NetObjects
Gary White, Vice President of HR

“You have to gear up your staffing efforts big time and turn everyone in the company into a recruiter, like the Cisco model. You must mobilize and train everyone in the company to do staffing. Start by proactively managing your senior executive team’s expectations regarding how fast it is possible to ramp up. It may be impossible to double in a month, but you can do so successfully over time.

“You need to design and implement a clear orientation program (on-boarding) because the rapid, successful integration of new employees will be pivotal for productivity. Don’t just hire people and throw them into a cube or you’ll find that they miss important deadlines because they are not able to perform. New employees need to be absorbed, they need to know who’s who, and how to get things done. Take the time to make sure each new hire is the right hire so that they will fit into the culture, understand what the company is about, and stick around long enough to really contribute.”

E-M Solutions
Kathy McGann, Vice President of HR

“The bottom line is to remain calm and know in your heart that you will actually fill the positions. If you believe it, it’ll happen. The right people will show up for all the jobs. Hire every good contract recruiter you know, place the right listings, tell your networking sources your story, talk to everyone every day, take or return every call, take every hit on your web site. Treat everyone well, and every hire will produce two more hires because they will bring good people with them. Good companies that know where they are going and treat candidates well can always attract the top talent.”

“Get ready for the big push in advance. Think about what it’s going to be like as 20, 50, 200 new employees join the company. Make sure your compensation system and benefits plan actually work. Don’t keep a small company mentality. Growth is both increased revenue and increased headcount. People are always worried that the culture will change and

Kathy McGann
Vice President of HR, E-M Solutions

they’ll lose the fun, so celebrate every new hire. Develop a strategy to integrate new-timers. Pair them up with old-timers.” “When you have this kind of growth, you run into problems like no offices, no phones, no infrastructure, and people show up to nothing. There is an attitude that good people can hit the ground running no matter what, and that the good ones figure out how to make it happen. If your company believes this, then hire employees who are comfortable with that and who don’t expect a badge, a phone, an office. Hire people who are totally flexible, free, and can make it
happen. But develop a good new hire orientation program to pass along the company’s culture, values, history, how it works. Tell new hires how to get stuff done. Don’t forget to tell them how to get expense reports processed, and how to log on to the networks.”

Juniper Networks
Ray Martelli, Vice President of HR

“You don’t handle exponential growth (laughs). I don’t think there’s one right or wrong method for handling the kind of extreme growth that we’ve had at Juniper Networks. No one has perfected it. The most important rule of thumb is to have sound business practices and an experienced management team. You need to utilize basic business principals and then key in on those to manage going forward. You must put guidelines in place that allow flexibility so that you can move forward quicker. You don’t want anything very restrictive. Your entire company must be able to move rapidly and change as needed. It is essential that your management team understand exponential growth and what it means, and really know how to manage it. There is no tried and true method, except that you must have an experienced management team on board, and design practices that are flexible enough to turn on a dime as needed.”