People Programs Backed By Social Science Research - A Strategic Advantage for Startups

Think back to your first day at work. Nervous excitement. You walk past the company logo as you walk through the door. You hear about the company founders, the company values, and the company mission. You get to your desk and find company swag awaiting your arrival.

Your People Ops team intentionally designed your first day to get you up to speed on all things company related.

But according to research, People Ops missed one key ingredient - you.

Research from Francesca Gino (Harvard Business School), Daniel Cable (London Business School) and, Bradley Staats (University of North Carolina) shows that an employee-centric onboarding program that focuses not just on the company, but also on the employee results in greater employee retention and customer satisfaction. Everything from name tags and personalized swag to group exercises that emphasize a new hires best self has an impact.

The Untapped Power of Social Science Research

Social science research is an untapped resource that People Ops teams in startups can use to build leading edge people programs from the ground up. Whether your company employs ten, 100 or 400 people, how your company operates at this stage floor to ceiling, will provide the foundation as the company scales and matures. The sooner leading social science research can be applied, the better.

1. Start with Social Science Research

When designing a people program, whether it’s onboarding or recognition, begin with the social science research and build from there. Sites like Google Scholar and The Deep Feedback Movement are a great place to start.

2. Create and Design Something New!

Rather than recycling best practices from other companies, you have the opportunity to design something new thats both backed by research and that you can customize to your startup because you know the day-to-day best.

3. Implement, Test & Iterate

Measure the impact of your new programs, gather feedback and iterate to continually improve.

Now you can start designing innovative people programs backed by social science research - a strategic advantage for your startup.