Work Rules!

A New Philosophy of Work

Trust employees fundamentally: Build systems based on trust rather than control
Focus on creating a great culture: Recognize that culture drives performance and innovation
Give employees freedom: Provide autonomy to make decisions and solve problems
Base decisions on data: Use evidence and experimentation to guide people practices
Measure impact rigorously: Track outcomes of HR initiatives like any other business function
Look beyond conventional wisdom: Question traditional HR approaches and management practices
Apply behavioral economics: Use nudges and choice architecture to help employees make better decisions
Build transparency into systems: Share information openly, including compensation and performance data
Recognize psychological safety’s importance: Create environments where people feel safe to take risks
Balance employee needs with business goals: Find approaches that benefit both individuals and the organization

Finding Exceptional Talent

Define “exceptional” concretely: Create clear criteria for what constitutes exceptional talent
Emphasize cognitive ability: Prioritize learning ability and problem-solving skills in hiring
Look for leadership potential: Identify candidates who lead without authority
Seek culture contributors, not culture fit: Find people who add to your culture rather than simply fitting in
Involve employees in hiring: Use hiring committees rather than individual decision-makers
Establish structured interviews: Ask consistent, job-related questions of all candidates
Create work sample tests: Use job-related tasks to evaluate actual performance
Avoid typical interview questions: Steer clear of brainteasers and hypothetical scenarios
Focus on achievement over experience: Look for accomplishments rather than roles
Implement predictive analytics: Use data to improve hiring success rates

Making the Hiring Process Work

Set a high bar consistently: Maintain rigorous standards for all hires
Design deliberate assessment: Create a hiring process that tests for your most important attributes
Train interviewers thoroughly: Ensure evaluators know how to conduct effective interviews
Separate assessment from decision-making: Have different people collect data and make hiring decisions
Mitigate unconscious bias: Implement specific practices to reduce bias in the hiring process
Optimize candidate experience: Create a respectful, engaging experience regardless of outcome
Track quality of hire: Measure how well hiring decisions predict later performance
Review hiring outcomes regularly: Analyze hiring data to improve decision quality
Engage hiring managers meaningfully: Ensure they understand their role in the process
Invest time in hiring: Recognize that thorough hiring processes save time and money long-term

Building Best-in-Class Benefits

Focus on meaningful benefits: Prioritize offerings that truly impact employee wellbeing
Adapt benefits to life stages: Create programs that support employees through different life events
Apply behavioral economics to benefits: Make the best options the default choices
Balance standardization with personalization: Create consistent frameworks with individual flexibility
Consider families, not just employees: Design benefits that support employees’ loved ones
Make wellness convenient: Remove barriers to healthy behaviors and preventive care
Address financial wellbeing: Provide education and tools for financial health
Design for inclusion: Ensure benefits work for employees of all backgrounds and circumstances
Create supportive leave policies: Build generous, flexible approaches to time away from work
Test benefit effectiveness: Measure impact of offerings on employee health, happiness, and retention

Managing Performance and Development

Separate performance assessment from development conversations: Hold distinct discussions for evaluation and growth
Gather multi-source feedback: Collect input from peers, managers, and reports
Focus on objective evidence: Base evaluations on specific behaviors and outcomes
Combat assessment biases: Implement processes to reduce common rating errors
Create calibration processes: Compare evaluations across teams to ensure consistency
Focus on development planning: Help employees create concrete growth plans
Enable peer recognition: Create systems for colleagues to acknowledge contributions
Balance individual and team performance: Recognize both personal achievement and collaborative success
Provide regular feedback: Create mechanisms for ongoing, timely input beyond formal reviews
Hold managers accountable: Evaluate leaders on how well they develop their teams

Building a Learning Organization

Make learning part of everyday work: Integrate development into regular activities
Promote teaching and sharing: Create expectations that knowledge is shared, not hoarded
Build feedback-rich environments: Establish practices for regular, constructive feedback
Create psychological safety: Make it safe to admit mistakes and ask questions
Design onboarding for learning: Start new employees with development-focused experiences
Balance challenge and support: Provide stretching assignments with appropriate guidance
Model continuous learning: Demonstrate learning behaviors at all leadership levels
Measure learning outcomes: Track development progress, not just training hours
Create peer learning opportunities: Enable employees to learn from each other
Balance formal and informal learning: Combine structured programs with organic development

Pay and Recognition

Pay unfairly: Differentiate compensation based on performance and impact
Explain the compensation philosophy: Help employees understand how pay decisions are made
Create transparency around pay: Share information about compensation processes and ranges
Combine intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: Balance financial rewards with meaningful work
Use spot bonuses effectively: Provide timely recognition for exceptional contributions
Design recognition for visibility: Make appreciation public when appropriate
Create peer recognition systems: Enable employees to acknowledge each other’s contributions
Align rewards with desired behaviors: Ensure incentives reinforce your cultural values
Consider team-based rewards: Recognize collaborative achievements, not just individual performance
Test reward effectiveness: Measure the impact of recognition programs on motivation and results

Managing Organizational Culture

Define values concretely: Translate abstract principles into specific behaviors
Measure culture regularly: Assess how well your stated values match everyday practices
Hold leaders accountable for culture: Evaluate managers on how they embody values
Create culture champions: Identify and empower employees who exemplify your values
Address cultural violations promptly: Take action when behaviors contradict stated values
Tell culture stories: Share examples that illustrate your values in action
Design processes to reinforce culture: Align systems and procedures with cultural priorities
Connect culture to performance: Show how cultural elements drive business results
Evolve culture deliberately: Update cultural elements thoughtfully as the organization changes
Tolerate quirks, not jerks: Allow for individuality while addressing destructive behaviors

Making Decisions Based on Data

Establish people analytics capabilities: Build teams that apply data science to people decisions
Ask meaningful questions: Focus analysis on important business and employee outcomes
Combine quantitative and qualitative data: Use multiple methods to understand complex issues
Run controlled experiments: Test people practices with rigorous experimental design
Share results transparently: Communicate findings even when they contradict expectations
Make analytics accessible: Build user-friendly tools that help managers apply insights
Focus on practical applications: Prioritize analytics that lead to concrete actions
Balance privacy with transparency: Protect sensitive information while sharing useful insights
Build analytics partnerships: Connect people analytics with other data teams
Create an experimentation culture: Encourage testing and learning in people practices

The Role of Managers

Focus managers on coaching: Position leaders as developers of talent, not just task managers
Select managers for people skills: Choose leaders for their ability to motivate and develop others
Measure management effectiveness: Track key indicators of management quality
Train coaching behaviors: Develop specific management skills like feedback and development planning
Reduce administrative burdens: Free managers from unnecessary tasks to focus on people
Set clear management expectations: Define the specific behaviors effective managers exhibit
Create peer support for managers: Build communities for sharing management practices
Hold managers accountable: Evaluate leaders on team development and satisfaction
Provide management tools and resources: Equip leaders with frameworks and guidance
Consider management alternatives: Create non-management career paths for technical excellence

Change Management and Innovation

Focus on the user: Design change initiatives with employee experience at the center
Start small and iterate: Test changes on limited scale before broad implementation
Create change champions: Identify influential employees to advocate for new approaches
Communicate change effectively: Explain both what is changing and why
Anticipate resistance: Plan for common sources of change resistance
Create feedback loops: Build mechanisms to gather input during change processes
Balance top-down and bottom-up: Combine leadership direction with grassroots involvement
Measure adoption and impact: Track both implementation progress and outcomes
Tell success stories: Share examples of positive change impact
Create innovation spaces: Build formal and informal venues for new ideas

Key Takeaways

Data-driven decisions: Base people practices on evidence and experimentation rather than intuition
Trust fundamentally: Build systems that assume employees want to do great work
Hiring rigor: Invest extraordinarily in finding exceptional talent through structured processes
Performance clarity: Create transparent, objective systems for evaluating contribution
Development priority: Focus intensely on learning, growth, and development at all levels
Compensation differentiation: Pay disproportionately for exceptional performance and impact
Management as coaching: Position managers primarily as developers of people and teams
Culture by design: Create and maintain culture through deliberate practices and systems
Meaningful benefits: Design programs that truly matter to employee wellbeing and productivity
Continuous experimentation: Constantly test and refine people practices through rigorous methods