Talent Practices Of One Of The Bay Area’s Hottest Companies

Jessica Mah is the founder and CEO of inDinero, one of the bay area’s hottest companies. We met in Israel in 2009 when Jessica was just getting started building the company’s software with her computer science background. Today, inDinero has 200 employees across five locations. Their purpose is to help businesses with accounting and taxes, like an outsourced finance department. One of Jessica’s goals for her organization as it expands is to handle growth gracefully and retain culture along the way.

One thing that sets inDinero apart from other companies is their interesting and unique talent practices. Jessica coined ABF talent as a way of rating team members and their performance. A employees are ones that she would enthusiastically rehire given what she knows about them today. B employees are ones that she might rehire but need to show improvement. These team members are put on a program to enhance their performance. Then at the end of the quarter, they will either be fixed or be fired. Jessica is a firm believer that harboring mediocrity is not conducive to good results. Her ranking system has proven very successful in transforming B players into A players.

Another unique practice at inDinero is that they do not use email internally. Instead, they converse via group chat rooms and messengers. This prevents employees from being held hostage in group email threads that unnecessarily fill up their mental bandwidth. All of the executives also use a special calendar grid that is tailored to the way that they want to spend their work week. This helps reduce stress and increase productivity. inDinero has a distinct hiring process to improve the odds of successful hiring and they also have high employee referrals. Jessica attributes much of the organization’s growth and triumph to their values, such as radical candor and transparency.

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What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• ABF framework

• inDinero’s culture committee

• Crowdsourced culture book for employees

• Calendar grid for scheduling

• inDinero’s email policy

• How Jessica deals with recruiters trying to poach employees

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This podcast is brought to you by Staples Business Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples, Inc. I recently worked with Staples Business Advantage on their 2016 Workplace Index, which examined the state of the workplace in the United States and Canada. The report identified what employees want and need from their employers, including wellness programs, smart office design, the right technology, and space and supplies for taking breaks. These findings are critical to help companies meet their recruitment, retention, and employee engagement goals. Download the report atgo.staplesadvantage.com/workplaceindex2016.

Jacob Morgan is a keynote speaker, author and futurist. For more, subscribe to his newsletter or visit TheFutureOrganization.