that
1.2 million people in Canada use home care services
annually [11], the majority of whom are aged 65 and
older. The demand for these services is expected to in-
crease in the next twenty-five years, as the baby boomer
cohort (1946–1964 in Canada) moves into later adult-
hood and experiences increased life expectancy [40].
Also contributing to the demand for workers is home
care policy that emphasizes “aging in place,” reflecting
older adults’ desires to remain in their own homes and
1051- – IOS Press and the authors. All
rights reserved
22 J.M. Keefe et al. / Key issues in human resource planning for
communities for as long as possible [12,28,44]. Ad-
ditional factors include the decreased supply of formal

caregivers due to pressures on health and social service
systems to contain costs, the difficulty attracting people
to long- term care work [26], and the high percentage of
HSWs nearing retirement age [31]. These issues are not
unique to Canada. Recruitment and retention are also
priority issues in home care in most U.S. states [62] and
growing demand in the long-term care workforce has
been noted in other developed countries including the
United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, and others [26].
Family and friends remain the greatest contributors
to meeting home support needs in Canada and the Unit-
ed States [12,35]. However, research has called in-
to question the capacity of family and friends to con-
tinue providing this care at the levels required [39].
Reasons include fewer adult children available to pro-
vide support; more women working outside the home;
adult children who are less likely to live geographical-
ly proximate to aging parents; and increasing divorce
rates [39].
These challenges point to a need to address recruit-
ment and retention of HSWs. Furthermore, home sup-
port services are considered paramount to preventing
health decline in the older population [58] and may
be cost saving. Research in Canada has indicated that
home care for older people can be cost effective when
compared to institutional care and acute care [30]. Hol-
lander et al. [30] argue that there is a strong case to push
for policies that support the integration of home care
and support into a broader integrated system of care in
which they can substitute for facility and acute care.
Many jurisdictions in Canada are already facing
shortages or anticipating shortages of HSWs [8,38].
The province of Alberta, for example, is projected to

need an additional 5,000 Health Care Aides (who work
in private homes and institutions) by 2016 [1]. How-
ever, health human resources planning has tended to
focus on strategies to meet the demand for doctors and
nurses [59], despite wide consensus in the literature
that recruitment and retention of adequate staffing is
also a key problem facing home care [8,15,39]. The
purpose of this literature review is to identify human re-
source issues for HSWs,1 to inform long-term recruit-
ment and retention strategies. In Canada, home care is
1We use the term “home support worker” because we are inter-
ested in the non-professional front-line workers who work in
clients’
homes. There is no common term used for this workforce in
Canada.
In the United States, these workers form a large part of the
Direct
Care workforce.
under provincial jurisdiction, with some services fund-
ed (wholly or in part) by provincial governments and
others available only privately. HSWs may work with-
in provincial, publicly funded homecare systems; for
contracted or private organizations; or autonomously,
providing care privately to individuals. Whatever the
context, common issues characterize this work: com-
pensation, education and training, quality assurance,
and working conditions. A discussion of agency-level
initiatives to address human resource challenges fol-
lows.
2. Method
This literature review is the first phase of research
to examine human resources strategies to attract HSWs

to meet future projected chronic care needs of older
persons in Canada. Literature (peer reviewed, govern-
ment, and non-government documents) published in
the past decade was collected from a number of sources
between January and September 2009, and yielded over
100 references relevant to home care human resources
for older Canadians. Sources included: Ageline elec-
tronic database, Google Scholar, websites of provincial
governments, national and provincial organizations in
home and community care, and literature referred to the
project by its investigators and stakeholders. Literature
was primarily written in English language and Cana-
dian in scope, although some references are included
that focus on research from the United States and other
member states of the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), which were of
interest to the project’s objective of identifying key hu-
man resources issues for HSWs. Key words used to
identify relevant literature included: recruitment, reten-
tion, home support worker (and similar titles), human
resources, compensation, education, training, quality,
and working conditions/work environment.
3. Findings
3.1. Key human resources issues
Academic research on HSWs in Canada and the
United States has tended to focus on conditions of
their work [54,65], including: working in clients’
homes [18], stress [21,23], occupational health and
safety [67], implications of agency type and/or provin-
cial service delivery model [4,5,19,22,42,58], rela-

J.M. Keefe et al. / Key issues in human resource planning for
home support workers in Canada 23
tionship issues [44], and education and training [34];
and the resultant impacts on job satisfaction, well-
being, and intent to remain in the occupation. Gov-
ernment and organization reports commonly focus on
HSW shortages within broader discussions of home
and community care or health human resources [7,13,
59]. Specific topics include: defining scopes of prac-
tice/competencies/curriculum of workers [50,57], ad-
dressing challenges such as rural and remote home care
delivery [9], HSWs as unregulated workers [10,28,56],
and the role of HSWs on health care teams [51]. Some
reports have focused exclusively on home and contin-
uing care human resources [31,32,36]. Efforts to im-
prove recruitment and retention of HSWs will need
to address current challenges in four distinct yet over-
lapping areas: compensation, education and training,
quality assurance, and working conditions. These key
areas are used as an organizational tool to synthesize
the literature review.
3.1.1. Compensation
Compensation issues include low wages, lack of
wage parity with counterparts in institutional settings
and/or HSWs in other jurisdictions [31], and limited
benefits. All of these may act as disincentives for en-
tering the occupation [31]. Other compensation issues
include whether employees receive paid breaks, are
paid to attend meetings and for preparation time [31],
and whether or not they are compensated for time and
mileage during travel between clients [32].
HSW wage rates vary considerably across Cana-

da [53]. In some provinces, HSWs receive lower pay
than their counterparts in hospitals and long-term care
facilities, despite completing a common curriculum.
Several factors have been identified as contributing to
this discrepancy in the province of Ontario. These
include: legislation privileging the hospital over the
home as a care setting; higher rates of unionization
among hospital-based workers; devaluing of personal
support; and the interest of other health professionals
in maintaining the medical-social division between set-
tings [43]. Reasons for wage discrepancies in other
provinces are not readily available, but may be assumed
to be related to many of these factors.
Benefits also vary across Canada, in terms of what
is provided and the limits of these provisions. The
Canadian Home Care Human Resources Study [31]
found that approximately one-third of HSWs received
paid sick leave, a similar percentage had a pension plan,
and less than 40 percent were eligible for job-protected
maternity leave. In some cases, HSWs who do not
receive paid sick time may go to work sick, putting
their clients at risk in the process [55].
Many HSWs are employed on a casual basis and
must work within “windows” of availability, meaning
that they may be asked to be available for eight hours
but paid to only work for four hours [46]. In addi-
tion to being disruptive to workers’ home lives, limited
hours limit income. Workers in the province of New
Brunswick have expressed that without regular or guar-
anteed hours of employment in home care, a second job
is often necessary to achieve an adequate income [55].
The resultant job insecurity has been linked to turnover
intention [66].

Unionization of HSWs in home care has been report-
ed by previous research to increase wages and bene-
fits while positively addressing working conditions [55,
66], which may increase retention. However, other re-
search reports that unionization may have the poten-
tial for negative side-effects, such as cuts to services,
loss of contracts [37], and restrictions to scheduling
options [38]. Union membership varies in Canada.
Similar to Canada, home care in the United States
is characterized by low wages and limited benefits [26,
60]. A particular issue for the U.S. is lack of access to
health benefits and health insurance for workers due to
part-time and irregular work hours [35,62].
3.1.2. Education and training
Most jurisdictions in Canada now require formal
training to become a HSW, usually completed at the
college level. Program entry requirements vary from
province to province, as do course lengths (although
not usually more than one year), curriculum content,
cost, and availability of financial aide. A lack of nation-
al training standards creates difficulty in transferring
skills between jurisdictions and raises concerns about
inadequate training to meet the changing demands of
the work [31]. Despite attempts to require formal train-
ing, at least two provinces in Canada report that many of
their HSWs do not have formal training [1,32]. On-the-
job training, high costs for formal education programs,
and the number of older workers with prior learning
may explain this reality. Conversely, some HSWs are
highly educated. A study in the province of British
Columbia found some workers had university degrees
(including graduate degrees) [58].

Scope of practice concerns the tasks that may be per-
formed by a HSW given his or her training and skills.
The increasing acuity of clients in home care and ad-
vances in in-home technology are also affecting worker
skill requirements [8,28,37,58]. However, training in-
consistencies mean that all HSWs may not be equipped
with the most up-to-date skills [32,33].
3.1.3. Quality assurance
Quality assurance refers to the maintenance of high
standards within home care programs, high standards
for worker performance, and ensuring continuity of
care for the client. Essential to maintaining these stan-
dards is clear accountability [37]. Home care involves a
diversity of occupational groups and services contribut-
ing to uncertainties about who should be delivering
which services and in what manner [31]. Given a grow-
ing emphasis on health care teams and the role of un-
regulated workers within these teams [56], addressing
these uncertainties about roles and scope of practice is
particularly salient. HSWs in Canada are not regulated
by any professional or governmental regulatory body.
This raises several issues for quality assurance, among
them: confusion among agencies, workers, and other
health team members as to the HSW’s role; and differ-
ing job titles and scopes of practice across jurisdictions
and between privately and publicly hired workers.
Provider registries are a less rigorous form of regu-

lation that may lend more legitimacy to an occupation
by tracking its membership. With no central registries,
data collection on HSWs in Canada is difficult, limiting
planning [56]. Registries would need to be mandatory
and address credential and competency equivalencies,
since not all HSWs receive the same training [28]. Giv-
en the wide variability within and between provincial
home support systems, a national registry is unlikely in
the near future, but may be a goal for provinces to work
towards through development of their own.
Continuity of care is a major concern in quality as-
surance, particularly from a client’s perspective. Three
types of continuity need to be considered: 1) informa-
tional continuity ensuring that discreet care events are
recorded and information is available to all health care
providers of a client; 2) management continuity ensur-
ing timely delivery of services; and 3) relational con-
tinuity ensuring consistent and ongoing relationships
between client and caregiver [27,58]. Continuity of
care has been linked to retaining workers and improved
quality of care, since workers really get to know their
clients’ needs over time [42]. However, casualization
(characterized by irregular and unpredictable hours and
employment insecurity) has been found to negatively
impact quality of care, continuity of care, and reten-
tion of HSWs in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and
British Columbia [58,66].
3.1.4. Working conditions
Working conditions of HSWs are characterised by
both positive and negative aspects. Key issues include
workloads (too much or too little work), high levels
of stress, safety concerns, job insecurity, and feeling

undervalued [21,25,55,60,67]. Central to this discus-
sion is scheduling. In some jurisdictions, workers are
expected to be on-call or to work in split shifts, which
is both disruptive to their daily lives and income limit-
ing. Scheduling also affects clients, particularly when
multiple workers are assigned to deliver home care ser-
vices. In such cases, clients must adjust to each new
worker and orient them to the tasks that they need to
provide [46,58]. These issues are closely linked to job
insecurity, a significant predictor of worker turnover [4,
22,65].
Safety issues include occupational injury, aggressive
clients or family members, discrimination, racism, and
unsafe conditions in the client’s home (including clean-
liness, smoking, and pets) [45]. Poor working condi-
tions can also impact workers’ physical health and have
been linked to musculoskeletal disorders [67].
Ethno-cultural diversity between client and caregiv-
er is common in home care in Canada and the United
States, where foreign-born and/or visible minority in-
dividuals are a large and growing segment of the formal
caregiver population [26,47,60]. Harassment, discrim-
ination and racism have been experienced by visible
minority HSWs, particularly women [46,54,58]. Cau-
casian HSWs have reported not being welcomed by
visible-minority clients [47], and a study in the province
of Quebec found that Haitian HSWs may experience
discrimination from Haitian clients, due to issues of so-
cial class [48]. However, ethno-cultural diversity does
not necessarily lead to negative worker-client relation-
ships. Studies have revealed that many HSWs derive
satisfaction and benefits from these relationships [47,
48].

Many provinces face acute recruitment and reten-
tion challenges in their rural and remote areas. Lim-
ited amenities, social isolation and long distances be-
tween clients are disincentives to attracting workers
to these regions. A scan of rural and remote home
care programs in Alberta, Ontario, and Newfoundland
and Labrador found that programs are challenged by
a lack of human resources [9]. Saskatchewan and
British Columbia have also experienced challenges in
this area [29,38].
HSWs have expressed feeling undervalued by other
health care professionals and the public. For many,
value is closely tied to remuneration. HSWs have re-
ported that they feel they deserve more recognition and
respect, and a greater role in health care planning for
clients [55,60]. In some areas, home support work
is not well understood and is equated with tradition-
al “women’s work” [32]. This negative public image
may contribute to HSWs leaving the occupation [61].
Opportunities for engagement with peers and as part
of a health care team can help address feelings of low
value [38]. HSWs also derive value from relationships
with clients [60].
Despite the challenges of working in home care,
HSWs express relatively high levels of job satisfaction,
with older workers reporting greater job satisfaction
than younger workers [17,22,24]. Type of agency may
also be linked to job satisfaction. A survey of formal

workers reported that HSWs’ satisfaction levels with
salaries were higher in for-profit agencies than not-for-
profit agencies [31]. A study in Quebec revealed that
the workers prefer jobs in the public system, where
wages are higher, workers are unionized, and job secu-
rity and training are perceived to be better than working
for private agencies [48].
4. Discussion
Despite the challenges for recruitment and retention
identified above, opportunities exist to mitigate the ef-
fects of future HSW shortages. This literature review
supports the development of strategies at public policy
and agency levels. Strategies must focus on increas-
ing the workforce, making better use of existing work-
ers’ time and skills, and retaining workers by making
improvements in each of the four key areas. Howev-
er, Mittal et al. [52] caution that “drivers of turnover
are different than drivers of retention, and strategies
aimed at reducing turnover should not be assumed to en-
hance retention” (p. 630). Implementation challenges
might include organization of home care service de-
livery and governance, and resources available for hu-
man resource planning. Agency-level strategies are
discussed below. Evidence from this literature review
suggests that a mix of strategies is most beneficial [26].
Reports from agency-led strategies suggest having a
single person responsible for recruitment who acts as
the contact person for new staff and providing opportu-
nities for potential staff to “try out” the job [63]. Oth-
er options include staff referrals; information sessions;
word of mouth; marketing to non-traditional worker
pools such as men, youth, and experienced workers
not currently employed or employed elsewhere [2,3,26,

59]; and offering apprenticeships or traineeships [3].
Employers need to maximize opportunities to work co-
operatively with other providers, as well as utilize in-
novative technological advances in social networking
tools in their recruitment efforts [37,59]. There is ev-
idence that fostering a good work environment is cru-
cial to both attracting new workers and retaining those
already employed. Attractive wages and benefits are
important [49], particularly in recruiting workers to the
job. Other factors include promoting a manageable
work and family life balance; positive quality of work
life; enjoyable, satisfying, and motivating job; ongoing
training and development opportunities and support;
and ample staffing for time off [59]. It is noted that
those factors associated with relationship and advocacy
for the client, as well as being called “to serve”, act
more as pull factors to retain workers, while others,
such as work-family conflict and difficulty of the job,
are push factors creating turnover [52].
Evidence points to the value of employers imple-
menting predictable scheduling and/or full-time hours
to support worker retention [14,20,65]. Organizational
and peer support are also important [16,65], including
supporting HSWs’ relationships with clients through
stable work assignments, thoughtful matching, partic-
ipation in care planning, and training that broadens
HSWs scope of practice [65]. Opportunities for up-
ward mobility, such as developing a career ladder with-
in the job, are suggested as other practical strategies to
increase retention [6].
Employers can best target recruitment campaigns by
understanding what workers value and what attracts
them to home support in the first place. For exam-

ple, younger workers are attracted to opportunities for
career advancement [64]. A recent U.S. study found
that “stayers” assign more meaning to their care work
than do “leavers” [52]. Those who derive satisfaction
from the emotional and caring nature of home support
are apt to be more satisfied [21] and to remain in their
jobs [52]. However, research evidence as to the per-
sonal characteristics of “stayers” is limited.
At a more macro level, assessing the effects of con-
textual issues and trends in home and community care
on human resource planning is needed. These trends
include: economic forces, including recessionary cy-
cles affecting people’s earnings, as well as employment
and retirement income; demographic trends, including
fewer youth entering the labour force and more older
people in need of care; and policy directions, includ-
ing a shift towards increasing acute home care services
and reducing publically funded home support services.
Many of these trends are also being experienced in oth-
er developed countries [26].
Solution
s, though, must
take into account context-specificity. In Canada, since

home care is under provincial jurisdiction and systems
vary considerably from province-to-province, the rele-
vancy of key issues and feasibility of strategies will be
context-specific.
Attention is needed to assess the competition across
health and social care sectors for the limited supply of
workers. Public policy that promotes care in the com-
munity must extend beyond delaying institutionaliza-
tion to encompass strategies for enhancing the human
resources to provide such care. Wage parity across sec-
tors of home care and facility-based care is one example
in Canada that demonstrates a disconnection between
goals of the state to increase home care and the prac-
tice of the marketplace to pay workers higher wages in
facility-based care.
Human resource issues will be seen differently de-
pending on the vantage point – employer, worker, or
client [46]. In order to improve worker recruitment and
retention, this literature review has provided evidence
of these issues from the worker’s perspective. Agencies
can use this evidence to be strategic in where they com-
mit their limited resources. In Canada, planners would

benefit from evaluations of specific recruitment and re-
tention projects; however, to date such evaluations are
scarce. In the U.S., recent evaluation of the “Better
Jobs, Better Care” program is coming to light [23] and
holds promise to assist with evidence-based decisions.
In the absence of evaluation, employers need to use
benchmarking indicators to track success of their own
efforts.
5. Conclusion
A number of demographic and societal factors point
to an increased demand for HSWs now and in the com-
ing decades. Given the projected increase in demand
for these workers, preparations need to begin now and
consider long-term strategies. Agencies need to exam-
ine their strengths and weaknesses within the four key
areas of compensation, education and training, quality
assurance, and working conditions. Until the negative
aspects of working as a HSW are addressed, recruit-
ment and retention will continue to be a challenge [38].
Furthermore, limited budgets to implement effective
strategies, and limitations imposed by collective agree-
ments in some jurisdictions, will constrain efforts.

Any discussion of human resource strategies for
HSWs must recognize the intersection of multiple pol-
icy areas, health and social care, employment, educa-
tion and even immigration (in terms of the use of im-
migrant workers). Further research is needed to inves-
tigate the way in which policies within these sectors
work together or in silos to improve the lives of old-
er people in need of home care support. Overlapping
with this policy framework is consideration of the role
of government, the marketplace, the voluntary sector
and family/friend caregivers, and assumptions of their
continued role to meet the future needs of older people
requiring assistance.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the support of our fund-
ing agency, Health Canada; our project partner, the
Canadian Home Care Association; and project staff,
students, and trainees, especially Rachel MacDougall
and Joanie Sims-Gould, for their assistance with this
literature review.
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PEOPLE + STRATEGY32
Many rapidly growing startups focus human resources on
recruitment of talent as fast as possible, just to keep pace with
the exponentially growing workload. When discussing
recruitment strategy with the leadership of
startups, however, we heard about a range of people practice
needs, which, like
recruitment, were compounded by the reality of being resource-
strapped organiza-
tions with non-traditional cultures and innovative business
models.
Therefore, we began investigating the use of strategic people
practices in
startups in the summer of 2016. Our research consisted of in-
depth conversations
with over a dozen CEOs and heads of HR for startup companies,
as well as the
collection of systematic data from 27 such organizations from

industries such as
advertising, consulting, and technology. Company size ranged
from 10 to 1,000 em-
ployees and were from at least nine cities. Data was collected
using a 17-item survey
targeted at the CEOs and CHROs of organizations. To be
included in the study
companies had to be in the process of developing new solutions,
typically in the
technology space, and planning for exponential growth. Our
findings uncovered
PEOPLE + STRATEGY32
By Evelyn Rogers and Justin Paul
Strategic People Practices in
Startup Organizations
VOLUME 41 | ISSUE 3 | SUMMER 2018 33
four important characteristics of HR and people practices in
startups:

1. It’s not the size of the HR function; what matters is im-
pact of the function holder and their credibility.
2. Plan A is to always have a plan B, being flexible while
building a foundation of people practices.
3. Startup culture has a double-edge: the mission and values
attract talented people. They also leave faster should they
lose confidence in their leaders and how their values are
being lived
4. A history of staying flexible in the face of constant
change can lead startups to resist HR’s effort to drive
consistent people practices or to invest in staff to support
people practices.
After review of the data leading to these findings, we pres-
ent several keys to unlocking the potential of people practices
in startups.
HR in Startups: Small but Impactful
Human resources within a startup is not defined by func-
tional terms, but rather people or more specifically, a per-
son, who handles HR activities. Though half of our sample

did state they employ a Chief People Officer, 41 percent indi-
cated that they have “one person who is 100 percent dedicat-
ed to HR responsibilities.” On a positive note, the majority
agree human resource activities should be done in house,
with only 9 percent outsourcing and 9 percent have none at
all. Though small, the respondents indicated 64 percent of
HR teams meet or exceeded expectations.
Startup leadership typically delegates HR responsibilities
to one person, who is the sole team member. They need to
build everything from scratch, but this also means they can
make an immediate impact. The CEO views the HR role as
a respected resource in helping the business succeed. There
are no formal processes of stakeholder analysis or bureaucrat-
ic signoffs; the mentality is similar to product development:
deliver the solution, execute, and then put version 2.0 out if
this fails or is not perfect.
Floating Foundation Builders
HR is expected to create and sustain value-added people
practices but also be ready to adapt them at the drop of a hat
if the business requires it or if not all leaders are bought in.
In some companies where regulatory or funding outcomes
can dramatically change the operating plan, HR must have

a plan B where they are ready to staff and build capability
exponentially yet also be prepared to divest 50 percent of
their workforce in half the time. Additionally, after a new
practice is designed and rolled out, some leaders may have
the authority to “veto” the process for their team, forcing HR
to scramble and find secondary solutions.
Each brick added to the foundation of people practices is
done with the knowledge that it can be changed, removed, or
swapped out to fit the needs of the pivoting business, however
its effects on people and company culture may still last long
after its removal.
Out of the eight standard people practices we measured,
over half of all companies were at least moderately investing
Total %
76%
68%
64%

60%
60%
56%
52%
36%
Figure 1: Investment in People Practices
To a great extent To a moderate extent
Culture & Values
Onboarding
Performance Management & Feedback
High Perf. Teams & Strategic Alignment
Compensation & Benefits
Leadership & Management

Career Development
Diversity & Inclusion
% of Respondents
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
56% 20%
36%
48%
40%
32%
20%
48%
40%

16%
20%
20%
12%
20%
16%
28%
It’s not the size of the HR function;
what matters is impact of the
function holder and their credibility.
PEOPLE + STRATEGY34
in them with the exception of diversity and inclusion (See
Figure 1). Culture and values received the most investment
(with 56 percent of startups investing in this area to a great

extent). Other processes received at least moderate invest-
ment from most organizations including, in order, onboard-
ing (68 percent), performance management (64 percent),
high performing teams (60 percent), compensation and
benefits (60 percent), leadership and management (56 per-
cent) and career development (52 percent). Establishing
these processes is necessary but challenging, as many em-
ployees remember earlier days when there were less people
and more flexibility.
The need to establish a working foundation for an or-
ganization with constantly moving targets can prevent HR
leaders from working on practices that could drive strate-
gic organizational growth. Instead leaders find themselves
working with a kind of “floating foundation” that is built
out of necessity, knowing that some bricks have been left
out or propped up hastily, to serve the company’s immedi-
ate needs, and that they can always be reconfigured later,
when they need the structure to reach higher.
As seen in Figure 2, onboarding receives the second most
investment from startups (68 percent of companies sur-
veyed) yet is not considered a strategic growth driver, while

efforts on building high performing teams (60 percent)
and improving leadership and management capabilities (56
percent) are growth drivers but receive less attention. Our
discussions revealed that these two areas often depend on
the specific leadership personalities. Typically, there is a mix
of great leaders who work hard to develop talent and create
high performing teams and others who exhibit little effort
in these areas or, worse, actively disengage their teams.
Therefore, for HR to improve leadership and team perfor-
mance, flexibility must be built into the solution.
Culture: Saving Grace or Greatest Challenge
Organization culture has always been a multifaceted con-
cept, difficult to comprehensively assess and quantify, yet
the significant inf luence of values, beliefs, and common
behaviors on success is undeniable. In startups culture is
even more critical, due in part to the vacuum left by a lack
of other established people practices and also the need for
individuals to believe in the eventual success of the compa-
ny’s yet-to-be-proven solution(s). It was the consensus of our
interviews that startup cultures are transparent, open in
communication, non-hierarchical, adaptive, f lexible, and
fast paced. These factors attract talented employees who
believe in the company mission and values and work hard
to achieve results, but if they lose confidence, they’re likely

to opt out and leave.
This double-edged sword of culture explains why the ma-
jority of startups surveyed (56 percent) are investing heavily
in culture and values “to a great extent”—far ahead of the
next closest people practice, onboarding at 28 percent. CEO
and CHROs also believe culture will drive strategic growth
with it coming in a close third out of the eight practices
measured.
Due to the high-growth rate of success, startups managing
culture is a continuous challenge. Many interviewees de-
Figure 2: Strategic Importance of People Practices
% of companies selecting practice as strategically important
Strategic Importance
Le
ve
l o
f

In
ve
st
m
en
t
56%
4%
42%
62%
12%
67%
37%
8%

Culture & Values
Onboarding
Performance Management & Feedback
High Perf. Teams & Strategic Alignment
Compensation & Benefits
Leadership & Management
Career Development
Diversity & Inclusion
*High Importance People Practice
It was the consensus of our interviews
that startup cultures are transparent,
open in communication,
non-hierarchical, adaptive,
flexible, and fast paced.

VOLUME 41 | ISSUE 3 | SUMMER 2018 35
scribed situations in which increased scope of responsibilities
and complexity for senior roles requires the recruitment of
tenured experts from outside. Due to the immediacy of the
need to fill the capability gap, the build vs. buy equation
slants toward buying the needed talent and less in building
leadership and management capabilities internally. With
senior talent brought in from the outside, the imperative
becomes assimilating the new senior leaders into the culture
and values of the startup while still leveraging their expertise
to change operating procedures. These adjustments can
be difficult for everyone involved, especially early employ-
ees used to more access and flexible processes. In this way,
growth, which should be a strong indication that the compa-
ny culture and mission are on the right track, can also under-
mine it and cause people challenges if not managed properly.
If the floating foundation of people practices has been
crafted carefully to reinforce the strengths of the founding
culture then it should be able to weather the instability as
new people “settle in.” However, if the floating foundation

is weak, then new bricks and new people increase variability,
create instability and ambiguity around what matters, and
cause stagnation or even collapse.
Roadblocks for People Practices
As seen in Figure 3, the greatest barrier to implementing
people practices is time and effort (81 percent). With HR de-
partments of one or very small coupled with the additional
barrier of lack of funding (64 percent), it is understandable
why HR gets derailed from delivering on multiple initiatives.
Those we interviewed indicated that there was little support
to hire external consultants or extra resources to assist in
getting the work done. The common sentiment was, “CEOs
believed they were paying the CHRO to design the solutions
and do the work.”
Change is also a factor to further leveraging people prac-
tices in startups. In Figure 4, nearly half of all responding
organizations believe that significant change will influence
their people practices within just one year. As we discussed
earlier, the uncertainty of the short-term future makes it diffi-
cult to justify creating momentum around initiatives that may
become superfluous.

On a more optimistic note, there is possibility for interest
and buy-in to work on more extensive people practice en-
hancements. Leadership awareness and skepticism were not
seen as barriers to over half the organizations surveyed (62
percent each) and pressures from boards and investors as
well as the existing startup culture are not seen as significant
challenges, with less than 31 percent of respondents citing
these as even moderate concerns. How then can HR profes-
sionals in startups extract further value from their people
practices?
Five Keys of People Practices in Startups
From our survey findings, resulting discussions, and per-
sonal experiences working with HR and startup leaders
we’ve identified five key principles startup leaders and HR
professionals should apply to unlock the potential of people
practices in their organizations.
1. Create a strong link between the initiative and business
results. Large organizations with thousands of employees
have economies of scale. They can afford to invest in their
people on the loose assumption that general performance
will improve and show up in some way in the bottom line.
In smaller, more resource-strapped businesses, new initia-
tives will need to show that they solve a problem that clearly

is costing the organization or that they are key enablers of
future growth. The bricks in the people process foundation
undoubtedly will need to shift, re-configure, and at times be
switched out entirely. HR must be hyper-aware as the com-
pany scales and pivots as to where the structural stress points
will be and why something must be done about them now.
Figure 3: Barriers to Strategic People Practices
Time & effort to implement
Monetary cost
Degree of change within the organization
Leadership team’s awareness of the practice
Leadership team’s skepticism of the practice’s return on
investment
Stakeholder or board support
Company culture and values
Pressure from investors, IPO planning or market analysts

To a great extent
To a moderate extent
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
24% 57%
41%
19%
33%
33%
24%
14%
38%
5%

5%
5%
5%
5% 5%
23%
PEOPLE + STRATEGY36
For example, the case to invest in devolving culture building,
leadership, and decision-making to an added layer of man-
agers must be approached very carefully. The founders may
resist this and it will be HR’s responsibility to present the de-
fensible arguments related to the bottom line of the business.
2. Start small, collect feedback, and evaluate. Startups,
more so than other organizations, should be open to ex-
perimentation—use this to your advantage and test your
plans before spending too much effort. For instance, you
could invite a few people managers to watch a TED talk on

a relevant leadership topic and discuss what they learned or
have a discussion about team effectiveness principles with
one manager and gauge their interest. Get feedback on the
impact you’ve had and suggestions on how the company can
improve in these areas.
3. Connect the initiative to company culture. As culture ap-
pears universally understood as a driver of success in this sec-
tor, building culture into your business case (e.g. “a culture
of leadership” or “a culture of development”) and discussing
the extended behavioral impact will strengthen your case.
Startups are constantly struggling to avoid adopting complex
processes and layers of bureaucracy or hierarchy that would
stifle their agility. The founding culture is what enables them
to achieve this, therefore new people initiatives must tap into
and strengthen company culture.
4. Keep it high level. Because of time constraints and
organizational changes on the horizon, you’re not likely to
get a return on highly detailed design efforts. Stakeholders
may raise complicated “one-off” issues or you may be tempt-
ed to perfect your plans but you’re probably best served by
keeping the 80/20 rule in mind. Focus on high-impact ac-
tions and agree on one person to oversee the project and be

responsible for approving any exceptions. For example, when
recruiting in growth phases, you don’t expend the effort to
establish robust job requirements and competencies—you
simply select for technical skills and culture fit. Had you done
the detailed work, you could easily find out weeks later you
need your new hire for completely new tasks.
5. Look outside your organization. Peers in other startups
may have a solution that’s already proven effective in their
organizations or they can serve as valuable partners in inves-
tigating common challenges together. Similarly, consultants
and talent management professionals have a wealth of expe-
rience, research, tools, and solutions at their disposal and are
generally open to starting a discussion. If you’re interested
in working with an external consultant further, you may be
able to share the expense with another startup. A wrong
move early in the process can stop a people initiative in its
tracks, therefore leveraging existing knowledge and expertise
upfront can be extremely valuable.
Agility Is the Secret Sauce
Time and again we have been told by those we interviewed
that the startup world they live in is a VUCA one (volatile,
uncertain, complex, and ambiguous). The person(s) inhab-
iting the human resources function needs to adapt and flex

their own style, practices, and approach in order to survive
as a business partner. Structure and process are not your
friend in this world. The company’s ever changing landscape
and the need to constantly prioritize implementations neces-
sitates a strong understanding of the business and the ability
to develop innovative solutions.
This is not surprising as the business of a startup is
to develop solutions through a process of discovery, not
extensive pre-planning, so why would HR be expected to
operate any differently? CHROs are asked to work on an
extremely complex problem, “How do we maximize recruit-
ment, productivity, talent, retention, employee satisfaction,
and capability building at the same time as meeting other
financial needs and growing the business?” and to do so
with an uncertain company future hanging over their heads.
Those who succeed do so by staying flexible and applying
an elegant mix of experimentation, creativity, speed, and
responsiveness.
Evelyn Rogers, Ph.D., is president of E. Rogers Associates and
an adjunct associate professor at Hofstra University. She can be
reached at [email protected]
Justin Paul is an organizational development specialist and

founder
of Latchmere Performance

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