We are #1 in our industry. However because we aren't a hot startup anymore some workers leave. How to manage this?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

We were a hot startup and, long story short, we've become a slow-growth (mature?) company being more or less #1 in our industry.

However there are workers which are leaving our company. Asking them in one-on-one talks "why?" they answered (almost) invariably "because I want more money".

However, in the exit questionnaires only 10% talk about a higher wage. The rest invoke other reasons, the most frequent being the lack of future enhancement of their career and/or the capping risk (they feel like they will be in a pigeonhole - something like that).

What can we do in order to retain the good people?

manpreet 2 years ago

The people you attract as a startup will go for the smaller no nonsense highly volatile environment that a startup often has. These people will be more likely be pioneers and not people who like continuing the status quo. Once your company transitions from the start up phase to a more stable phase your company often changes. More layers of management become necessary to manage the larger amount of people. In addition, some products go more into a maintenance mode in stead of quick dynamic development.

So, in part you cannot keep the people you started with. If they prefer the startup environment, they will move on. The trick here is to then find new talent that thrives not in the dynamic startup phase, but people who enjoy the more stable mature phase. Trying to keep your talent from the startup phase is not necessarily a good idea.

To keep some of the startup minded people happy you can let them handle the R&D of new products. In that department you try to mimic the startup environment. In addition, keep tabs on how your people want to develop, and actively support them in that.