2020 Kleiner Perkins People Report
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2020 Kleiner Perkins People Report

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Programs

Onboarding

Since March, a majority of companies have been recruiting and onboarding talent remotely. Onboarding is especially hard during these current times since the employee is joining a new company from his/her home. It is harder to experience the culture and connect with other employees (ex: no spontaneous conversations).
We’ve shared some key learnings and tips that might be helpful to you as you onboard your next employee. Most companies surveyed have an intensive 1-2 week onboarding which includes a mix of group meetings and 1:1 meetings. For companies that have physical operations, the new hire will also spend some time out “on the field”.
Key Learnings:
It is the manager’s responsibility to help new employees ramp up and schedule meetings with relevant stakeholders with support from HR
Get founders and execs involved the first week
Provide an onboarding guide, an onboarding "buddy", and a structured and standardized first day
Don't have their first session be IT! Make sure you really emphasize the company's vision, mission, and core values, and let the employee know why you hired them in particular.
Send out post 60-90 day survey on onboarding experience.

💡 Prior to Day 1: Get equipment sent to employee (be aware of shipping delays due to COVID) and provide access to email, calendar and company wiki ahead of their first day.
Day 1 (Sample)
Overview of company (mission, vision, values, history), product roadmap, and macro industry overview (ideally given by founders or exec team)
1:1 meeting with HR (set up payroll, go over perks and benefits) and IT (companywide software / security training for devices/data)
Team/Manager: best practices with internal communication; documentations
Welcome videos and how-to demos (consider using
Loom
⁠
)
Product demos
Legal training
Assign a buddy / onboarding mentor. Tip: try to pair with an employee in the same timezone


Tips from our companies:
“Too many back-to-back meetings in the first week has proven overwhelming. It's important to provide blocks of free time, and social hours within the first 2 weeks.”
“ Create a company Wiki to direct folks including an onboarding guide. If wikis include contact information, make sure to revisit info. Be sure to provide a few main points of contact (HR contact, manager, onboarding buddy).”
“Create onboarding cohorts and set up an activity the cohort can do together. Be aware of companywide initiatives and don’t schedule an activity right before a product launch.”
Ideas for creating a memorable and positive onboarding experience:
📢 Communication
🙌 Culture & Community
💻 Learning
1
Provide new hires with a clearly outlined project that gives them a sense of impact in their first few weeks
Create onboarding plan and check-lists for the manager, HR, and the new hire. Plan important meetings in advance, find a buddy, have clear responsibilities and provide all support needed to set new starters up for a successful start. Do a lot of short and 1-2 long check-ins and reviews within the first 3 months. What did not work: too little supervision, no team connection (especially in remote set-up), too little time invest in planning and not being clear about expectations towards the role
1:1s with department heads/functional leaders or skip levels
30-60-90 immersion plan
Check-points at 60, 90 and 180 days
Regular cadences of meetings/events for the first quarter the new hire joins (in addition to 1 week onboarding)
Introduce themselves via Zoom at the All - Hands meetings

Welcome (virtual) lunch /
Cameo
⁠
shoutout
Send flowers to the family after accepting offer
Swag box
During 1st week, new hire presents a slide during All-Hands (exposes the company to new hire and vice versa)
Provide an onboarding buddy or mentor for a period of time
Announce all new hires via Slack, try to expose them to as many of the "fun" Slack channels right off the bat such as
donut
⁠
⁠
Establish a welcome committee
New hire presents a slide at the upcoming company All-Hands (exposes the company to new hire and vice versa)
Strive to get ~25% of the company involved during new hire’s first 60 days of onboarding. During their 1st week, ensure they get time with the founders.
Assign a buddy / onboarding mentor. Tip: try to pair with an employee in the same timezone
Presentation from leaders across the company on their functions and how they do business (goal of this is to get new hires conversant in the language of the company and to break down silos across functions)
Assignment at the end of 1st week: “fresh eye report” - including key learnings and takeaways as well opportunities
Record customer interviews to help new hire understand our customers, build empathy
There are no rows in this table
⁠

Internships

Data aggregated from companies that have University Recruiting programs across all stages.
1
Recruiting Timeline:
Engineering: August - December
Design: September - December and/or year round
Product Managers: August - December and/or year round
Ways to Structure Comp:
Prorated salary: 44% of companies
Hourly with eligibility for overtime: 43% of companies
Hourly with no eligibility for overtime: 13% of companies
2
Housing Stipend:
50% of survey respondents offer housing stipends.
​
There are no rows in this table
⁠


Employee Referral Program

A few ways our companies are structuring referral programs:
Step up approach paid after 90 days of successful employment (i.e. first hire $1,000 bonus, second hire $1,500 bonus, third hire $2,000 bonus etc.)
Same incentive across the board (i.e. $5,000 for every hire etc.)
Tiered incentives (i.e. $2,000 for general roles and $4,000 for hard to fill roles)
Outside of monetary incentives there are also ways to reward such as 1) charitable organizations that employees can select donations towards, 2) fun unique swag items, and 3) quality time (i.e. coffee with a founder or an investor).

💡Tip: $3,000 is the average cost per referral across all stages. Note that executives are generally exempt from referral bonuses.

Onboarding
Internships
Employee Referral Program
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