Insight
Chiltz: Compensation is rarely the true reason employees leave or decline offers
“It's really easy to say when you're leaving a company, you're leaving because of comp, and that's a tip we all know. We're HR professionals. That's not the reason people leave companies, and two, we're really quick at saying they got a better offer from anothe…”
Opinion
Schiltz: Using company-wide layoffs to fire underperformers is terrible HR practice
“And I would say from the HR standpoint, I hope that companies don't do it that way. That's probably the worst way. That's one of the worst reasons you could do a layoff.”
Insight
Schultz: Startup compensation should prioritize consistency over equality
“It's not about being equal. It's about being consistent.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Attrition data shows employees rarely leave companies solely over compensation
“But if you also look at attrition data, people don't leave a company because of comp. People leave a company for many other reasons. They'll use the, they're gonna make more at their next company, but it is usually, there's a different, if you actually scratch…”
Insight
Schiltz: Early compensation structures build healthy companies through consistency, not fairness
“The earlier you think about putting a compensation structure in place, the stronger and healthier your company is, because you have consistency. Not fairness, consistency.”
Insight
Schiltz: Companies must prepare managers for difficult internal pay conversations
“You have to be ready to have those conversations and get your managers ready to have a conversation on why actually this is a level above you and you can progress into it. But that's not where you're at right now. And that's a hard conversation.”
Insight
Schiltz: The top 10% of employees are critical single points of failure
“There is a top 10% of your organization that isn't just the best performer, but they're critical. And what I mean by critical is if they left tomorrow, Something stops working.”
Insight
Schiltz: Paying critical talent above ranges is consistent if explicitly defined
“If you define critical talent as being above range, that, that's being consistent. Like, you have to be classified as that type of individual.”
Insight
Schiltz: Startups should establish salary structures before reaching 50 employees
“So we always try and get companies to do it before they're like, 50 employees. And this has actually helped us, right? Like, pay transparency would be much easier, and we've always said to people, the bigger your organization, the harder this project is.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schiltz: Rapid tech compensation inflation forced annual salary range shifts pre-2022
“Never in a million years did I think that we would see how the market was increasing as it was pre twenty-twenty-two, half of 20, like, second half of twenty-twenty-two. You never had to move your ranges. Right. Your midpoint might move, but we were in a set, …”
Opinion
Chiltz: Early-stage tech startups adopt RSUs prematurely without legitimate business justification
“There's tons of companies who are implementing RSUs really, really early now. Or they're implementing RSUs when, like, the . Like, there isn't necessarily a need or a good reason to.”
Insight
Schiltz: Founders must model worst-case scenarios to avoid multiple layoff rounds
“You have to model for your worst case scenario. Say numbers don't turn around tomorrow, right? How deep do you need to go if everything stays the way it is today or decreases slightly so that you don't have to get in front of your workforce and announce anothe…”
Insight
Schiltz: Startups must raise discounted salaries to market rates by Series B
“Once you start approaching your B round or two to three years into it, everyone gets brought up to market. So like you only get a discount for a certain amount of time before everyone comes to market because people cannot afford to live on a discounted cash in…”
Insight
Schiltz: Startup CEOs must personally announce layoffs to the entire company
“The most important thing is you have to, you want to control the communication that's going out to your entire workforce, which means one person needs to stand up and communicate to everyone what's going on that day, why it's taking place, and that you as a CE…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schiltz: Typical startup layoff severance packages range from two to four weeks
“And so as hard as it is, like we can see companies doing anywhere from two weeks to, you know, I would say typical is a month. I mean, because they're, most companies aren't doing a reduction because they wake up one morning and say, you know what? We just hav…”
Insight
Schiltz: Engaging with angry former employees only amplifies their public complaints
“The more focus and the more you pay attention to the angry employee, the more what they have to say matters.”
Insight
Schultz: Defined compensation philosophy is a key recruiting selling point
“If you put in place a philosophy, you can actually speak to rewarding your top performers. And that's something that's a huge selling point in the recruiting process now.”
Insight
Schultz: Equity packages across different startup stages cannot be directly compared
“You usually can't compare equity packages. Like you can't look across five different offers and say they're all the same offer compared to the amount of equity you're getting. If it's at a different stage, you might get a lower equity package, but it's high, y…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Candidates stopped negotiating for options after 2000 tech crash
“So if you look back in, you know, early 2000, like nobody was really thinking, nobody was negotiating options for a while. No, it was like, I need to be paid cash. I don't really care about options.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schiltz: Pay transparency originated as a Silicon Valley cultural norm
“It became more of a cultural thing, right? And it became very much a Silicon Valley thing too, that people should just be, you should feel confident with what you pay each employee. It, and if somebody else finds out about it, you should be able to justify it.”
Insight
Chiltz: Tying annual equity budgets to hiring plans accelerates board approvals
“If you actually do the entire year budget plan of equity spend off of your hiring spent or off your hiring plan, And get your board to sign off on it. You'll find your approvals go a lot faster. You can just say, like, here's what we planned. Here's what we're…”
Disclosure
Schiltz: I was laid off during a reduction and rehired within a year
“I was laid off on the second layoff. And so like the, if you do it right, the loyalty doesn't go away and you can continue like keeping, you know, people that are important. And you know, we, I was the second, second layoff we did, I was reduced and hired back…”
Insight
Schultz: Building a company requires a talent roadmap like a product roadmap
“You don't build a product without having a product roadmap, right? And so if you're going to build a company, you've got to have a, like, a roadmap on how you're going to attract the best talent and how you're going to retain the best talent.”
Assertion Contradicted
Schiltz: The first pay range disclosure law was enacted in 2016
“2016 was the first time the law came out that if you are interviewing a candidate, they can ask for the pay range for the role. And you have to be able to, within 24 hours, share with the candidate what the pay range is.”
