Howdy HR friends!👋

I hope you’re all having an excellent start to your week!

Before we dive into all things startups, remember to check out our advertising page if you have something our audience of HR readers would love! 20% off for ads in the newsletter in the next 6 days!

Let’s jump in to today’s topic shall we?

🚦Coming up

In today’s edition

🔄 The Startup vs. Corporate HR Divide: Dream Gig or Run for the Hills?

🛋️ The Break Room: What's your take on working in HR at a startup vs. a corporation? Nightmare fuel or dream job?

📚 Human Readsources: Federal agencies facing telework abuse scrutiny and the growing disconnect between what employers pay and what employees think they deserve.

💭Opening thoughts

What do you mean you don’t have a team vacation planner?

75% of HR professionals who transition between startups and corporations report experiencing serious "culture shock" in their first six months?

We thought it would be nearer 100% but there you go…

The strategic difference lies in resources versus impact: corporate HR typically offers established processes and specialized teams, while startup HR provides unparalleled opportunity to shape culture and policies from the ground up.

In startups, HR professionals must be versatile generalists, simultaneously handling recruitment, compliance, benefits, and culture with minimal guidance, whereas corporate HR allows for deeper specialization within structured frameworks.

Whether you're considering the leap from corporate stability to startup dynamism or vice versa, understanding these fundamental differences will help you navigate your career path and avoid the pitfalls that cause many HR professionals to retreat back to more “familiar” (aka organized) territory.

For easy reading

Today’s edition is presented by

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🧠Let’s unpick

🏢 Startup vs. Corporate: A Tale of Two HRs

Ok, it’s not exactly a news flash that HR in startups is a totally different beast than in corporate settings.

Corporate HR often means specializing in one area with established processes, startup HR means building the plane while flying it.

The timing matters too - most startups make their first dedicated HR hire at 40-50 employees, with almost all having HR staff by 100 employees. As we discussed in our recent edition on when to make your first HR hire.

But before that? Someone's handling about 28 hours of weekly HR work without the title. Scary isn’t it?

According to research, the benchmark HR:Headcount ratio is 2.2 HR professionals per 100 employees for sub-scale startups and 1.4 for scale-ups.

That’s a scary stat right there?! 😱

So in short that means startups often run leaner HR teams while requiring much broader skill sets.

The upside? You get to build systems from scratch without legacy constraints.

The downside? You're juggling compliance, recruitment, culture-building, and leadership development simultaneously.

If you’re considering the startup world then you need to embrace the opportunity to automate.

Studies show 50-80% of administrative HR work can be eliminated through software - a perfect chance to position yourself as a strategic partner rather than a paper-pusher.

The startup HR role isn't for everyone, but for those who thrive in building something new, it can be incredibly rewarding.

You can read more at...

🔗 HR Resource Allocation in Startups: Timing, Trends, and Best Practices (Zelt)

🔗 Building HR Foundations: Scaling Startups with People-First Strategies (HiBob)

🔗 HR in Startups: Building Structure While Preserving Entrepreneurial Spirit (HR Brew)

👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

Startup HR means building the plane while flying it. Fewer resources, broader responsibilities, but the exhilarating chance to create something meaningful without corporate red tape.

Today’s edition is also presented by

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🎬Lights, camera, action!

Takeaway and try

📊 Track your time for one week to determine your admin-to-strategic work ratio—if admin tasks exceed 50%, you're primed for startup HR where you can reshape those processes from scratch.

🤹‍♀️ Identify your three strongest HR competencies and three biggest knowledge gaps before jumping to startup HR; you'll need versatility when you're handling everything from compliance to culture-building simultaneously.

⏰ Once you get there, don't wait for the "perfect time" to establish core HR processes; create simple, scalable versions of performance feedback, onboarding, and compensation reviews before you hit 40 employees.

🌱 Schedule quarterly "future-proofing" sessions to anticipate HR needs for the next stage of growth—this prevents the common startup trap of constantly operating in reactive mode. And get as many of the CXO roles involved in this meeting as you can!

☕The break room

What’s your take?

📚Additional reading

Human Readsources

🏢 Federal Telework Abuse Exposed in Watchdog Report (HR Grapevine) - Federal watchdog finds widespread telework policy abuse among employees.

💰 Pay Perception Gap Threatens Employee Retention (HR Dive) - Most employees feel underpaid despite fair compensation; transparency reduces turnover.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition sparked some new ideas for your workplace! 🧠

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